PAGO LIBRE & SOOON - Friendship
Leo Records CD LR 919
John Wolf Brennan: Melodica, Piano; Arkady Shilkloper: Alphorn, Flugelhorn, French Horn; Florian Mayer: Violin; Sonja Morgenegg: Guitar, Voice; Rätus Flisch: Bass; Tony Majdalani: Drums, Percussion, Voice.
Pago Libre and Sooon are two separate entities, joined together under the leadership of Irish jazz pianist John Wolf Brennan who lives in Switzerland. The sextet presents a wide variety of songs which include foundations from contemporary classical, folk, jazz and rock, creating a very fresh sounding construal of each of those genres, without losing themselves in any one of them. It is commonplace to hear this mixing of genres in Brennan’s arrangements. The airs sound as though folk have wandered through the Baltic, Eire, Austria and the Middle East, but picked up influences en route from, say, the Beatles, Pink Floyd and YES. It is a virtuoso performance in which Sonja Morgenegg’s vocals are exceptional.
Brennan’s arrangements have generally featured music endowed with atonal textures, his methods based around a busy gamut of techniques and concepts leaning on both contemporary classical and jazz ensembles. The visible and audible difference with FriendShip is that, for the most part, the music is tonal and firmly rhythmical. This will doubtless relieve those among you who will find this approach more ‘accessible’ – read ‘easier’, - whereas I find it inconceivable to shut the door on the magical world of improvisation, in which safari park is to be found a host of new noises and sounds, electrifying pitches, resonances and tones, and structures which are skewed to near collapse. All of that, of course, is a matter of personal choice, which leaves us with a horse of a very differently coloured fish-kettle.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Leo Records CD LR 919
John Wolf Brennan: Melodica, Piano; Arkady Shilkloper: Alphorn, Flugelhorn, French Horn; Florian Mayer: Violin; Sonja Morgenegg: Guitar, Voice; Rätus Flisch: Bass; Tony Majdalani: Drums, Percussion, Voice.
Pago Libre and Sooon are two separate entities, joined together under the leadership of Irish jazz pianist John Wolf Brennan who lives in Switzerland. The sextet presents a wide variety of songs which include foundations from contemporary classical, folk, jazz and rock, creating a very fresh sounding construal of each of those genres, without losing themselves in any one of them. It is commonplace to hear this mixing of genres in Brennan’s arrangements. The airs sound as though folk have wandered through the Baltic, Eire, Austria and the Middle East, but picked up influences en route from, say, the Beatles, Pink Floyd and YES. It is a virtuoso performance in which Sonja Morgenegg’s vocals are exceptional.
Brennan’s arrangements have generally featured music endowed with atonal textures, his methods based around a busy gamut of techniques and concepts leaning on both contemporary classical and jazz ensembles. The visible and audible difference with FriendShip is that, for the most part, the music is tonal and firmly rhythmical. This will doubtless relieve those among you who will find this approach more ‘accessible’ – read ‘easier’, - whereas I find it inconceivable to shut the door on the magical world of improvisation, in which safari park is to be found a host of new noises and sounds, electrifying pitches, resonances and tones, and structures which are skewed to near collapse. All of that, of course, is a matter of personal choice, which leaves us with a horse of a very differently coloured fish-kettle.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
