Anthony Pirog - Nepenthe Series Vol. 1

December 7, 2023

Label: Otherly Love Records, 2023

Personnel - Anthony Pirog: guitar, guitar synth; Nels Cline: guitar; John Frusciante: monomachine; Luke Stewart: electric bass; Andy Summers: guitar; Janel Leppin: pedal steel guitar; Brandon Ross: guitar; Wendy Eisenberg: guitar; Ryan Ferreira: guitar.

Washington D.C.-based guitarist and composer Anthony Pirog, known for his work with the post-punk trio The Messthetics, showcases his broad stylistic vision, taste for experimentation, and interest in sound and texture on his latest recording, Nepenthe Series Vol. 1. Pirog, who bridges guitar and electronics with aural surrealism and imagination, invited collaborators to send him original ambient tracks, which he then recorded on top of, resulting in a remarkable blend of ethereal and sinister soundscapes.

For the opener, “Ripples of Light”, he welcomed the excellent guitarist Nels Cline, with whom he layers floating, sustained chords in order to describe a wintry picturesque stillness that makes us speechless. Mysterious and slightly ominous tones suddenly emerge in the last quarter, but they feel more awe-striking than austere, enhancing the overall ambiguity and droning details.

“Aurora”, featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante on Elektron Monomachine, arrives with buzzing drones and dial frequencies chattering in the background. They duo carries mysterious found-sounds for a little too long, evoking a distant planet with labyrinthine alleys and corners worth to discover. “Dense Blazing Star”, created with bassist Luke Stewart, incorporates electronic dance music influences, while “Bernal Heights”, a layered solo effort by Pirog, combines a bit of the Pet Shop Boys’ melodic expertise with the dark burbling and clouding obscurity in the music of Bill Laswell and Wadada Leo Smith.

With The Police’s ex-guitarist Andy Summers on board, “Inflorescence” exposes a brilliant two-guitar work reminiscent of Robert Fripp and The King Crimson’s art-rock with hints of goth and glam rock. The melody is wonderful and the texture perceptible for a compelling song format.

The song titles aptly capture the music's essence, and if we have Arvo Part’s dark choral ambiances mixed with Steve Reich’s minimalism on “Glowing Gestures”, which features Pirog’s wife Janel Leppin on pedal steel guitar, then we can enjoy two different guitar-driven atmospheres on “Night Winds” and “The Eternal River”. The former, featuring Wendy Eisenberg, is heavier and denser due to distortion and noise; the latter, with Tim Berne’s Snake Oil’s guitarist Ryan Ferreira, immerses listeners in emotion-laden surroundings, closing the album on an ethereal note.

With a dazzling array of layers and effects, Pirog's work on Nepenthe Series Vol. 1 is a testament to his artistry and extraordinary sound judgment.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Ripples of Light ► 02 - Aurora ► 04 - Inflorescence

Jean-Marc Hébert - L'Origine Éclatée

October 31, 2023

Label: Self released, 2023

Personnel - Jean-Marc Hébert: guitar; Lex French: trumpet; Morgan Moore: bass; Pierre Tanguay: drums.

Canadian guitarist Jean-Marc Hébert infuses his compositions with a strong emphasis on ambitious interplay and cohesiveness of sound. His third album as a leader, L’Origine Éclatée, follows the previous releases L’Autre (2007) and L’Attente (2018). For this new endeavor, he collaborates with the mellifluous New Zealander trumpeter Lex French, bassist Morgan Moore, and his longtime associate, drummer Pierre Tanguay. Together, they explore subtle sonic spaces that may bridge the realms of contemporary jazz and world music.

“La Déteinte” provides a meditative emotional template, with the group diving into a vast sea of tranquility. This setting foreshadows the epic proportions the modal piece could reach if played in the style of McCoy Tyner. However, what we hear is more aligned with North European jazz and the ECM sound. Moore provides a fluid solo over the ethereal, slowcore style of jazz that emerges, anchoring the piece with Hebert's well-paced arpeggios. The title cut, “L’Origine Éclatée”, follows, bathing in a slow 4/4 time signature and exploring thematic and melodic elements that leave an agreeable impact. The spotlight shines on French whose muted trumpetism favors straightforward, well-delineated melodies over acrobatics. His approach moderately shifts as he ventures more outside on “Séquence Mouvante”, where solid harmonic passages evoke profound emotion, and a refined rock-laden rhythmic foundation is laid down. Hébert delivers a thoughtful guitar statement atop this backdrop.

Both “Terre Rouge” and “L’Attente” incorporate world sounds influences. The former, presented in the trio format with guitar, bass, and drums, exudes a gentle African groove, painting a hot, arid, and bucolic landscape through the rhythm. The latter, originally featured on the album of the same name, embraces a strong Eastern ambiance and is cooked up patiently with a perfect balance between relaxation and tension. The album comes to a close with “Sud-Ouest”, a country-rock song in 3/4 time.

The group never strays too far into experimental territory, opting instead for a low-key approach that keeps everything well within context. Nevertheless, this offering is more than just passive backdrops with beautiful melodies atop. Hebert’s music is consistently warm, melodic, and easy to assimilate, and the accompanying musicians, recognizing this, bring their inherent lyricism to the forefront with positive outcomes.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - La Déteinte ► 03 - Séquence Mouvante ► 05 - L’Attente

Hitra - Transparence

April 1, 2021

Label: AMP Music & Records, 2021

Personnel - Hilmar Jensson: guitar; Alessandro Sgobbio: piano; Jo Berger Myhre: bass; Øyvind Skarbø: drums.

