SIMON NABATOV - Readings: Gileya Revisited & Red Cavalry
Leo Records
Readings - Gileya revisited
CD LR 856
Simon Nabatov – piano; Jaap Blonk – voice; Frank Gratkowski – reeds; Marcus Schmickler – live electronics; Gerry Hemingway – drums
Recorded at LOFT, Cologne, December 7/8 2018
Readings - Red Cavalry
CD LR 857
Simon Nabatov – piano; Phil Minton – voice; Frank Gratkowski – woodwinds; Marcus Schmickler – electronics; Gerry Hemingway – drums
Recorded at LOFT, Cologne, December 7/8 2018
Leo Records
Readings - Gileya revisited
CD LR 856
Simon Nabatov – piano; Jaap Blonk – voice; Frank Gratkowski – reeds; Marcus Schmickler – live electronics; Gerry Hemingway – drums
Recorded at LOFT, Cologne, December 7/8 2018
Readings - Red Cavalry
CD LR 857
Simon Nabatov – piano; Phil Minton – voice; Frank Gratkowski – woodwinds; Marcus Schmickler – electronics; Gerry Hemingway – drums
Recorded at LOFT, Cologne, December 7/8 2018
It seemed appropriate to review these two albums together as they are similar releases and both deal with delivery via a form of Russian Futurism of early in the 20th century. In music this involved multiple new approaches to the deployment of such diverse elements as chords and scales, noise, Dadaism and Zaum. This latter neologism had not yet entered into the formal, mainstream language: the sounds may be best described as sound symbolism. It should be said that both Jaap Blonk and Phil Minton excel at their execution.
The focus seems to be on rejection and dissidence of the syntax and formal morphology of the music as it might have been, in order to illustrate that development in the language and poetry of the Futurism of the epoch.
Red Cavalry goes a little further in that there is a story attached about a Russian journalist at odds with the State over his reporting of the Russia/Poland war of the period. Phil Minton’s voice is preferred, perhaps for its greater drama in bellowing and delivering his rhetoric. Minton and Nabatov have long worked together, so the voice and the instruments have a perfect interface and are balanced in the presentation. Gileya seems to have pushed the non-vocal parts somewhat into a supporting role.
Improvisation is related to ambiguity and its adherents must be ready to leap at any opportunity, sometimes making choices both wilfully or without fully becoming cognizant of the direction taken. In both of these albums all artists execute their choices perfectly and Phil Minton is especially forceful, reminding me of his live performances and recordings with Mike Westbrook and Solid Gold Cadillac. An excellent and successful project.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
The focus seems to be on rejection and dissidence of the syntax and formal morphology of the music as it might have been, in order to illustrate that development in the language and poetry of the Futurism of the epoch.
Red Cavalry goes a little further in that there is a story attached about a Russian journalist at odds with the State over his reporting of the Russia/Poland war of the period. Phil Minton’s voice is preferred, perhaps for its greater drama in bellowing and delivering his rhetoric. Minton and Nabatov have long worked together, so the voice and the instruments have a perfect interface and are balanced in the presentation. Gileya seems to have pushed the non-vocal parts somewhat into a supporting role.
Improvisation is related to ambiguity and its adherents must be ready to leap at any opportunity, sometimes making choices both wilfully or without fully becoming cognizant of the direction taken. In both of these albums all artists execute their choices perfectly and Phil Minton is especially forceful, reminding me of his live performances and recordings with Mike Westbrook and Solid Gold Cadillac. An excellent and successful project.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
