BARRY GUY NEW ORCHESTRA: OORT-ENTROPY (Intakt)
Die Reduktion von Guys Ensemble auf 10 Köpfe zeigt immer größere Wirkung: vor allem die gesponnenen feinen Linien, die sich aus den Tutti-Knäuel wieder herauswinden, wirken herrlich in ihrer Dynamik und Transparenz. Auch mittels Re-Interpretationen von Guys Trio-Kompositionen webt dieses großartige Orchester unglaublich faszinierende Strukturen, in denen Künstlichkeit und Natürlichkeit ein Material wird. Ungemein sanft wie stark.
HONKER. Terz. 30.06.2005
New Orchestra nennt Barry Guy sein neu formiertes Ensemble aus Improvisatoren und Free Jazzern. Es scheint, als ob er sein in den späten 60igern gegründetes London Jazz Composers Orchestra wieder aufleben lassen würde, denn damals war die Zeit noch nicht reif für experimentelle, frei improvisierte Musik mit einem großen Ensemble. Das Publikum fehlte, und nach einigen Jahren wurde das Projekt abgebrochen. Barry Guy und seinem New Orchestra ist zu wünschen, dass die Zeit nun reif ist für seine Big-Band-musikalischen Überlegungen und dass er ein breites Publikum findet. Wird zwar nicht passieren, aber man darf doch noch wünschen!
Frisch, innovativ, unkompliziert und spontan kommen die Töne, die Stücke nehmen unerwartete Wendungen, und die Musiker nützen ihre Freiheiten, ohne sich in elendslangen Selbstdarstellungsversuchen zu verlieren. Von den Musikern seien noch explizit Hans Koch an der Bassklarinette, Mats Gustafsson am Baritonsaxofon und Johannes Bauer an der Posaune erwähnt, sie setzen absolut berührende Highlights mit ihren Soli.
akro, Concerto, Österreich, August/September 2005
S’adonnant avec ténacité au mélange des genres (jazz, musique improvisée, contemporain), restait au contrebassiste Barry Guy à régler la question du nombre. Chose faite, sur Oort-entropy, dernier album en date, pour lequel il aura dû conduire neuf musiciens au sein d’un New Orchestra idéal.
Sur un traité de décomposition oscillant sans cesse entre l’unisson d’intervenants choisis et l’amalgame de décisions individuelles en réaction, l’auditeur n’a d’autre choix que de dresser la liste des atouts remarquables - options irréprochables du batteur Paul Lytton, couleurs fauves que le tromboniste Johannes Bauer distille à l’ensemble. Volée d’attaques incandescentes, Part I connaît aussi quelques pauses, convalescences prescrites par Guy et AgustÍ Fernández, pianiste imposant un romantisme inédit.
Les notes inextricables du duo Parker / Guy inaugurent ensuite Part II, pièce envahie par des nappes harmoniques sur lesquelles se greffent des souffles en transit, la flamboyance du trompettiste Herb Robertson, ou encore, l’étrange musique d’un monde de métal (coulissant, grinçant, résonant). Un hurlement de Mats Gustafsson règlera le compte des indécisions, ouvrant la voie au chaos instrumental, mené jusqu’aux flammes par la batterie de Raymond Strid.
Si Part I déployait en filigrane l’influence de Berio, Part III joue plus volontiers des tensions dramatiques d’opéras plus anciens. Majestueux, Evan Parker déroule des phrases derrière lesquelles tout le monde attend, fulgurances aigues sur énergie qui ne faillit pas. Dévalant en compagnie de Fernández les partitions en pente, le soprano mène une danse implacable, malheureusement mise à mal par l’intervention de Strid, qui vient grossièrement perturber l’évolution de la trame, jusqu’à la rendre trouble.
Si cette erreur de dosage n’avait été, Guy se serait montré irréprochable dans la conduite d’un microcosme en désagrégation, mis en reliefs par une palette irréprochable de musiciens en furie. Abrasif à la limite du délictueux et production léchée, il faudra aussi voir en Oort-entropy une référence indispensable à qui veut s’essayer à la cosmogonie des conflits de Barry Guy.
