Format: vinyl LP
Label: Aguirre Records - ZORN73 (Belgium, 2021)
Edition: second pressing of 500 copies
Genre: Avant-garde Jazz
-
Info & Description (from the original label info):
Joshua Abrams' second album with group from 2012, superb avant-jazz. Second Edition of 500 copies Now Available.
With the release of Natural Information in 2010, Joshua Abrams entered into a new phase of his creative life, making music with a deep involving groove that communicates the pulsating energies of the human body and the incessant kaleidoscopic interplay of sensory perceptions. Represencing, recorded in Chicago in the summer of 2011 and originally released the following year by Eremite, was the next stride along this exhilarating path.
Once again Abrams gives a key role to the guimbri, a North African bass lute, which he had started to play during the late 90s following a trip to Morocco. Its sound when plucked is percussive, emphatic from moment to moment, yet also bouncy and rhythmically propulsive, as if naturally springing forward. A time-honoured instrument, used traditionally in healing ceremonies, the guimbri in Abrams’ hands offers an invitation to the trance, an expanded present where time intersects with timelessness. As the title Represencing suggests, this is uplifting music with a serious mission - to express that ongoing present and to give voice to our presence, here and now, within time’s continuous flow.
Once again, a fine selection of sympathetic friends help Abrams to craft this antidote to the current century’s compulsion to accelerate and its ever-diminishing attention span. They include saxophonist David Boykin, drummer Chad Taylor and guitarists Jeff Parker and Emmett Kelly. Lisa Alvarado plays harmonium on two tracks. She also provides a painting for the cover art which matches the music beautifully, vivid and vibrant, its interlocking geometry binding fragmentary perceptions into a coherent pattern, self-sufficient yet also clearly part of a far larger picture.
By 2012 this fascinating music was taking on a group identity, performed by Abrams with the Natural Information Society. That development was subsequently consolidated with the recording of Magnetoception, released in 2015. Represencing, however, conveys the excited air of an adventure unfolding. Reminiscent in passing of a variety of other musics - of tightly poised jazz, motoric rock and minimalism plus echoes from other cultural traditions - it remains nonetheless a singular statement by an artist rapidly finding his own distinctive voice. The music offered by Represencing is intricate yet direct, hypnotically repetitive yet constantly changing, built to last yet intimately present.
Tracklisting
A1 San Anto
A2 Represencing
A3 Moon Hunger
B1 Sound Talisman
B2 Sungazer
B3 The Ba
B4 Enter Mountain Amulet
B5 Cloud Walking
Notes
Text by Julian Cowley
Recorded at home summer 2011 by JA
Producers: Abrams & Michael Ehlers
Painting: Lisa Alvarado
Personnel:
Joshua Abrams: guimbri, organ, ms20, harps, bells, harmonium, mpc
Lisa Alvarado: gong & harmonium
Mikel Avery: drums
David Boykin: tenor saxophone
Emmett Kelly electric & acoustic guitars
Nicole Mitchell: flutes
Jeff Parker: electric guitar
Tomeka Reid: cello
Jason Stein: bass clarinet
Chad Taylor: gong & drums
Michael Zerang: tambourine
Label: Aguirre Records - ZORN73 (Belgium, 2021)
Edition: second pressing of 500 copies
Genre: Avant-garde Jazz
-
Info & Description (from the original label info):
Joshua Abrams' second album with group from 2012, superb avant-jazz. Second Edition of 500 copies Now Available.
With the release of Natural Information in 2010, Joshua Abrams entered into a new phase of his creative life, making music with a deep involving groove that communicates the pulsating energies of the human body and the incessant kaleidoscopic interplay of sensory perceptions. Represencing, recorded in Chicago in the summer of 2011 and originally released the following year by Eremite, was the next stride along this exhilarating path.
Once again Abrams gives a key role to the guimbri, a North African bass lute, which he had started to play during the late 90s following a trip to Morocco. Its sound when plucked is percussive, emphatic from moment to moment, yet also bouncy and rhythmically propulsive, as if naturally springing forward. A time-honoured instrument, used traditionally in healing ceremonies, the guimbri in Abrams’ hands offers an invitation to the trance, an expanded present where time intersects with timelessness. As the title Represencing suggests, this is uplifting music with a serious mission - to express that ongoing present and to give voice to our presence, here and now, within time’s continuous flow.
Once again, a fine selection of sympathetic friends help Abrams to craft this antidote to the current century’s compulsion to accelerate and its ever-diminishing attention span. They include saxophonist David Boykin, drummer Chad Taylor and guitarists Jeff Parker and Emmett Kelly. Lisa Alvarado plays harmonium on two tracks. She also provides a painting for the cover art which matches the music beautifully, vivid and vibrant, its interlocking geometry binding fragmentary perceptions into a coherent pattern, self-sufficient yet also clearly part of a far larger picture.
By 2012 this fascinating music was taking on a group identity, performed by Abrams with the Natural Information Society. That development was subsequently consolidated with the recording of Magnetoception, released in 2015. Represencing, however, conveys the excited air of an adventure unfolding. Reminiscent in passing of a variety of other musics - of tightly poised jazz, motoric rock and minimalism plus echoes from other cultural traditions - it remains nonetheless a singular statement by an artist rapidly finding his own distinctive voice. The music offered by Represencing is intricate yet direct, hypnotically repetitive yet constantly changing, built to last yet intimately present.
Tracklisting
A1 San Anto
A2 Represencing
A3 Moon Hunger
B1 Sound Talisman
B2 Sungazer
B3 The Ba
B4 Enter Mountain Amulet
B5 Cloud Walking
Notes
Text by Julian Cowley
Recorded at home summer 2011 by JA
Producers: Abrams & Michael Ehlers
Painting: Lisa Alvarado
Personnel:
Joshua Abrams: guimbri, organ, ms20, harps, bells, harmonium, mpc
Lisa Alvarado: gong & harmonium
Mikel Avery: drums
David Boykin: tenor saxophone
Emmett Kelly electric & acoustic guitars
Nicole Mitchell: flutes
Jeff Parker: electric guitar
Tomeka Reid: cello
Jason Stein: bass clarinet
Chad Taylor: gong & drums
Michael Zerang: tambourine