Label: Intakt Records, 2023
Personnel - Anna Webber: tenor saxophone, flutes; Adam O’Farrill; trumpet; Elias Stemeseder: synthesizer; Mariel Roberts: cello; Lesley Mok: drums.
Constantly at the vanguard of the most adventurous jazz, saxophonist and composer Anna Webber explores a laborious yet stimulating concept with her remarkable new quintet in her latest release, Shimmer Wince. By interlocking mathematical patterns and polyrhythmic pitches, Webber creates intricate frameworks that sound perfectly natural and balanced, employing a concept known as Just Intonation. Requiring a lot of effort from the musicians, this process - an ancient tuning system based on the natural harmonics and resonances of notes - is applied to her own rhythmic and harmonic investments.
The opening track, “Swell” is a characteristic example of post-modernistic ingenuity laced with circularity and improvisation. It falls into a kind of modal blues that, starting uninterruptedly at the base with Elias Stemeseder’s synth and Mariel Roberts’ cello, is disrupted by Lesley Mok’s cymbal washes and scratches, progressively gaining body and form with the help of her proliferating drumming. As the track unfolds, occasional cello pedals encourage freedom to be simultaneously embraced by Webber and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill.
“Wince” resonates rhythmically with a sweeping rock-inspired backbeat and non-linear pulses, framing an asymmetric sonic landscape. Showcasing exciting trumpet artistry, O’Farrill opts for a dense yet highly articulated vocabulary, while Webber infuses her solo with substantial malleability, adapting seamlessly to a new foundational terrain. “Fizz”, on the other hand, seems inspired by uncompromising, playful electronic music. This distinctive atmosphere is produced via synth, rhythmically stirred by snare rudiments that drive the music forward at just the right speed. Melodically, it comes stamped with flute and cello figures.
Demonstrating an uncanny ability to create detours within her own style, the saxophonist employs multiphonics as a vehicle for superb rhythmic punctuation on “Periodicity I”. Here, Roberts is free to mine the lower registers with rasping tones and also contributes contrapuntal incisions. Fragmented rhythms, glitchy sounds, and digital sonic matrixes are part of a big musical equation that acquires a seductive exoticism through an expressively powerful tenor statement. Also brilliantly orchestrated, “Squirmy” features in-and-out flute zigzags, becoming abstract and droning along the way before returning to the vibrant counterpoint that often permeates these pieces.
Shimmer Wince stands as a monument to unbridled creativity; a demanding yet tightly woven body of work where the musicians play with and against each other, exploring new directions with both rigor and ingenuity. Despite all the intricacies associated, Webber never loses her compositional and artistic identity.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Swell ► 02 - Wince ► 04 - Periodicity I