BlankFor.ms/Jason Moran/Marcus Gilmore

Refining their rapprochement with electronics, pianist Jason Moran and drummer Marcus Gilmore have come up with their second tranche of Shards, an eight-track collaboration with electronic musician BlankFor.ms putting a finer point on both the processed and played parts of the equation. Moran, who is involved with many forms of music having played with Dave Holland and others was also artistic director of the Kenndy Center’s jazz program until just before the Trump debacle. Another veteran, Gilmore has worked across the board with everyone from Craig Taborn to Patricia Brennan. Meanwhile BlankFor.ms – real name Tyler Gilmore no relation to Marcus – specializes in using non-digital media and has composed for film, games and has created sample packs for sound designers.

Confirmation that the electronic hasn’t subsumed the acoustic is “Shard V”, the final track, where the pianist elaborates a blues line at a languid pace with the bent notes and key clanks breaking free from the synthesized hisses and fizzes that precede it. Contrast this with “Barbershop” where an affiliated near-danceable groove seems to be propelled from refracted and reconstituted textures live sampled from stopped keyboard and drum reverberations. As the electrified buzzes and scrapes created by BlankFor.ms rumble forward only Moran’ s inner piano string strums confirm acoustic consistency.

The clearest indication of how the electro-acoustic fusion works however is on “Tape Loop A Echo”. Following an introduction of rocket-launching-like explosions, wave form whooshes and loops refractions recede to cushion a piano melody, Projected with pedal point emphasis and a distinctive descending glissandi plus Gilmore adding cymbal clatters and hard bass drum smacks, the theme advances alongside compressed but echoing wave forms.

Since Moran and Gilmore have proven their expertise with traditional music sounds, there seems little point for them pivoting to electronic fusion exclusively. But the significant advances on this CD and the preceding one suggest investigation of electro-acoustic improvisation is an experiment worth repeating.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Shard I 2. Tape Loop A Echo 3. Shard II 4. Shard III 5. Barbershop 6. And The Pieces Are Falling 7. Shard IV 8. Shard V

Personnel: Jason Moran (piano); Marcus Gilmore (drums) and BlankFor.ms (electronics, tape loops and processing)