Hidra, an European quartet assembled in Oslo, teams the notable Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jensson (one of the four pillars in Jim Black's AlasNoAxis) with Italian pianist Alessandro Sgobbio and the Norwegian rhythm section of Jo Berger Myhre on bass and Oyvind Skarbo on drums. The name of the group stemmed from the Norwegian municipality that covers hundreds of islands, islets and skerries, and Transparence, their debut album, functions like a soundtrack depicting that natural scenery.

The two first tracks are experimental oddities with near-minimalist tonalities. Sgobbio’s “Lebtit” is a sonic imagining of the mythical lost city referred in the Arabian Nights and other literary works by Georges Perec and Jorge Luis Borges. A rusty, foreboding electronic effect is appeased by the calm waves of Jennson’s guitar, whereas the muted low notes on the piano reinforce the relentless percussive texture. “Sêtu” is initially marked by some disjointedness, relying on Sgobbio’s pianism to tie everything together. Then, all converges into a pacific jazzy ambiance that feels as much opaque as melancholy.

“Cité des Poètes” is an elegy to the recently demolished housing project of the same name in the suburbs of Paris. The group launches it with chiming subtlety and throbbing pulsation, working on top of a static framework. Jensson’s well-weighted measure of progressive rock and ambient jazz adds tonal color, while, at a later time, it’s Sgobbio who creates some frisson by interlinking staccato chordal pointillism and nervy melodic entanglement.

Whereas “The Perfect Light of Sandstad” probes darker, mysterious soundscapes, bringing Myhre’s bass slides to the center of its theme, “Labtayt” remains in a perpetual suspension whose tension is worked out through guitar figures, bass pedals and dreamlike piano. Noise and ambient cohabit the same space, here bolstered with a variety of haunting percussion.

“Kunftiges” boasts a relative metric complexity and an optimistic serenity supported by a more palpable harmonic work and structural approach. Also filled with stark beauty is the closing track, “Lebenslauf”, in which the group expertly employs tension and space while flirting with Terje Rypdal’s avant-fusion universe. Toggling between contemplative and electrifying, this piece never eschews emotion in favor of aesthetics, and counts on the phenomenal thrust created by electric bass and brushed drums to thrive.

Possessing a knack for explorative sonics, Hitra speaks a language that incorporates an interesting layering that whether causes controlled friction or soars. Despite the somewhat cold feel, the music is never boring or predictable.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Kunftiges ► 05 - Cité des Poètes ► 08 - Lebenslauf

Marquis Hill - Love Tape

November 26, 2019

Label: Black Unlimited Music Group, 2019

Personnel - Marquis Hill: flugelhorn; Mike King: piano, keyboards, Fender Rhodes; Junius Paul: electric bass; Marcus Gilmore: drums + special guests Christie Dashiell: vocals; Josh Johnson: alto saxophone.

Since releasing his debut album in 2011, Chicago trumpeter/composer Marquis Hill undoubtedly established his own thing, fusing elements of jazz, hip-hop, funk, soul, and R&B. The follow-up to Meditation Tape is called Love Tape, his 8th groove-centered studio album, a vehicle to spread a strong message with the assistance of Michael King on piano and keyboards, Junius Paul on bass, and Marcus Gilmore on drums. The idea consisted in culling excerpts from black women’s interviews (Eartha Kitt, Phylicia Rashad and Abbey Lincoln are some of the voices heard) on the theme of self-love and set them against ambient layered sounds with a soul jazzy vibe and looped soundscapes.

Hill strengthens this positive message throughout, but cools down most of the exploratory musical instincts that characterize him by keeping the same vaporous chill-out vibes from start to finish. Regardless the soulful bass inflations and inventive beat that compose its lower layers, this music feels predictable and somewhat quiescent.

Under the spell of a boom tap beat and a trippy ambient, “Roy’s Intro” opens the record with the illuminated words of late trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who states: ‘the whole reason why I play is for God. I’m in service’.

“Won’t You Celebrate With Me?” places a simple riff at the center of a relaxing narrative anchored in a hip-hop rhythm. The melody, frequently dubbed and wrapped in effect, are further exalted by Hill during his solo. The process is repeated on “To You I Promise”, which, flowing in loop, rests on a groovy melodicism drawn from the classic-era R&B. Somehow, the latter seemed a contrafact of Bobby Brown’s hit “Every Little Step”, yet set at a slower speed. Also, the synth-infused “I Believe In Love” places polyphony on top of a smooth, low-key tapestry, whereas “Beautiful Us” adds a generous dash of smooth funk through the bass guitar lines while proving Hill’s ability to show tenderness in his playing.

Guest altoist Josh Johnson displays his evolved rhythmic language on the trippy “A New Life”, exploring improvisation in an immediate, straightforward way. During his workout, he has the company of Hill’s tranquil fills running in the background, as well as the gentle percussive slaps provided by Gilmore. The second guest to appear on the album is singer Christie Dashiell, whose vocal certitude fit perfectly on the neo-soul offering of “Wednesday Love”, which comes peppered with a mesmeric odd beat.

Despite Hill’s tremendous gifts for melody and tender ambiences, Love Tape failed to surprise. In opposition to the powerful spoken word, the very few acrobatic moves on the album weren’t enough to make me want to revisit it. Notwithstanding, it . might work for listeners in need of tension-free moments.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Won’t You Celebrate With Me? ► 06 - I Believe In Love ► 08 - A New Life