Futeristische Historie
Futeristische Historie
(Data)

Sometimes I happen to find a CD in my mailbox that I didn't ask for, and that I know nothing about; very often, unfortunately, one listening session makes me wish for the CD in question never having arrived at its natural destination, having disappeared, and so being lost for ever, during the trip. It's with great pleasure that I can declare the present CD as a brilliant exception to that rule.

The last time I (aurally) met Guus Jannsen was about one year ago, while he was sitting at the piano in a duet with Han Bennink on a CD titled Groet. Here he is again, but this time playing a pipe organ in a dialogue with bass clarinet player David Kweksilber and cello player Winnyfred Beldman: two musicians whom, I'm afraid, I meet here for the very first time.

Brilliantly recorded (this is a good time as any to compliment Dick Lucas for his nice work: I can say I don't own a single CD whose technical part he worked on which sounds any less than good), Futeristische Historie is the kind of album that - though not simple at all in the kind of logic running underneath - is in a way not at all difficult to listen to, thanks to a limpid musical thought, a careful performance, and a certain user-friendliness of the final result. In a way, it's an album that well represents a "Dutch" way of considering music, where Classical music, Jazz and Impro go hand-in-hand.

This time, we have a reference to Messiaen (starting from the title) in Éternité De Oiseaux, with its nice theme for violoncello; a nice unison opening by violoncello and clarinet, and a solo part for organ which sounds almost-Bachian, on the track titled Memory Protect, with also a good solo by the bass clarinet; a very personal version of Ellengton's Solitude (played on the pipe organ!); the svelte, jazzy theme in Into My Heart; the organ, first skeletal, then lyric, in Passage; the theme, which sounds as almost-ragtime, in Bad Timing.

It goes without saying that all the musicians in question show a very fine degree of interplay, their instruments changing roles quite often, and that sometimes musical moments that in a different context would sound "normal", can sound as quite unusual thanks to the chosen instrumentation.

In a nutshell, this is an album whose commercial indifference has to be repaid in the only way that really counts.

Beppe Colli


© Beppe Colli 2006

CloudsandClocks.net | March 24, 2006