ANDY SUMMERS - Triboluminescence
Andy Summers Music
Andy Summers: guitar, bass, drums, psaltery, lavta, banjo, percussion, keyboards; Artyom Manukyan: cello.
Recorded Moving Target, Venice, CA February-September 2016
Yes…it is that Andy Summers, from The Police. But this, his 15th album, is a far cry from their earlier music. The title ‘Triboluminescence’ means to create light from breaking chemical bonds, say when material is broken or pulled apart. By analogy, I guess that the individual sounds of each instrument that Summers plays had been pulled apart and then reassembled in the loops which forms the backdrop to each piece. The pieces here are cinematic in scope and one can easily imagine them playing over the opening credits of a movie or a classy TV series: the cigar chewing hero rides into town (track 1); this seems to be a pleasant enough town by the sea, but wait…there’s something in the wood-shed (track 2); we’re driving through the ‘hood (track 3), and so on. It is an odd complement to say that I almost didn’t hear the music on first listen to these pieces, so strong was the imagery that each piece evoked. However, as is often the case with well written music, the pieces work directly on the listener, and needed a few more plays to unpick them to see how they work. In this case, what makes them work is a complicated and well-crafted soundscape of loops. The loops are built from layers on many instruments. Over these loops, Summers’ guitar builds 12-bar developments, typically in 4/4, even against some of the more jittery rhythms. The guitar playing often has a simplicity that suggested (to my ears) a deliberate intention to work in chromatic, or possibly modal, scales. The guitar playing is sharp and full bodied, with a slight distortion to lend it some edge.
In addition to guitar, bass, drums, banjo and keyboards, Summers uses a couple of rare instruments (they must be pretty unusual because the sleeve note printers couldn’t spell their names): a Psaltery, which is a stringed instrument like a zither, or a dulcimer whose strings are plucked rather than hammered; and a Lavta, a 7 string instrument from Turkey or Armenia that looks like a short oud. It is not so easy to pick out the individual instruments on the recording as the sounds blend into loops that repeat underneath his drumming and guitar work. At times the keyboards play a brass section (for example, on track 3, sounding like a horn section from a Tuff Gong reggae session).
The closing track, ‘Garden by the Sea’, features some back-looping before Manukyan’s cello introduces the gently flowing theme. Cleverly, the instruments behind the cello gradually shift from back-loops to pick up the theme. The track is only some 3 minutes long, but had a lightness and grace that, for me, could have easily lasted much longer.
This is music played by a consummate musician enjoying the ways in which different sounds blend into ambient soundscapes, with an ebb and flow that draws the listener into the story in each piece.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Andy Summers Music
Andy Summers: guitar, bass, drums, psaltery, lavta, banjo, percussion, keyboards; Artyom Manukyan: cello.
Recorded Moving Target, Venice, CA February-September 2016
Yes…it is that Andy Summers, from The Police. But this, his 15th album, is a far cry from their earlier music. The title ‘Triboluminescence’ means to create light from breaking chemical bonds, say when material is broken or pulled apart. By analogy, I guess that the individual sounds of each instrument that Summers plays had been pulled apart and then reassembled in the loops which forms the backdrop to each piece. The pieces here are cinematic in scope and one can easily imagine them playing over the opening credits of a movie or a classy TV series: the cigar chewing hero rides into town (track 1); this seems to be a pleasant enough town by the sea, but wait…there’s something in the wood-shed (track 2); we’re driving through the ‘hood (track 3), and so on. It is an odd complement to say that I almost didn’t hear the music on first listen to these pieces, so strong was the imagery that each piece evoked. However, as is often the case with well written music, the pieces work directly on the listener, and needed a few more plays to unpick them to see how they work. In this case, what makes them work is a complicated and well-crafted soundscape of loops. The loops are built from layers on many instruments. Over these loops, Summers’ guitar builds 12-bar developments, typically in 4/4, even against some of the more jittery rhythms. The guitar playing often has a simplicity that suggested (to my ears) a deliberate intention to work in chromatic, or possibly modal, scales. The guitar playing is sharp and full bodied, with a slight distortion to lend it some edge.
In addition to guitar, bass, drums, banjo and keyboards, Summers uses a couple of rare instruments (they must be pretty unusual because the sleeve note printers couldn’t spell their names): a Psaltery, which is a stringed instrument like a zither, or a dulcimer whose strings are plucked rather than hammered; and a Lavta, a 7 string instrument from Turkey or Armenia that looks like a short oud. It is not so easy to pick out the individual instruments on the recording as the sounds blend into loops that repeat underneath his drumming and guitar work. At times the keyboards play a brass section (for example, on track 3, sounding like a horn section from a Tuff Gong reggae session).
The closing track, ‘Garden by the Sea’, features some back-looping before Manukyan’s cello introduces the gently flowing theme. Cleverly, the instruments behind the cello gradually shift from back-loops to pick up the theme. The track is only some 3 minutes long, but had a lightness and grace that, for me, could have easily lasted much longer.
This is music played by a consummate musician enjoying the ways in which different sounds blend into ambient soundscapes, with an ebb and flow that draws the listener into the story in each piece.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
