A studio live recording of Evan Parker playing soprano and tenor saxophones, and Ned Rothenberg on bass clarinet and alto saxophone.
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Evan Parker / saxophones
Ned Rothenberg / bass clarinet, saxophone
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Tracklisting:
1. For Ximenes - 15:06
2. For Araucaria - 5:04
3. For Bynthorne - 7:06
4. For Afrit - 2:52
5. For Dinmut - 15:22
6. For Custos - 3:34
7. For Rufus - 4:08
8. For Chifonie - 6:13
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Recorded May 17, 1997 at Gateway Studio by Steve Lowe.
Available as 320k MP3 or 16bit FLAC
"If you've ever been tempted by free improvisation, Parker is your gateway drug." - Stewart Lee
Evan Parker has been a consistently innovative presence in British free music since the 1960s. Parker played with John Stevens in the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, experimenting with new kinds of group improvisation and held a long-standing partnership with guitarist Derek Bailey. The two formed the Music Improvisation Company and later Incus Records. He also has tight associations with European free improvisations - playing on Peter Brötzmann's legendary 'Machine Gun' session (1968), with Alexander Von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens (A trio that continues to this day), Globe Unity Orchestra, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, and Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO).
Though he has worked extensively in both large and small ensembles, Parker is perhaps best known for his solo soprano saxophone music, a singular body of work that in recent years has centred around his continuing exploration of techniques such as circular breathing, split tonguing, overblowing, multiphonics and cross-pattern fingering. These are technical devices, yet Parker's use of them is, he says, less analytical than intuitive; he has likened performing his solo work to entering a kind of trance-state. The resulting music is certainly hypnotic, an uninterrupted flow of snaky, densely-textured sound that Parker has described as "the illusion of polyphony". Many listeners have indeed found it hard to credit that one man can create such intricate, complex music in real time.
Composer/Performer Ned Rothenberg has been internationally acclaimed for both his solo and ensemble music, presented for the past 35 years on 5 continents. He performs primarily on alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, and the shakuhachi - an endblown Japanese bamboo flute. His solo work utilizes an expanded palette of sonic language, creating a kind of personal idiom all its own. He's worked with John Zorn, Sting, Elvis Costello, Liu Sola and Marc Ribot, among many others. Sainkho Namtchylak and Rothenberg have performed over 50 duo concerts together, a collaboration documented in their cd Amulet. Jochen Metzner writes in the Berlin daily Tagespiegel, "Ned Rothenberg is absolutely phenomenal.. (He has) opened up new and unheard expressive possibilities for wind instruments." About the duo with Sainkho the Eesti Express wrote: “Their technical virtuosity (I’m tempted to say ‘perfection’), mutual understanding and emotional vibrancy without a hint of contrivance, was extraordinary.” www.nedrothenberg.com
