ICP Orchestra cellist/composer Tristan Honsinger wrote these sophisticated works combining free improv with mischievous songs in a band with Toshinori Kondo on trumpet, Sean Bergen on sax, Jean Jacques Avenel on bass, Michael Vatcher on drums and Tiziana Simona Vigni on voice.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2016 Country: USA Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded at Frascati, in Amsterdam, Holland on February 6th and 7th, 1985, by Dick Lucas.
"A little-known gem of Dutch free music, Picnic is the brainchild of cellist Tristan Honsinger, who composed all but one of its 12 compositions. Brilliant and whimsical, the tracks bring to mind Honsinger's work with ICP Orchestra, for whom he has also composed extensively. Here he's working in an incredible ensemble, with trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, saxophonist Sean Bergen, Jean Jacques Avenel on bass, Michael Vatcher on drums and percussion, and Tiziana Simona Vigni on voice.
Deceptively vicious little songs with hilarious twists and the kind of intense improvising you'd expect from a band that incorporates players of this caliber, it's a unique LP, originally issued on the tiny Data label, never before reissued. And it's worth having alone for the beautiful recording by Data's Dick Lucas, which captures Vatcher's incredible high snare on "Restless," a minute of pure energy better than Red Bull, and Vigni's oblique vocals, which were sung mostly in English by the Italian singer, who didn't speak a word of the language. Remastered by Lucas from the original tapes, featuring the gorgeous cover, in another deluxe package."-Corbett Vs. Dempsey