Label: Pi Recordings Catalog ID: PI 19 Squidco Product Code: 6155
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2006 Country: USA Packaging: Jewel Tray Recorded at Brooklyn Recording, in Brooklyn, New York, in September, 2005, by Andy Taub.
"Guitarist/composer Liberty Ellman's second Pi recording as a leader, Ophiuchus Butterfly, is an initially striking and ultimately deeply satisfying set chronicling six musicians, ten pieces and one ambitious, personal and utterly mature sensibility. Ellman's guitar ability and style are undeniable here, but this isn't a "guitar" album. "I've decided that the majority of my work will be writing my own music and creating albums," Ellman explains. "I'm interested in the idea of creating an album from start to finish and what that means in terms of the ensemble and the quality and the recording. To me, guitar chops are only a piece of that puzzle. It's more about creating a work of art from start to finish and however many guitar solos fit into that is just what the music requires." The music, in any case, is remarkable. Whether it's the tight ensemble playing, rigorous writing, dazzling counterpoint and dauntingly propulsive-no, make that just plain funky-grooves of "Tarmacadam," or "Ophiucus Butterfly," the rich, eerie harmonies of the postmodern blues ballad "Aestivation," or the electronic/acoustic hybrid sound experiments of "Snow Lips" or "Borealis", these are bracingly original, detailed compositions performed by a sextet that's more than equal to their technical and emotional demands."-Pi Recordings