CD digipack 4 pagine

Ivo Perelman _ sax tenore
Pascal Marzan _ chitarra acustica a dieci corde

Due incredibili musicisti, insieme qui per la prima volta. Musica avventurosa! Produzione di Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg.

Per maggiori informazioni:
https://www.ivoperelman.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivo_Perelman
http://pascalmarzan.blogspot.com/

"(...) Se si guarda indietro nella discografia di Perelman si intuisce che il sassofonista abbia privilegiato nelle sue esplorazioni musicali determinati musicisti: per quanto riguarda la chitarra Morris è intervenuto in otto registrazioni (compreso Shamanism). Con Pascal Marzan, Perelman ha compiuto la sua prima eccezione, anche se non parliamo più di elettricità applicata allo strumento; in Dust of Light/Ears Drawings Sounds (per Setola di Maiale) Marzan contrappone al sax tenore di Ivo la sua chitarra acustica a 10 corde, una chitarra però non incordata con il sistema di intonazione tradizionale, ma con uno microtonale, come ricordato anche da Van Schouwburg nelle note interne: “…Pascal’s tuning is allowing to play in sixth of tone, because as you know guitar frets are slicing one tone in two halftones…“. Come si svolge il confronto? Marzan usa tecniche estese per improvvisare: vibra sul ponte, usa manualmente oggetti in vetro che stoppano le risonanze delle corde, fornisce una segmentazione delle battute e si muove agilmente sulla tastiera con una ricerca casuale dei punti dove suonare; tenuto conto anche di alcuni scorci condotti più cautamente e di una dinamica che in generale trae linfa da configurazioni oscure dei suoni, non c’è dubbio che Marzan faccia pensare ad un Downland debitamente trasportato nell’odierno circuito della libera improvisazione; di fronte a questa novità Perelman affila tutte le sue capacità di immedesimazione, sostiene questo regno della frammentazione in grado di creare una sostanza dialogica e la sua sfida sta nell’interpretare i segnali che arrivano dal suo partner, cercando di offrire una risposta adeguata. Il pezzo d’apertura dal titolo Hot Dust Obscured Galaxies è emblematico di questa ricerca perché in esso è piazzato una sorta di sistema di messa a fuoco, qualcosa che si produce nella performance sotto forma di allineamento simulatorio su battiti o registri e che poi si disallinea lasciando che ognuno dei due musicisti prenda la sua strada. Sentite l’apertura e lo sviluppo di Calling at the Doorway, dove Perelman si produce con il suo sax in una straordinaria enfasi melodica, direi quasi a riprodurre le pretese e il tenue lamento di un gentil fanciullo: all’interno c’è una politica del suono a cui Ivo non aveva forse mai fatto ricorso ed è il posto concepito per scorgere le “polveri” di luce." Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali, 2021.