Chroniqué par Grisli, France, August 2005, www.infratunes.com
For the last four decades, British bassist Barry Guy has continually charted a personal path in advanced improvisational settings. His endeavors range from free contexts to arranged ensembles; from solo work to orchestra; from long-term groups to ad hoc meetings; from Baroque music to electro-acoustic experiments. Through it all, his balance of formal structures and dynamic improvisation is always at play. These two recent releases are further proof of his mastery.
After decades working with the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, the challenges of assembling such a large ensemble on any consistent basis led to thoughts of forming a mid-size group. Formed four years ago, the synthesis of the Barry Guy New Orchestra came from Guy’s working trios: the longstanding Evan Parker trio with Paul Lytton, the more recent trio with Mats Gustafsson and Raymond Strid, and a trio with Marilyn Crispell and Lytton. Filling out the group are bass clarinetist Hans Koch, trombonist Johannes Bauer, trumpet player Herb Robertson, and tuba player Per Åke Holmlander. Agustí Fernández recently replaced Crispell, a musician recommended by his predecessor and someone many in the group had worked with. As one might expect, it is Guy’s compositional form that shapes the three-part piece. The basis for Oort-Entropy are themes originally written for the trio with Crispell and Lytton. Starting each section of the piece with a bass/reed duet, the ensemble takes off , bustling through full-on collective playing, settling into smaller sub-groupings, or opening up for solo statements. But there is never the sense of bravado that too often overcomes the Brötzmann Tentet these days, nor is there a feeling that this is simply a scaled back version of the LJCO. Guy knows how to make the most of the musicians, massing the entire group, piling skirling reeds over low end brass, or hocketing lines back and forth over cascading piano. Fernández does a noble job filling Crispell’s seat, bringing a more percussive attack while playing down the melodic cells of the music. With a group like this, one expects strong solos all around, and of course no one disappoints. This is particularly true in the final section with the ensemble punching out clarion rising phrases against Parker’s cycling lines surfing the waves of the paired drummers and then releasing to a section of low brass against piano flurries. While not quite as strong as Inscape-Tableaux, their resplendent premier disk, this is still well worth searching out.
Mixing Baroque composition and contemporary improvisation on a single CD could easily end up as a contrived, overly-precious disaster. This is, of course, unless the musicians at the helm are Barry Guy and Maya Homburger. Guy is one of the rare musicians who is equally comfortable in both worlds having balanced four decades of improvisation with professional performances of Baroque music including a stint in Christopher Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music. As a preeminent performer on Baroque violin, Homburger brings a deep-seated understanding of that vocabulary into the world of improvisation. For several of the pieces, percussionist Pierre Favre is added to expand the sonic palette. Guy’s compositional sense comes through even in this intimate setting. The program mixes pieces by 17th century composers H.I.F. Biber and Dario Castello with improvisational forms by Guy with an introductory improvisation based on the Roman Catholic hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus.” Biber’s “Passacaglia” for solo violin and his “Crusifixion, Mystery Sonata X” along with Castello’s “Sonata Seconda”, both for violin and bass, are performed with a stately grace. The two players invest the pieces with a natural freedom that resonates with Guy’s pieces. On “Inachis,” Homburger plays composed parts against Guy’s improvisations, and here the structural abstractions of Guy’s form bristle with spiraling momentum. The 19 minute title piece adds pre-recorded electronics as well as Favre’s percussion. Here, Guy’s orchestration intermixes soaring composed themes, interludes of free bass and percussion interplay and lush taped soundscapes to create a piece full of knotty layers and evolving juxtapositions. “Peace Piece” pairs Guy with Favre, starting out with an extended extrapolation of the theme by Guy and then slowly weaving in percussion colorations. At 75 minutes long, this is a demanding listen, but the individual components show Guy’s breadth in creating forms for collective collaboration.
Michael Rosenstein, SIGNAL to NOISE , USA, August 2005
Big-Band-Jazz für das nächste Jahrtausend.
