Transatlantic Trance Map

An extension of veteran UK soprano saxophonist Evan Parker’s earlier experiments with electronics, Marconi’s Drift is a telematic concert uniting improvisations by two groups situated 3,500 miles apart. With special live processing software Matthew Wright eliminates the time zone and multiple multi-seconds delays between the six players in Brooklyn and the six in Kent, England so that the result sounds as spectacularly integrated as if all were in the same place.

Besides the real time laptop textures sampled and synthesized by Kent’s Wright and Pat Thomas and Brooklyn’s Ikue Mori and Sam Pluta used to distort or amplify groups texture, consolidated improvisation feature Parker, Alex Ward (clarinet), Hannah Marshall (cello), Peter Evans (trumpets) and Robert Jarvis (trombone) in England with tandem expressions from Sylvie Courvoisier and Craig Taborn (keyboards); Ned Rothenberg (reeds) and Mat Maneri (viola) in the US.

Evolving, the  improvisation layers and balances timbres from both side of  electro-acoustic divide, with expression or response from any one of the 12 dependent neither on the electronics or geography. A reflective trill from Parker’s soprano saxophone for instance can come up against Rothenberg’s clarion clarinet flutters and/or meet the electronics backwards flanges and shakes. Marshall and Maneri construct sul ponticello slices or strained stops together, while muted trombone grace notes or trumpet triplets enter the mix on their own or backed by machine-like buzzes.

Crucially, following the contours of the improvisation is the most important factor here. So an interlude of cross pulsed piano clipping; how subtly transatlantic bass clarinet slurs and clarinet squeaks integrate; or how emotional tongue fluttering from Parker is framed by singular piano comping are notable.

Reaching a crescendo of layered textures at the half-way point involving string affiliation, reed ripples, brass growls and thumping percussion suggested by keyboard strums, the electronic programming helps ease the remaining sequences into cooler episodes where aviary reed twitters and brassy inferences initially stand until they’re melded into a horizontal group flow.

By time the overlay of stacked electro-acoustic timbres dissolves into laptop hisses, splayed fiddle tones and the occasional keyboard plink, the novelty of experiencing distance creation is overcome by appreciation for its sonically sophisticated musical execution. Guglielmo Marconi, who in 1901 made the first wireless transmission between England and North America, would be proud.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Marconi’s Drift

Personnel: The Hot Tin: Peter Evans (trumpet, piccolo trumpet); Robert Jarvis (trombone); Evan Parker (soprano saxophone); Alex Ward (clarinet); Hannah Marshall (cello); Pat Thomas (live electronics); Matthew Wright (turntable, live sampling and processing)/ Roulette: Ned Rothenberg (clarinet, bass clarinet, shakuhachi); Mat Maneri (viola); Sylvie Courvoisier (piano, keyboard); Craig Taborn (piano, keyboard, live electronics); Ikue Mori and Sam Pluta (laptop live electronics)