By Don Phipps
Strikingly intense, no quarter given – all hands on deck. The music on the Sentient Beings album, “Truth Is Not the Enemy,” is simply a roller coaster of highs and lows (or hills and valleys if you will), which, whether slow-burn or rip-roaring, maintains its intensity from start to finish.
Recorded live at The Vortex in London on February 8, 2024, “Truth Is Not the Enemy” features the quartet of John O’Gallagher (alto sax), Faith Brackenbury (violin / viola), John Pope (bass) and Tony Bianco (drums). According to Bianco. The recording was made on the last night of a 7-day tour. As such, the musicians had time to hone their improvisations and experiment with their soundscapes before settling on the course they would navigate on the final night.
The album consists of two tracks. The first track, “Hills and valleys,” begins with a rumble – like a thunderstorm on the horizon. As the piece develops, heat and raw, muddy power surge forward. O’Gallagher’s muscular lines over Pope’s plucking and Bianco’s splashes on the cymbals suggest a sense of menace in the offing. Then Brackenbury takes over and the music turns into a strong rhythmic gallop of striking yet beautiful intensity. There are hairpin turns and roller coaster levitations before the dust finally settles in a Brackenbury viola/Bianco drum duet. The quartet continues to expound – pulling from its toolkit long legato expressions, impassioned abstractions, and jagged dissonance. Then with Bianco’s all over drumming propelling the group forward, a wall of sound tapestry emerges – almost disorienting, like rotating in a circle to the point of dizziness. The locutions here are simply not for the weak of heart, but they are also not angry. Ferocious would be a better word, like snow flurries, scattered by a strong north wind. The piece winds down like a good mystery novel –the reader uncertain about the outcome yet fully satisfied with the experience.
The second track, inversely named “Valleys and hills,” begins with O’Gallagher offering up a lonely soliloquy above the color and texture of the rhythm section’s explorations and Brackenbury’s wanderings. There is space here, and the atmospherics are more gentle - like wandering in a dark forest as light streaks downward through the canopy. As the piece develops, the music intersects and breaks apart. Pope challenges from the bottom and O’Gallagher’s sax opens and closes in hip-hoppity fashion. Bianco drives along – his explosive effort on the trap set a master class of enjoyment for the listener. Brackenbury joins the fray. She bounces her bow on her strings before rolling off a series of impressive running intervals, and as the piece moves forward, she uses electrical effects to broaden her impact. Bianco keeps up with complex rhythms and what seems like superhuman all-over efforts. There is so much going on, it feels like a maelstrom or whirlwind of notes – fast and heavy but not uncontrolled. There is simply no pussyfooting around for this quartet!
Every note on both tracks has a tenacious nail-biting anxiety to it, like wing-suiting acceleration through a mountain pass to land on a high-speed rail. Even the sedate expressions, where the musicians create space for intimacy and embrace an open architecture, are highlighted by sound drips and dollops that have a “wide-awake at 3 a.m.” feeling to them. For Bianco, the music herein has a philosophical foundation. He says, “The purpose was the Truth of playing, bringing us out of the confusion of this world…. We all go through the ups and downs of life. Hills and Valleys, but Truth is not the enemy.”
That said, the musicianship on “Truth Is Not the Enemy,” is exemplary, evidenced by O’Gallagher’s slice and dice phrasing and hell-raising sax lines, Brackenbury’s heartfelt and precision flying attacks, Pope’s wonderful chordal strums and racing bass note plucks, and Bianco’s extreme up and down roundabout exertions. This is a recording that stands tall, peering over the abyss with defiance, raising a middle finger to the darkness. Highly recommended!
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