Evan Parker and
Catalan pianist Agustí Fernandez have been cooperating for more than a decade
in different formations, as a duo on Temparillo (Musica Secreta, 1996), in a quartet with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton
on Topos (Maya, 2007) and Fernandez
has been a member of Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble since Memory/Vision (ECM, 2003). Both are excellent improvisers and both are
gifted with an idiosyncratic musical language that enables them to ignore any
restrictions that could prevent them from crossing expressive limits.
Although “Part 2” on this album is a Fernandez solo and “Part 4” presents Parker
without his companion the title of the album is programmatic, on the album you
can hear one voice, they are a small unit.
“Part 1” is the best example for this assumption. Parker starts really
sensitive over typical Fernandez chords, his Spanish heritage shines through
every note, almost drowsy music for a lazy siesta in the midday summer heat.
Suddenly the music changes, it swells and implodes, it becomes stinging and
hectic, you can watch it falling apart, swirling, tumbling, and twisting. And
then Fernandez’ style morphs into a Cecil-Tayloresque mode, the 88 tuned drums
appear out of the blue as if we went into a time machine and stopped in the
late 1980s when Taylor met the European avant-garde in Berlin. You feel like
having swallowed firecrackers and now you are listening to the mad things that
happen inside your body.
Fernandez sticks to this percussive style in his following solo
performance, the clusters are hammering against the inside of your skull. But
as soon as he has come up with it, there is a metamorphosis of the atmosphere
again, everything becomes more intimate and less aggressive, Fernandez pours
out thrillers, Phrygian chords and arpeggio cascades and we are indulging in
them before another duo takes over. Here Fernandez uses the whole interior of
the piano as well, obviously using woodblocks and metal to create intensive
strange vibrations and muffled sounds while Parker remains very reluctant in
front of these textures. Both of them have been slowly constructing a
multilayered collage. In the end the track becomes so fragile that it literally
vanishes.
The following Parker’s solo recital is not surprising,
however, it is a jaw-dropping circular breathing exercise once again proving
his masterful command of the tenor, a beautiful sonic storm scraped out of the
organic whole of the concert. Parker’s solo pieces have often been referred to
as snake-like and indeed we are listening to a meandering sequence of tones
that seems to creep into our ear canals.
“Part 5” and “Part 6” bring
down the evening to a round figure, they refer back to the first track, again
focusing on the two players as one voice.
“The Voice is One”
shows how intimate Evan Parker and Agustí Fernandez have become, how well they
interact. A really awesome free jazz album – nothing more but nothing less
either.
“The
Voice Is One” was recorded live on November 1st , 2009 at
L'Auditori, Barcelona.
© stef
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