PILGRIM – Big Wheel Live
Intakt records: Intakt CD 271
Christoph Irniger – tenor saxophone; Stefan Aeby – piano; Dave Gisler – guitar; Raffaele Bossard – bass; Michi Stulz – drums.
Recorded live in November 2015. Tracks 1, 5, 6, Rokokosall at Kreismuseum, Ratzeburg; 2 at Jazzclub-a-trane, Berlin; 3, 4 Jazzklub, Altenburg.
This is a collection of live recordings from a short tour of German clubs. The response of the audience seems to vary between clubs: this could be the sound engineers making the tunes end cleanly, but it seems to me that the Altenburg crowd seemed more appreciative than the more staid Berliners. The music itself reminds me of a swan – sedate on the surface but wildly peddling out of sight. There is a gentle, nuanced interchange between the instruments, with Aeby’s piano providing delicate shading to Irniger’s breathy delivery. The compositions have the almost drone-like repetition of minimalism. But below this, the music churns with tension and unexpected shifts in direction, until this spills over, particularly in Gisler’s fuzzy guitar soloing which closes the long excursions of track 2, ‘Acid’ and track 3 ‘Ending at the District’. As track 4 ‘Falling II’ turns around 2/3 of the way through from a dreamy, lilting piano line, Irniger forces the pace in an increasingly frenetic sax solo, pulling the music further from the piano line until Gisler adds a slow but edgy guitar line. There is, across the pieces an almost passive-aggressive tranquility as the pieces start, with a rising tension from simple, repeated phrases that can be claustrophobic, like the closeness of the air before a thunderstorm. In closing, the pieces either burst into a scattering of sounds or pull the listener further into the tension.
This is cleverly constructed sound-sculpture, drawing the listener into landscapes that seem very familiar at first and the slowly shifting one’s focus until the kaleidoscope has slowly altered and the world looks very strange indeed. All of these shifts work that their own gradual pace and occur so subtly that you’ve often gone past the point of transition in the piece before it becomes obvious. Even with the presence of the live audience, there is such a stillness around the band that it feels as if they have spent their time patiently weaving a web that, before you notice, has trapped you.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Intakt records: Intakt CD 271
Christoph Irniger – tenor saxophone; Stefan Aeby – piano; Dave Gisler – guitar; Raffaele Bossard – bass; Michi Stulz – drums.
Recorded live in November 2015. Tracks 1, 5, 6, Rokokosall at Kreismuseum, Ratzeburg; 2 at Jazzclub-a-trane, Berlin; 3, 4 Jazzklub, Altenburg.
This is a collection of live recordings from a short tour of German clubs. The response of the audience seems to vary between clubs: this could be the sound engineers making the tunes end cleanly, but it seems to me that the Altenburg crowd seemed more appreciative than the more staid Berliners. The music itself reminds me of a swan – sedate on the surface but wildly peddling out of sight. There is a gentle, nuanced interchange between the instruments, with Aeby’s piano providing delicate shading to Irniger’s breathy delivery. The compositions have the almost drone-like repetition of minimalism. But below this, the music churns with tension and unexpected shifts in direction, until this spills over, particularly in Gisler’s fuzzy guitar soloing which closes the long excursions of track 2, ‘Acid’ and track 3 ‘Ending at the District’. As track 4 ‘Falling II’ turns around 2/3 of the way through from a dreamy, lilting piano line, Irniger forces the pace in an increasingly frenetic sax solo, pulling the music further from the piano line until Gisler adds a slow but edgy guitar line. There is, across the pieces an almost passive-aggressive tranquility as the pieces start, with a rising tension from simple, repeated phrases that can be claustrophobic, like the closeness of the air before a thunderstorm. In closing, the pieces either burst into a scattering of sounds or pull the listener further into the tension.
This is cleverly constructed sound-sculpture, drawing the listener into landscapes that seem very familiar at first and the slowly shifting one’s focus until the kaleidoscope has slowly altered and the world looks very strange indeed. All of these shifts work that their own gradual pace and occur so subtly that you’ve often gone past the point of transition in the piece before it becomes obvious. Even with the presence of the live audience, there is such a stillness around the band that it feels as if they have spent their time patiently weaving a web that, before you notice, has trapped you.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
