Emily Bezar
Fooled By Yesterday
(DemiVox Records)
It was about two months ago that I wondered for the umpteenth time what had
happened to Emily Bezar, the one-of-a-kind, versatile artist whose recorded
work has been dear to me for about twenty years now. Sure, she's never
been the type you'd call "excessively prolific", as easily attested
by the series of fine albums she released during the 90s - Grandmother's Tea Leaves (1993), Moon In Grenadine (1996),
Four Walls Bending (1999) - and during the course of the last decade - Angels'
Abacus (2004), Exchange (2008). But I started
wondering whether the Muse had stopped sending her messages - which can
sound a bit strange, I know, but as Miles Davis used to say, "When
there is no more, there is no more" (or at least, that's what I was
told he used to say).
It
was at about the end of the year that I had a whole series of surprises.
There was, in fact, a new album, called Fooled By Yesterday; but it was
of the non-physical, "download only", kind - available, of course,
in both mp3 or FLAC format. No fixed price point, either, à la Radiohead,
the album offered the courageous "pay what you want" option.
Last but not least, listening to the album gave me one more surprise: featuring
almost exclusively Bezar herself (on vocals, piano, keyboards, electronics),
Fooled By Yesterday presents such a great variety of styles and instrumentation
- those songs we know and love, electronic paintings, a few jazz standards
for piano - to become a virtual "Emily Bezar sampler".
Which could be an intricate imbroglio for a reviewer, whose competence is put
to the test. And will this album become the mega-seller we've always hoped
for Bezar? Well, let's have a listen.
First
track on the album, My Magnetic Sleep is a fine instrumental composition,
sounding not a million miles away from some "synthetic" instrumental
interludes performed by Irmin Schmidt of Can in their Future Days, Soon
Over Babaluma, period; sporting very fresh sound design, the composition
offers a beautiful, fascinating melodic development, with many sonic layers,
and some dreamlike vocals which definitely reminded me of the "Big
Boys Don't Cry" section on 10cc. hit, I'm Not In Love. Fooled By Yesterday
is a great piano ballad that has the Bezar signature written all over (here
Dan Feiszli is featured on electric bass), synths, a very fine bridge (always
a Bezar's specialty), and an "orchestral" ending; the whole sounding
quite a bit reminiscent of Bezar's first album, Grandmother's
Tea Leaves.
Then,
four piano tracks recorded at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California: an
improvisation, and three among her favourite jazz standards. December Glare
is an improvisation which to me appears to have a thematic element as its
core, a melody of great beauty. Bezar's piano style reminds me more of
Bill Evans than Thelonious Monk (best I can do). Great formal elegance,
and at about 3' there's an aria halfway a folk melody and a hymn that in
a way reminded me of Wayne Horvitz (at about 30" from the end there's
something which sounds definitely very Monk-like).
I
have to admit that when it comes to jazz standards I'm really out of my
depth. So, as a listener, I can only say that the ballad Out Of Nowhere
is very well performed; that the Kurt Weill-penned Speak Low is definitely
not among my favourite songs ever; and that Thad Jones's A Child Is Born
is performed with much swing, fine hand independence, an agile 12/8, and
many "blue notes" - this is easily my favourite non-original
track of the
"jazz" section.
Then
we have three electronic-sounding instrumental tracks, which are quite
dissimilar from one another when it comes to "style"; all are
very successful, and make for rewarding listening sessions. The outcome
of an improvisation which makes intelligent use of a new virtual plug-in
synth called Zebra, Zebratropic presents a "space exploration" which
reminded me a bit of Zero Time-era T.O.N.T.O., with a fine melodic development
and a very
"classical-sounding" melody.
Dance
Of The Tangerines is an "improvised dancey track". Here Bezar
herself mentions Tangerine Dream (as per its title), also Jean Michel Jarre
- but if my memory serves there's also a hint of Jim Aikin's old album,
Light's Broken Speech Revived (definitely a "cult album"!). The
tracks offers lotsa movement between the channels (very appropriate, this),
a finely modulated filter in the bass parts, an "ethnic-sounding" melody,
à la Joseph Zawinul; it's a complex track that on the surface appears as
being quite simple, as it's typical for this music.
The
long - 18'-plus - May In Mesolimbia successfully marries an improvised,
"synthetic", part, which was "mixed and processed" later;
and a piano rumination (a sample piano, sounding very good) that appears
exactly as played. The piano part is quite melodic, the synth panorama rich
with
"wild abandon" - lotsa helicopters, crickets, and buzzes, reminding
me of pioneer-era synthesis (always a compliment in my book).
Closing
track is Richard Strauss's, Die Zeit, Die Ist Ein Sonderbar Ding (Time
is Weird). Here I can only say this is a very dry - as in anti-rhetorical
- performance, with fine Bezar's vocals and a long instrumental coda for
multiple guitars, all played by Erik Pearson, with deep reverb and a long
delay.
Beppe Colli
© Beppe Colli 2012
CloudsandClocks.net | Jan. 20, 2012
