Memory / Vision

"The latest manifestation of UK saxophonist Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic project is the most ambitious yet, including four electronics / computer specialists in addition to the core quintet of improvisers. It's a departure for Parker - an extended piece of composition deploying some comparatively orthodox narrative notions about highs and lows, episodes of dramatic intensity and quiet reflection."
John Fordham, The Guardian

Sounds of the future and echoes of Evan Parker's creative past commingle in this extraordinary live recording that blurs the boundaries between free improvisation, contemporary composition and electronic music. "Memory/Vision" is the third album in the critically-acclaimed series that began with "Toward The Margins" and continued with "Drawn Inward". Stunning playing and/or sound treatments by all members of this English/Italian/American/Spanish edition of the Electro-Acoustic Ensemble.

ECM (and in particular producer Steve Lake) are to be congratulated for their commitment to British free improv. Though they might not be the stalwart chronicler of the scene that Emanem are for example, their usual high standards of recording and presentation gives the music a high profile it doesn't normally get, and this album is no exception.

Evan Parker's EAE are the result of the saxophonist's long held interest in electracoustic processing. Alongside Parker's usual trio (augmented with piano and violin), there are no less than four people engaged in capturing and treating the realtime playing with all manner of digital trickery. Parker avoids the unholy mess this could have become by structuring Memory/Vision as a series of solos and small scale groupings.

The acoustic instruments are ghosted into new shapes by filtering, looping and pitchshifting. Barry Guy's bass plucks bounce back as tiny high register blips; Philipp Wachsmann's violin is looped into long melodic curls, while Evan's soprano flutterings peel off into wisps of sour melody. Parker also evokes the title by including taped fragments of previous group recordings, though to be honest you'd be hard pushed to spot where this happens.

The results range from cool,pastoral ambience to episodes of slightly mournful abstract twittering. This is music that hangs in the air, sometimes vaporous, sometimes almost sculptural in its weight. Parker's structures make this a rewarding (and repeatable) experience, and the spacious, pristine production gives each sound room to breathe. Luscious, alien stuff, and utterly beautiful.