"(...) I have written with Ivo Perelman for a while now and one thing I know about him is his love for the guitar - all its sounds, intricacies and variations. Ivo studied nylon string guitar early in his career and it is no surprise that he has been working with 3 guitarists on new CDs. The first I am reviewing is 'Dust Of LIght/Ears Drawing Sound' which is the result of a coincidental meeting between French guitarist Pascal Marzan and Perelman.
In a remarkable mirroring of lives Marzan learned and mastered classical acoustic guitar later in life and studied under the same Brazilian composer - Heitor Villa-Lobos who tutored Ivo on the instrument when he was a young musician.
Marzan worked with legendary British improvisers including guitarist John Russell, violinist Phil Wachsmann and clarinet player Alex Ward, as well as playing classical music. He decided recently to completely overhaul his repertoire and playing and bought a new ten strings classical guitar built to the requirements of the legendary virtuoso Narciso Yepes. He then tuned each string with an interval of a third of a tone from the next string in order to develop microtonality. It is not surprising that Ivo was captured by this idea as one of his musical collaborators, Mat Maneri, who learned the microtonal philosophy from his father, Joe Maneri. The Maneri's sound was captured on a couple of recordings for ECM.
When Pascal and Perelman met at a London gig and there was instant connection. Pascal's tuning meant that he can play in sixths of tones due to the one and a half tone spacing of the guitar frets whilst two different scales of thirds of tones as well as “normal” notes still being available. The complexity is astounding but simplified in the hands of a true virtuoso.
There are 12 tracks here and each one displays a little of the intimate relationship between the instruments and players. In 'Hot Dust-Obscured Galleries' Perelman has to play at times so pianissimo and even then the listener finds themselves straining to catch the whispered intonations of the guitar, whilst in 'River Mirroring A Smiling Moon' there is a playfulness from both instruments and the guitar occasionally rises into the pauses left by the sax - those important but brief pauses.
'Bees And Squirrels In The Garden/Two Bees At My Window' is busy, buzzy and energy driven, the two instruments cascading and rising in harmony before diverging, creating a sense of coming and going, hovering and flying, like the mating dance of butterflies or bees. Perelman's altissimo creates an uncanny bee-like sound with the thrumming guitar sounding remarkably hive-like. 'Sun Through Closed Eyelids' is mellifluous, flowing and coloured with a sense of lightness, with a lovely descent part way through which evolves naturally on both sides. 'Ears Drawing Sound' is short and explorative, whilst 'Dusts Of Light/Dancing In Shadowed Forests' and 'Swinging Swallows' are apposite mood swings with the latter somehow distilling down to a narrow trench of musical variation on both sides - again, completely unplanned - it just happens but the bandwidth of notes is narrow, the intricacies wide. 'Conversation In The Wind/Conversation With The Wind is lower, darker and rooted in those dark corners we sometimes find and open, thoughts disparate and flickering into view - the listener gets glimpses of ideas before they vanish like whirls of mist, batted out of existence by a sudden flicker of aggression form the sax.
'Calling At The Doorway' is lighter, high and sweet whilst 'High Mountain Walk' is powerful, atmospheric and travels different musical pathways. There is a touch of Sharrock, a touch of Ayler in the players respectively and it works well as the conversation goes from competing to harmony on the spin of a note.
'Reflections' is a lot of pipe work from Perelman over light guitar and 'Mysterious Bells' closes out the album in a blaze of intuitive playing from both players.
Responding to the intricacy shown on the guitar, Perelman challenges his own playing by entering in micro tones above or below the guitar 'pure' notes which involves meticulous adjustment of his reed, mouthpiece, embouchure and air flow. Just occasionally there is a microtone of difference which catches on the ear as it is so difficult to place but this is rare. Perhaps hardest for Perelman on this recording is the fact that to enhance the guitar, he has to play dulce, softly and quietly at times in order to allow the microtonality of the guitar intervals to be heard and felt.
At times the two instruments appear to converge so that there is a sense of a chimera, a hybrid and perhaps a re-birth, if that was possible, of Perleman's playing.
There are moments of eerie reverberation which reveals the frail nature of the Spanish guitar wood in the guitar's frame, comprising as is does of small pieces of wood held together. Pascal brings from the guitar a life-like change of mood, veering from effervescence to gentle, sensual strokes and touches using hands, nails. He also creates wildly rampant arpeggios. The sensuality and engagement derived from the guitar means Perelman has to commit to utter control of his sax, something which is always a facet of his playing but here in the soft intricacies, it is a vulnerability which would lay bare any tiny deviation from perfection. Perelman rises to the challenge admirably and delivers yet another factor of his playing. There are nods to historical styles of Ayler and Webster but also a modernistic approach to delivery which is appealing to a wide section of listeners.
This is a recording which invites close listening because on some of the tracks it feels like Perelman solo work but you need to listen to the gentle, intricate, delicate pickery going on behind and then that sound somehow comes forward. Perelman achieves a quietude at times which allows the strings to come forth and dominate but not often. More, the music is a oneness yet a due performance which is complementary and enjoyable.
This is improvisation in the true sense - two musicians listening, engaged, challenging, rising, falling away seemingly effortlessly yet the expertise is such that anyone copying this would find it nigh on impossible. The variety of musical forms created in the spur of the moment is amazing and strangely lyrical and earthy." Sammy Stein, The Free Jazz Collective, 2020.

