Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Sebastien Branche / Thanos Chrysakis / Tom Soloveitzik /...

3

Sebastien Branche / Thanos Chrysakis / Tom Soloveitzik / James O'Sullivan / Artur Vidal / Jerry Wigens: Magnetic River

By

View read count
Sebastien Branche / Thanos Chrysakis / Tom Soloveitzik /  James O'Sullivan / Artur Vidal /  Jerry Wigens: Magnetic River
Magnetic River is an exercise in a highly reserved and demanding form of collective, free improvisation, where silence is as important as any other sound and any sound is welcomed. The group of musicians—three sax players, clarinetist, guitarist, pianist and laptop/electronics player Thanos Chrysakis, also the head of the label—was recorded n April 2011.

The first improvisation is slow and patient. All the musicians stress minimal and sustained sonic gestures and create a fragile, almost transparent, enigmatic sonic envelope. These gestures deliberately challenge the conventional sonic spectrum of all the instruments, undermine any conventional structure, and aim to create new ambiance that blurs any attempt to identify the individual contributions or personal temperament. After the brief, quiet second improvisation, the third and longest one is 17 minutes and features more recognizable reed sounds, atmospheric, and abrupt ones, colliding with delicate, distant radio sounds. The interplay is still minimal and reserved, but more open to rhythmic variations, still, not in any structured form.

Suddenly, after the brief fourth improvisation, the fifth improvisation blossoms into a cinematic soundscape with repeated sonic gestures. All still performed in the same kind of subtle interplay, but the reed players allow themselves to indulge with much more energetic bursts of sounds, while the gentle touches of the piano keys are recognized as such and the electronic background is less threatening.

A demanding and haunting sonic experience.

Track Listing

Personnel

Sébastien Branche: tenor saxophone; Thanos Chrysakis: laptop computer, electronics, piano/inside piano; Tom Soloveitzik: tenor saxophone; James O'Sullivan: guitar; Artur Vidal: alto saxophone; Jerry Wigens: clarinets.

Album information

Title: Magnetic River | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Aural Terrains

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.