Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Collin Sherman: Organism Made Luminous

11

Collin Sherman: Organism Made Luminous

By

View read count
Collin Sherman: Organism Made Luminous
The Covid pandemic slowed artistic progress for many musicians. Opportunities to collaborate became scarce; live music in front of an audience blinked out. However, the enterprising players out there found a way. File sharing and solo projects blossomed, and these—along with the relative affordability of home studio set ups—had an invigorating effect on musical creativity. If you cannot go out and play to an audience, you might as well stay home and create.

But for multiple instrumentalist (primarily a reed guy) Collin Sherman not much changed in his way of crafting his sounds, in a home studio where he records all the instrumental parts for assembly, pentimento-style, that result in the finished product. Pre-Covid, post-Covid, it is all the same to Collin Sherman.

The finished product at hand is Sherman's fourteenth album, Organism Made Luminous. It, and most of his output, is accurately tagged on Sherman's website as: "Experimental electro-acoustic jazz, ambient, drone, noise." And this one is heavier on the electro side than his previous albums, an approach which benefits the final product, since the possibilities of synthesized vibrations are limitless—from his use of the Soniccouture Canterbury Suitcase (midi Rhodes), Doepfer Dark Energy II, Dreadbox Nymphes, FXPansion BFD3, Pittsburgh Modular SV-1, etc. Add to this eclectic mix Sherman's reeds, his electric guitars, a Remington Portable Model 1 typewriter, a bowed Fender Telecaster and you have the Sherman sound.

Opening with "Failed Deontological Promise (or, the Haphazard Application of the Rule of Law)" which features a dense and penetrating electro swirl of synths as a backdrop to Sherman's on-edge soprano sax and oboe proclamations, the synth drone-like rise and fall of a surging deep sea at night, the reed-like flares rising to their zeniths to illuminate a surreal vision. "Space Mission of the Immortals" sounds like an enormous interstellar craft shifting into the velocity above the speed of light, the ship's propulsion system pushed to its limit, making noises which may be concerning to the chief engineer—sizzles and wall-of-sound electro-hummings, blips and beeps from the emissions coming in from stars passed by in much less time than it takes to blink an eye.

Moving deeper into synth territory is a risk. Sherman has done it brilliantly here, exploring assemblages of unexpected sound, sometimes expansive, often ominous, occasionally spare and introspective and at times twangy, with ventures into relentless grooves and luminescent ambient washes. Collin Sherman's best outing thus far.

Track Listing

Failed Deotological Promise; Across Three Fields; Hegemonic Virtues; Dialectic Rejected; Says Flowers; Late Edition; Glassine and Glycerin; Space Mission of the Immortals; Signal Isolation.

Personnel

Collin Sherman
saxophone, alto
Additional Instrumentation

Collin Sherman: alto saxophone, Bb soprano clarinet; soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, electric guitar, Soniccouture Canterbury Suitcase (midi Rhodes); Moog Sub-37; Make Noise O-Coast; Doepfer Dark Energy II, Pittsburgh Modular SV-1; Voltage Research Laboratory; FXPansion BFD3; Soniccouture Vibraphone; Dreadbox Nyphes; FXPansion BFD3; bowed Fender Telecaster; Remington Portable Model 1 Typewriter; Arturia MiniBrute; Arturia Pigments; Korg Voica Keys; Waves Codex; Sonic Sector WaveStorm; Geist 2; bowed electrobox guitar with 3 cello strings: drum programming.

Album information

Title: Organism Made Luminous | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Ex-tol Recordings

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.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

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.