MATTHEW BOURNE / EMIL KARLSEN - The Embalmer
Relative Pitch Records CD RPR1139
Matthew Bourne (piano); Emil Karlsen (drums)
Our expectations regarding putting musical instruments together in an assembly probably exclude the matching of piano and drums, but this combination, in Matthew Bourne’s The Embalmer, certainly asks that we think again. The percussive character of the drums is set to work exploiting the corresponding nature of the piano resulting in a freely comprehensive musical dialogue that was recorded in a single session. The music is strongly performed and with a sense of belligerence. There is also a vibrant, prowling atmosphere, the essence of two entities seeking a common language.
Matt Bourne is famed as a jazz pianist at the forefront of the current scene in the UK. He has a status as a confidently impulsive improviser. The Embalmer sees Bourne employing a wide variety of ways to draw sounds from the piano and ways to influence the piano’s sound: playing inside the piano, restraining strings, manually plucking them or squeezing them to alter their sounds, even knocking on the piano’s sides or frame.
Emil Karlsen is from Norway and came to study in Leeds, choosing to remain in the UK as it offers more prospects of playing freely improvised music. It is important to him that he concentrates on minutiae, as he is trying to move away from applying the drums solely to providing the music’s rhythm. To this end the percussive side to the piano’s nature is at times heightened and in some other sections it is the turn of the drums to affect melodiousness. This is part of Emil’s effort to find himself fully on the improvised music scene and occupied with anything from Free-improv to Free-jazz.
The Embalmer offers half a dozen strictly performed numbers, technically superb performances from both musicians, presented in six creative pieces, each well-versed with consummate expertise and imaginative determination. The album records one of Bourne and Karlsen’s first collaborations. Brought together, they have created a dual between épée and épée that is entirely improvised but offered to us via a variety of dissimilar methods which yield an agreeable diversity across the whole of the album. Devotees of Free-improv will I am sure be delighted with this musical revelation.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Relative Pitch Records CD RPR1139
Matthew Bourne (piano); Emil Karlsen (drums)
Our expectations regarding putting musical instruments together in an assembly probably exclude the matching of piano and drums, but this combination, in Matthew Bourne’s The Embalmer, certainly asks that we think again. The percussive character of the drums is set to work exploiting the corresponding nature of the piano resulting in a freely comprehensive musical dialogue that was recorded in a single session. The music is strongly performed and with a sense of belligerence. There is also a vibrant, prowling atmosphere, the essence of two entities seeking a common language.
Matt Bourne is famed as a jazz pianist at the forefront of the current scene in the UK. He has a status as a confidently impulsive improviser. The Embalmer sees Bourne employing a wide variety of ways to draw sounds from the piano and ways to influence the piano’s sound: playing inside the piano, restraining strings, manually plucking them or squeezing them to alter their sounds, even knocking on the piano’s sides or frame.
Emil Karlsen is from Norway and came to study in Leeds, choosing to remain in the UK as it offers more prospects of playing freely improvised music. It is important to him that he concentrates on minutiae, as he is trying to move away from applying the drums solely to providing the music’s rhythm. To this end the percussive side to the piano’s nature is at times heightened and in some other sections it is the turn of the drums to affect melodiousness. This is part of Emil’s effort to find himself fully on the improvised music scene and occupied with anything from Free-improv to Free-jazz.
The Embalmer offers half a dozen strictly performed numbers, technically superb performances from both musicians, presented in six creative pieces, each well-versed with consummate expertise and imaginative determination. The album records one of Bourne and Karlsen’s first collaborations. Brought together, they have created a dual between épée and épée that is entirely improvised but offered to us via a variety of dissimilar methods which yield an agreeable diversity across the whole of the album. Devotees of Free-improv will I am sure be delighted with this musical revelation.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
