STEPHEN CRUMP / INGRID LAUBROCK / CORY SMYTHE – Planktonic Finales
Intakt Records: Intakt CD285
Stephen Crump: acoustic bass; Ingrid Laubrock: tenor and soprano saxophone; Cory Smythe: piano
Recorded Oktaven Audio, Yonkers, New York, August 13th, 2015.
I have been musing over the title of this CD for a few days now, trying to decide what the collection of pieces here have to do with plankton, or how these pieces provide an ending to something. The titles of the tracks hint at inspiration from fairy-tales; of a walk ‘Through the Forest’ (track 4), that mutates and creeps around you with ‘Tones for Climbing Plants’ (track 2) or ‘Sinew Modulations’ (track 3), ‘With eyes peeled’ (track 1), to ‘A House Alone’ (track 5), and sinister end ‘As if in its Throat’ (track 10) … But building a story from the titles implies that there is a pre-planned, narrative arc in the pieces or that they were composed with a specific theme in mind.
This couldn’t be further from the truth as this set was entirely improvised. Following Laubrock’s move from London to New York, she met up with Crump, who has played previously with Vijay Iyer, and Smythe, who has played with Tyshawn Sorey, and their first meeting was in an improvised jam session. They felt that they had gelled so well that they wanted to capture this interaction and so the session for this CD was set up. The studio that they recorded is unusual, with its walls lined with shelves of books, and it is apparent that much work has gone into setting up the recording equipment to capture the acoustics of this room as much as the individual instruments. There is such a warmth in the tones of each instrument that one can feel the notes rambling around the shelves, waiting for the next batch of notes to join them. It takes a couple of listens to appreciate that these spontaneously produced collective improvisations have not be coerced and shaped into being through a written score. Rather there is, what Crump calls, ‘spontaneous composing’ at work here.
Ideas are suggested by one of the instruments and then picked up and developed by the others. The music itself, often sinuously gliding between instruments, seems to introduce its own logic, suggesting a theme and working to a resolution over the course of a few bars. The arco bass, on the earlier pieces, reflects the tenor saxophone, the plucked bass later commenting on the soprano sax, and all the while a rumbling piano ebbs and flows across the room. It goes without saying that these are three superlative musicians in their own right, but what is really breath-taking in this recording is the way in which they merge into a single organism, with sounds that are often difficult to source – was that a note from bass, saxophone, piano or are their sounds blending into a collective instrument? This is improvisational playing at its most honest, most warm and most magic. A real gem of a recording, but I still can’t work out what the title is meant to mean.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Intakt Records: Intakt CD285
Stephen Crump: acoustic bass; Ingrid Laubrock: tenor and soprano saxophone; Cory Smythe: piano
Recorded Oktaven Audio, Yonkers, New York, August 13th, 2015.
I have been musing over the title of this CD for a few days now, trying to decide what the collection of pieces here have to do with plankton, or how these pieces provide an ending to something. The titles of the tracks hint at inspiration from fairy-tales; of a walk ‘Through the Forest’ (track 4), that mutates and creeps around you with ‘Tones for Climbing Plants’ (track 2) or ‘Sinew Modulations’ (track 3), ‘With eyes peeled’ (track 1), to ‘A House Alone’ (track 5), and sinister end ‘As if in its Throat’ (track 10) … But building a story from the titles implies that there is a pre-planned, narrative arc in the pieces or that they were composed with a specific theme in mind.
This couldn’t be further from the truth as this set was entirely improvised. Following Laubrock’s move from London to New York, she met up with Crump, who has played previously with Vijay Iyer, and Smythe, who has played with Tyshawn Sorey, and their first meeting was in an improvised jam session. They felt that they had gelled so well that they wanted to capture this interaction and so the session for this CD was set up. The studio that they recorded is unusual, with its walls lined with shelves of books, and it is apparent that much work has gone into setting up the recording equipment to capture the acoustics of this room as much as the individual instruments. There is such a warmth in the tones of each instrument that one can feel the notes rambling around the shelves, waiting for the next batch of notes to join them. It takes a couple of listens to appreciate that these spontaneously produced collective improvisations have not be coerced and shaped into being through a written score. Rather there is, what Crump calls, ‘spontaneous composing’ at work here.
Ideas are suggested by one of the instruments and then picked up and developed by the others. The music itself, often sinuously gliding between instruments, seems to introduce its own logic, suggesting a theme and working to a resolution over the course of a few bars. The arco bass, on the earlier pieces, reflects the tenor saxophone, the plucked bass later commenting on the soprano sax, and all the while a rumbling piano ebbs and flows across the room. It goes without saying that these are three superlative musicians in their own right, but what is really breath-taking in this recording is the way in which they merge into a single organism, with sounds that are often difficult to source – was that a note from bass, saxophone, piano or are their sounds blending into a collective instrument? This is improvisational playing at its most honest, most warm and most magic. A real gem of a recording, but I still can’t work out what the title is meant to mean.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
