The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!

The Squid's Ear
Facebook: Squidco Sales



Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Chaz Underriner 
  Meditations
  (Edition Wandelweiser) 


  
   review by Marc Medwin
  2022-11-08
Chaz Underriner: Meditations (Edition Wandelweiser)

"Strike unbounded space and hear it reverberate, one being, all forms of being, one time, all times." So wrote the 13th century Zen Master Dogen, one of the quotations used by Chaz Underriner in this multi-movement but ultimately longform creation. Underriner conjoins Dogen with similarly transtemporal observations via the meditative sphere from Marcus Aurelius, his music effectively blurring those boundaries the meditator seeks to irradicate.

The enmeshing occurs almost at once and governs every aspect of the song cycle. As so often happens now, Michael Pisaro's Transparent City series offers a blueprint for the work's introductory five minutes, but instead of sinetones illuminating anonymous field recordings, two environments are juxtaposed. Aspects of each are emphasized, outside speech fragments and reverberant footsteps bespeaking the seamless shift in perspective with the naturalness of a breath drawn. When the instruments enter with cinematic elegance, they might at first be mistaken for another environmental sound. Chord and tone exist in the cycles of expansive repetition that constitutes a part, but only that, of the Wandelweiser legacy. Listen deeper to hear the minute intervallic adjustments, as on the exquisitely tuned intervals supporting the word "is" during the second piece. Listening again reveals that those two male voices have been coming closer and closer together for several minutes. Even those two converging vocal lines comprise a series of those time-points Aurelius describes; what a magical musical moment!

Environment changes throughout, an astonishing study in fluidity and morphing calm. The music often exhibits the lush harmonic intrigue of choral writing, especially in "Everything Harmonizes," but some fragmentation or other continually blurs that point-and-line boundary, just as the harmonies might almost imply tonalities until they simply do not. When angular moments of piano and percussion emerge, their often oceanic context gives them additional poignancy. A single piano pitch, mezzoforte, might be complemented by ebbing violin or a silence inviting reflection on the text just intoned. Even more traditional spiritual signifiers, like the Choral, are cloaked in the signifiers of post-Stravinskian harmony. The whole cycle is a wonderfully executed study in controlled ambiguity, a feast for the ears and for the heart, a journey through stillness never quite achieved. Don't be put off by what might appear to be a rather prosaic title. The music and texts are of a piece, and I could give this release no higher compliment.







Comments and Feedback:



The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Kim Jae Jung:
Shamanism
(Relative Pitch)



Joe McPhee/
Susanna Gartmayer/
John Edwards/
Maria Portugal:
Monster
(Klanggalerie)



Signe Emmeluth/
Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten/
Axel Filip:
Hyperboreal Trio
(Relative Pitch)



John Butcher/
John Edwards:
This Is
Not Speculation
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Izumi Kimura/
Lina Andonovska/
Dominique Pifarely:
Seven Dreams
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Jerome Deupree/
Sylvie Courvoisier/
Lester St. Louis/
Joe Morris:
Canyon
[2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Marc Baron/
Eric La Casa:
Contrefacons
(Swarming)



Francisco Lopez:
Untitled (
2021-2022)
[2 CDs]
(Bu Lang Tribute Cake)



Eventless Plot |
Haarvol:
The Subliminal Paths
[CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Innovo Editions)



Akmee:
Sacrum Profanum
(Nakama Records)



Karl Evangelista Quintet
feat. Bobby Bradford and
William Roper:
Solace Angles
(Asian Improv)



Sveio:
Latent Imprints
(577 Records)



The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters (
Rasmussen/
Mitelli/
Rezaei/
Koenig):
The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)



Dan Brown/
Dan Reynolds:
Live At
The Grange Hall
[unauthorized][CASSETTE]
(Sacred Realism)



Matt Mitchell:
Sacrosanctity
(Obliquity)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
[VINYL]
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Mary Halvorson Septet:
Illusionary Sea
[2 LPS]
(Firehouse 12 Records)



Darius Jones:
Legend of e'Boi (
The Hypervigilant Eye)
[VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Aum Fidelity)



Irene Schweizer/
Rudiger Carl/
Johnny Dyani/
Han Bennink:
Irenes Hot Four
(Intakt)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (19919)