IVO PERELMAN / KARL BERGER - The Hitchhiker
Leo Records CD LR 754
Ivo Perelman, tenor saxophone; Karl Berger, vibraphone
Recorded at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, New York, July 2015
The music here is muted, the friendly duo exploring and playing off each other’s extemporaneous aesthetics, in such ways that create an almost strident vitality unforeseen for music so whispered. These two played sax against piano in their duets on Reverie (Leo 2014) and this is as different as a different instrument can make it. The essence of the vibraphone is that it is a percussive instrument and to this Perelman is no stranger, having played extensively with the strikingly percussive sound of Matthew Shipp, which adds extraordinary shades and tints to the joint palette. Here, Berger’s skill and experience in improv with Carla Bley and Ornette Coleman for example, lend both colour and pace to these unusual exchanges. Once again we find that Perelman’s perceptions of how to balance his own instrument and invention can lead to the improvisation of astonishingly intricate narratives that are bestowed upon us with a multifaceted radiance.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Leo Records CD LR 754
Ivo Perelman, tenor saxophone; Karl Berger, vibraphone
Recorded at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, New York, July 2015
The music here is muted, the friendly duo exploring and playing off each other’s extemporaneous aesthetics, in such ways that create an almost strident vitality unforeseen for music so whispered. These two played sax against piano in their duets on Reverie (Leo 2014) and this is as different as a different instrument can make it. The essence of the vibraphone is that it is a percussive instrument and to this Perelman is no stranger, having played extensively with the strikingly percussive sound of Matthew Shipp, which adds extraordinary shades and tints to the joint palette. Here, Berger’s skill and experience in improv with Carla Bley and Ornette Coleman for example, lend both colour and pace to these unusual exchanges. Once again we find that Perelman’s perceptions of how to balance his own instrument and invention can lead to the improvisation of astonishingly intricate narratives that are bestowed upon us with a multifaceted radiance.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
