JASNA JOVIÇEVIÇ - Sounding Solitude
The State51 Conspiracy, Mascom Records
Jasna Joviçeviç - Composition (except free improv!) arrangements, saxophones, bass clarinet, spacedrum (hand drum), kalimba (thumb piano), voice, flute; Filip Krumes – Violin; Ivana Grahovac – Violoncello; Milan Nikoliç - Double bass; Daniel More - Double bass, Gimbri (3-stringed, rectangular lute from Morocco).
Recorded at Kesler Studio, Subotica 24000, Serbia
Jasna Joviçeviç hardly presents a classical jazz line-up with her quintet, but one would hardly expect that from her diverse background of studies in Budapest, Toronto and Belgrade (Transdisciplinary Studies of Contemporary Arts and Media) as well as in Austria, Brazil and the US.
The dominant field of discourse in jazz has been the male power field and for a long time did not involve or include women. Since the 1980s that imbalance has been noted, studied, analysed and disparaged. Joviçeviç has long been an activist in the avowal and advancement of female creativity in jazz music and to that end founded the women’s big band, the New Spark Jazz Orchestra- Balkan Women in Jazz.
Fear of the Unknown opens the album as a loud awakening, redolent of the shock and fear at the news of the COVID-19 pandemic, from which nobody really could escape. Joviçeviç relates this to her own reactions to isolation, the unknown, solitude, fear and social discomfort, and the personification of her meditation through Buddhist procedures (she is a hatha yoga instructor) which helped her overcome the emotional impediments to safely journeying through the conflict with the virus. The six tracks reflect each of the stages that we follow through the journey, so the final track, Joy of the Unknown, reflects on new perceptions and purpose realised through our travel.
This music may well be described as conceptual, relating as it does to the notion and presence of, and coping with, grief in consecutive stages. It is both composed and improvised and consistent with modern approaches to chamber jazz. The album is clearly spiritual, at times abstract and definitely cathartic. The music moves between free-form textures and introspective lyricism and although it is very much privy to its composer, it also shares the benefits that stem from intensive collaboration and interaction between the musicians.
This is ‘abstract’ music which surprises by the forms which the compositions take. The shapes generated by different and unusual combinations of the instruments leave behind a sense of true delicacy and innovation and a great sense of ecstatic calm. Jasna Joviçeviç’s avant-garde leaves behind a surge-tide perception of an enormous musical aptitude and the sense that this musical psychotherapy may serve to comfort more than perverse, emotional straits. This is a truly heartening and inspiring album.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
The State51 Conspiracy, Mascom Records
Jasna Joviçeviç - Composition (except free improv!) arrangements, saxophones, bass clarinet, spacedrum (hand drum), kalimba (thumb piano), voice, flute; Filip Krumes – Violin; Ivana Grahovac – Violoncello; Milan Nikoliç - Double bass; Daniel More - Double bass, Gimbri (3-stringed, rectangular lute from Morocco).
Recorded at Kesler Studio, Subotica 24000, Serbia
Jasna Joviçeviç hardly presents a classical jazz line-up with her quintet, but one would hardly expect that from her diverse background of studies in Budapest, Toronto and Belgrade (Transdisciplinary Studies of Contemporary Arts and Media) as well as in Austria, Brazil and the US.
The dominant field of discourse in jazz has been the male power field and for a long time did not involve or include women. Since the 1980s that imbalance has been noted, studied, analysed and disparaged. Joviçeviç has long been an activist in the avowal and advancement of female creativity in jazz music and to that end founded the women’s big band, the New Spark Jazz Orchestra- Balkan Women in Jazz.
Fear of the Unknown opens the album as a loud awakening, redolent of the shock and fear at the news of the COVID-19 pandemic, from which nobody really could escape. Joviçeviç relates this to her own reactions to isolation, the unknown, solitude, fear and social discomfort, and the personification of her meditation through Buddhist procedures (she is a hatha yoga instructor) which helped her overcome the emotional impediments to safely journeying through the conflict with the virus. The six tracks reflect each of the stages that we follow through the journey, so the final track, Joy of the Unknown, reflects on new perceptions and purpose realised through our travel.
This music may well be described as conceptual, relating as it does to the notion and presence of, and coping with, grief in consecutive stages. It is both composed and improvised and consistent with modern approaches to chamber jazz. The album is clearly spiritual, at times abstract and definitely cathartic. The music moves between free-form textures and introspective lyricism and although it is very much privy to its composer, it also shares the benefits that stem from intensive collaboration and interaction between the musicians.
This is ‘abstract’ music which surprises by the forms which the compositions take. The shapes generated by different and unusual combinations of the instruments leave behind a sense of true delicacy and innovation and a great sense of ecstatic calm. Jasna Joviçeviç’s avant-garde leaves behind a surge-tide perception of an enormous musical aptitude and the sense that this musical psychotherapy may serve to comfort more than perverse, emotional straits. This is a truly heartening and inspiring album.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