Nick Liebmann, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The momentous music marks the auspicious recorded debut of Barry Guy's newly retooled and streamlined large ensemble, concisely christened the New Orchestra. His well-established London Jazz Composers Orchestra held a reigning position as the preeminent grand-scale improvising ensemble in Europe and abroad for years. This new assemblage builds upon the strengths of its predecessor while striking out in bold new directions. Rather than a distillation of the earlier colossus, it's more of a reimagining. Expanding the pool of suspects from a predominately British cohort to one drawing from a broadly multinational base, Guy's outfit remains redoutable in its ability to flatten the skeptics. As in previous meetings of the LJCO, the new piece balances complex composition and free improvisation with an Ellington-like emphasis on individual voicings. the rallied players are among the most formidable and unique in the global improvisatory community and Guy's score maximises their choices for individual and collective invention. The musicians in turn seize upon the structured freedom, rallying through an inventory of inspired combinations.Crispell's piano is a guiding beacon throughout much of the melee, manoeuvring the group and joining together the piece's myriad sections. The shifts between lyrical and the tempestuous are so sudden and numerous as to become dizzying. Sections of relative reverie intersperse moments of collective and concerted high impact blowing, bowing, pounding and bashing. In the first segment alone Bauer, Parker, and Gustafsson self immolate in instrument splintering solos above a percussive conflagration. Crispell's piano and Parker's circular blown soprano burst forth from the ensemble trailed by the unctuous brass of Robertson. Bauer and Holmlander only to resurface again together in the early minutes of 'Part II.' Later Guy and Crispell meet in a sombre contemplative duet commented on by growling, suspirating horns. It's a pairing they return to and explore more fully in the opening minutes of 'Part IV' only to be joined again by the horns and percussion, this time in meditative confluence. The disc is filled with these sorts of diadic interactions, initial forays that are eventually amplified through renewed associations in subsequent sections of the piece. 'Part V' quickly redeposits the group in dissonant surroundings, eventually parting for soaring turns from Bauer and eventually Robertson. Crispell's categorical clusters part a path for first Holmlander on deeply resonating tuba, and then Koch on register bucking bass clarinet during the initial segments of 'Part VI.' The concluding 'Part VII' offers a final descent into the maelstrom with individual solos giving sway to volley after volley ensemble energy – a fitting end to hear the group converge a full muster. Guy has effectively reshaped his most renowned composing vehicle into a new entity every bit as arresting as its predecessor. Engineer Peter Pfister deserves special commendation for capturing the massive sonic complexity of the band with such pristine clarity. Each instrument is clearly and concisely discernible even during the most opaque and violent moments of full ensemble release.
Derek Taylor, Cadence, N. Y., October 2001
There are so many levels on which this magnificent set of performances led and orchestrated by bassist Barry Guy can be appreciated. What he calls his New Orchestra is essentially a pared down version of his larger London Composers Jazz Orchestra, but this smaller group is no less potent or any less convincing. For one thing, there is Guy's brilliant writing, which permits the players – and these include some of the cream of the European jazz avant-garde – to flourish through individual solo contributions wrapped around kernels and flashes of magical insights. Saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Evan Parker exemplify the high level of improvisation, but there is a wealth of talent everywhere, including pianist Marilyn Crispell, trumpeter Herb Robertson, and trombonist Johannes Bauer. At heart, Guy is a landscape artist who paints broadly and passionately, but who pays careful attention to details. His own voice on bass is heard here more than with his larger conglomerations – an additional treat. In the end, it is the broad strokes, the vision, the grandeur that most impress. A magnificent achievement.
Steven A. Loewy, All Music Guide, March 2001
Bassist/composer Barry Guy aligns a multinational band for this newly released CD featuring other modern jazz/improvising luminaries such as Guy's longtime musical partner, saxophonist Evan Parker, pianist Marilyn Crispell, trumpeter Herb Robertson, percussionist Paul Lytton and others. Basically, the music might elicit notions of one huge traffic jam amid moments of subtly stated interludes and the soloists' quietly energetic exchanges. Overall, the bassist's new effort is a noteworthy entry into the ever expansive British Free/Euro jazz movement. Hence, Guy has always been a significant and altogether important player in these modern jazz and improvisational based genres.
Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz, USA, Juli 2001
British virtuoso bassist and composer Guy continues to explore the ambiguous area between improvisation and composition, this time exchanging his London Jazz Composers Orchestra for an all-star tentet. In addition to being frequent collaborators in smaller bands, all of the participants have specialized abilities Guy puts to good use – such as Mats Gustafsson's percussive saxophone pointillism, Johannes Bauer's trombone brashness, drummers Paul Lytton's and Raymond Strid's crisp, unsystematic accents, and the rapid articulation of saxophonist Evan Parker and pianist Marilyn Crispell. Inscape-Tableaux, in seven sections, ranges from quiet and tranquil to jagged and volatile; passages of intense improv distill down to concentrated statements, with scored episodes offering respite and focus. As the instrumental combinations multiply and divide, there's a friction of unexpected voicings, and sparks fly. Though the reduced forces allow more flexibility and freedom, the music benefits from Guy's guidance.
Art Lange
Inscape-Tableaux is breathtaking – right off the bat. As the ten-piece orchestra spits up a screech, bustling, Per Åke Holmlander's tuba bumbles in, a lopsided lorry settling into a complex landscape. Bassist Barry Guy's New Orchestra is, simply, an extraordinary collection of European and American impovisers: Marilyn Crispell (piano); Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Hans Koch (reeds), Johannes Bauer (trombone), Herb Robertson (trompet), Holmlander (tuba), Paul Lytton and Raymond Strid (percussion). Guy, Lytton, and Parker's recent work with Crispell is always close to the surface: the 'tableaux' – a suite of seven multi-layered pieces clustered with frightening discord and stark, irreducible beauty – builds up around them. Indeed, Crispell is in exceptional form. Frequently presented with open spaces, she unleashes labyrinths or tears pockets of space into chasms. Even when she runs below the ensemble, Crispell can set you into revierie or run you flat up against a wall.
Coda Magazin, Canada, July/August 2001
Barry Guy ist einer der Väter des europäischen Free Jazz. Stets haben den Bassisten und Komponisten die Wechsel von Dissonanz und Harmonie interessiert. Oft siedelte die Dichte des Klangs nah an den akademischen Neutönern Europas. Leichte Kost war das nie. Mit zehn Musikern ist das neue Orchester kleiner. Hervorragende Solisten, voran Marilyn Crispell und Evan Parker, bieten eine robuste Melange von Eksatse hin zu erhabner Einkehr umd umgekehrt.
Leipziger Volkszeitung, 12. April 2001
Bisher meinte ich noch in jeder Einspielung von Barry Guys Jazz Composers Orchestra ein Haar in der Suppe zu finden. Das BARRY GUY NEW ORCHESTRA macht mir dagegen bisher ungetrübten Spaß. Was für eine Besetzung aber auch. Auf der 7-teiligen Suite Inscape - Tableaux (Intakt 066) spielen Marilyn Crispell (piano), Evan Parker und Mats Gustafsson (sax), Hans Koch (clarinet, sax), Johannes Bauer (trombone), Herb Robertson (trumpet), Per Åke Holmlander (tuba) und die beiden Perkussionisten Paul Lytton und Raymond Strid neben dem Komponisten selbst am Kontrabass. Vereint im Bewusstsein, dass "music is sound ... truth-bearing sound ... beautiful sound that relocates the locus of beauty". Guys Comprovisation entwickelt unmittelbar eine mitreißende Verve, Passagen wilder Dramatik wechseln mit nahezu mystischem Tasten nach dem richtigen nächsten Ton. Der unverwechselbare Klang jeder einzelnen Stimme ist ein Element der Komposition. Individuelle Expressivität und Introspektion werden fugenlos integriert in eine musikalische Gussform, in der Guy seine ganze Erfahrung mit und seine Vision von Außenskelett und Substanz eines Orchesterklangkörpers einfließen lässt. Wie in allem Perfekten, schwingt Perfektes mit: Die so ganz englischen Brassinnovationen eines Michael Gibbs, John Surman, Keith Tippett, Mike Westbrook ... – der elegische Part IV klingt aber nicht nur wie eine Reminiszenz an dessen Blake-Hommagen, er scheint den Geist des Proto-Blueser John Dowland zu beschwören und im folgenden Posaunensolo klingen die herzzerreißendsten Lamentos der Musikgeschichte mit an.
Bad Alchemy, Würzburg, Deutschland, 38/2001