By Richard Blute
When I started listening to and collecting jazz, I tended to stay away from
groups without a drummer. I rather naively thought that drums were necessary
to give the music enough dynamics. I didn’t understand the exciting ways
that other instruments can bring their own sense of movement to the music. I
think the first time I understood this was with the Paul Bley-Evan
Parker-Barre Phillips group and their two great albums
Time Will Tell
and Sankt Gerold. I discovered Jimmy Giuffre and his trio albums
soon after that, and have been a fan of chamber jazz ever since. In
particular, I became aware of how powerful an instrument a harp could be in
improvised music when I saw Anthony Braxton’s ZIM Ensemble perform with 2
harps. (I also couldn’t help thinking what a nightmare it must be to travel
around with 2 harps.)
On Unified Field, we have cello, harp and piano and played by
Frances-Marie Uitti, Milana Zarić and Elisabeth Harnik.
Frances-Marie Uitti is a cellist and composer, and is well-known for her use
of extended techniques. Stephen Brookes wrote in the Washington Post that
“The spectacularly gifted cellist Frances-Marie Uitti has made a career out
of demolishing musical boundaries.” That sounds like someone I want to
listen to (as I think would readers of this blog). She has previously
appeared on FJB in Agustí Fernández’s Celebration Ensemble. There’s some
footage on YouTube of her playing with a two bow technique so that she
sounds like an entire ensemble.
I became even more excited to hear Unified Field as I read more
about Milana Zarić. She is a harpist who has worked extensively in both the
contemporary classical and improvised music fields, in groups both small and
large, as well as solo. She is principal harpist at the Belgrade
Philharmonic Orchestra and member of the groups Trio Timbre (flute, viola
and harp) and Ensemble Echoes (plucked string instruments and percussion).
She has performed pieces by Berio, Cage, Schafer, Stockhausen, as well as a
number of Serbian composers. She’s also worked with many artists familiar to
readers of this blog, including Biliana Vouchkova, Agustí Fernández , Butch
Morris, Rhodri Davies and Peter Evans.
Harnik should be familiar to readers of this blog as she has been reviewed
here multiple times, including a 5-star review for her tremendous solo album
Ways Of My Hands: Music For Piano. Listening to it now, I hear the wide
variety of her influences and her ability to synthesize wonderful new music
out of those influences.
On to the album. As Frances-Marie writes, she and her partners were
exploring “the intersection between plucked, bowed and hammered strings”.
The music is an intense but beautiful exploration at that. The first song,
Cryptic Symmetries, begins with a burst of sound from cello, which is
answered by a simple phrase from harp. The piano begins playing a single
note repeatedly and the piece sounds briefly like something from Morton
Feldman. But the musicians are restless and constantly looking for new music
to make on their own instruments and how best to react to their companions.
At times, they’re playing percussively, but then can switch in a moment to
sound quiet and contemplative and then bring forth a raging storm.
I’ve listened to this album many times and I find new and beautiful sounds
every time I do. This will be one of the albums of the year for me.