Amanda Gardier: Transmutations: Bjork Rearranged

With the same studio ensemble as assembled for her notable previous album, Auteur: Music Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson (Self Produced, 2024), the alto saxophonist and now flutist Amanda Gardier continues her musical interpretations of others' art on Transmutations: Björk Reimagined (TIDEL). Recorded in January 2024, after playing release shows for Auteur, Gardier had planned to record a Björk song when she realized that her supporting cast—guitarist Charlie Ballantine, bassist Jesse Whitman, and drummer Peter King—would complement her "reimaginings" well enough to concentrate solely on Björk compositions.

King's presence helps create a balance between Gardier's chambered and occasional avant-garde treatment of the Icelander's mercurial oeuvre and its pop sensibilities. Two pieces that reflect that approach are "Hyperballad" and "Pluto," presented back-to-back. On "Hyperballad," Gardier's alto captures the singer's yearning, as Ballantine supplies guitar synth layers while Whitman and King provide muscular backbone beats. "Pluto," one of Bjork's more frantic and electronically charged songs, receives an outside-in treatment that juxtaposes abstract, chaotic rhythm support with Gardier's droll, atonal expression bathed in John Coltrane-like arpeggio.

Björk's emotionally intense yet relatively sedate "Unravel" is played fairly on-the-nose, with Gardier double-tracked on sax and flute before a lovely Ballantine solo leads to a give-and-take with Gardier, almost as if the implied emotional partner in that song is now represented. After performing exclusively on alto during her first three albums, Gardier displays a tender touch on flute during "Blissing Me" and on a Latin-touched "Bachelorette," both adorned with sturdy but sensitive bass work from Whitman.

With King's peripatetic style, Ballantine's echoed sheen, and Whitman's stable foundation, on Transmutations Amanda Gardier's bifurcated approach, representing the emotional core while maintaining a respected artistic distance, presents intriguing interpretations of Björk's works.