[Segue lunga recensione cumulativa in inglese di ben tre album di Ivo Perelman con altrettanti chitarristi, tra cui il nostro Dust Of Life] Brazilian saxophone player involved with the NYC Avant-jazz scene and iconic players like Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Joe Morris and Mat Maneri, Ivo Perelman is feeling a deep inner love story for the guitar, the instrument. Indeed, since the time of his sixth year he has practiced the classical guitar and the music of his compatriot composers like Heitor Villa-Lobos and studied in the Conservatory named after this legendary composer. His musical evolution took him to become one of the leading tenor sax player and improviser in the U.S. Perelman sax tenor playing is inspired by the saudade from Rio and one hears how marvelously he blows in the high range of his horn above its register using overtones and making them sing and curve with melody-like unique glissandos. Blindtesting, one can recognize Ivo’s playing from the first note. This specific and genuine pitch placement on any note on the saxophone, creating a kind very individual scales/intervals requires a huge daily work beyond imagination. Ornette Coleman is another great example of this. As his listeners have noticed, Ivo Perelman is working intensively with the same bunch of like-minded spirits since years as he wants to deepen fructuous musical relationship through mutual listening. But he likes, above all, renewed musical challenges. As Perelman maintains wonderful duos with Matthew Shipp, one of the most in-demand contemporary Afro-American pianist and with the very gifted and imaginative guitarist Joe Morris, they decided to create an intense soundworld contrasting and challenging the chordal and harmonic flurries and constructions of supreme piano and guitar playing simultaneously. In the piece Shamanism, the three are building pointillistic twists and turns and moving multi-angular shapes and sonic sculptures intertwining their capacities of instant composing in real time. There is some relationship to ping-pong or dancing in their improvisations specially in the interactions between the six strings and the 88 keys. Undulating on the waves of this pair, the saxophonist never looses his lyric vision and his surreal and natural sense of melodic invention. While listening to their chasing - free-wheeling flights along winding roads (Shamanism), you can always catch their precise knowledge of refined and complex harmonic structures. But as Spirit World testifies, the three are reaching the realms of balladry with a real poise and wit. Shipp’s touch reveals as a real asset and what does Joe Morris’ ricocheting with such piano playing is nothing else than acrobatic but deeply musical. On each nano second of its recording, Shamanism is coincidental music.
Coincidence came out at the meeting of French guitarist Pascal Marzan with Ivo Perelman. Like Ivo, but later in his life, Pascal Marzan dedicated his time to the learning and the mastering the classical acoustic guitar, studying and performing the same Brazilian composer that the young Ivo teethed as a youngster : Heitor Villa-Lobos and his Préludes, Études and Guitar Concerto … But after having performed classical music and also improvised music with legendary British improvisers like guitarist John Russell, violinist Phil Wachsmann and clarinettist Alex Ward, Pascal decided very recently to refound completely his practice of his axe in tuning it very differently. He bought a new ten strings classical guitar build at the requirements of the legendary virtuoso Narciso Yepes, one of the greatest guitarist of the Twentieth Century. With a lucid and premonitory intuition, he tuned each string with an interval of a third of a tone from the next string in order to develop a kind of microtonality. Coincidentally, one of the closest musical mate of Ivo, alto virtuoso improviser Mat Maneri is completely involved in this microtonal universe since he learned it from his father, the now deceased composer and reed maestro, Joe Maneri. They even both recorded for the ECM label. When Pascal and Ivo met at one London gig, they both clicked like twins. I would add that Pascal’s tuning is allowing to play in sixth of tone, because as you know guitar frets are slicing one tone in two half-tones… and in two different scales of thirds of tones and also in equal temperament as the “normal” notes are still available. Mindboggling. Ivo Perelman strives to challenge his own diving in microtones playing above or below the “pure” notes adjusting meticulously his reed and mouthpiece air pressure and sticking to no Forte, but a softer breath with more nuances. As the intervals of the notes of this 6th tone guitar are so tiny, you wonder at listening to Dust of light/ Ears Drawing Sound. Is it a hybrid string instrument, an harp or an harpsichord? For my opinion of dedicated writer about improvised music, this is the most brilliant and deepest guitar concept in contemporary improvisation since the legendary Derek Bailey. Strangely, this string arrangement produces a spooky reverberation revealing the frail nature of the Spanish guitar body made of glued tiny pieces of wood. The session went unnoticed and the result went beyond any expectation. Confronted to all kinds of plucking and touching the strings with Pascal Marzan incredible right hand, fingers and nails and his multivoiced wild arpeggios, Perelman exceeds his current inspiration concentrating his breath and fingering to extend forcefully his high soaring notes and his singing alto range while you hear clear ruminations of past jazz heroes like Ben Webster and Don Byas or nods to Albert Ayler. The variety of musical forms created in the spur of the moment is absolutely amazing and strangely lyrical and earthy, both players making a tour de force of this unexpected musique de chambre.
Now the third piece of this unusual guitar-focused Perelman tryptich is centered around the oriental lute or oud of Gordon Grdina, also a jazz guitar player. His oud is of the same family of instruments of the Iraqi and Turkish classical music, the oud played by the geniuses - composers Munir Bashir and Cinuçen Tanrikorur. And to keep the music pulsating closer to its origin, both artists conveyed Hamin Honari, a specialist of the daf and tombak, the classic hand percussion instruments of Persian and Kurdish music. All three musicians of this Purity of Desire are avoiding “fusion” but create the interpenetration of their own musical experiences into new realms. In Purity of Desire – their first piece, Honari’s rhythms on the daf are pure Tabriz half-root Kurdish half-Persian radif with some fierce gyrations of crossing meters and rubbed and scratched effects on the skin. The saxist his biting his reed and overblows his fire articulation while the oudist plucks like a mad cellist would match wild Mingus fingerings. This is the embarkment ! Caution ! Each piece is nailed to propose the listener new rhythmic patterns and refreshed revamped melodic turns inclined to different kinds of trilogue. Everyone is an equal member of the group. It goes far beyond the so-called Folklore Imaginaire, once a moniker for improvised jazz blended with native music practice. This is real life for a Brasilian overblowing saxophone poet, an unconventional oud player with bravado and a pure Middle Eastern rythmician con fuego. Gordon is playing his oud in a quite original way improvising on the finger board like a dervish possessed, keeping the pulse and the extemporizations altogether, Hamin unleashes fingers strokes on the skin which bounce like a water stream on mountain pebbles. Gordon Grdina’s playing oscillates between his idiosyncratic soulful duende and some Middle Eastern reminiscences like a Scott La Faro on acid. As long we plunge the next pieces the music becomes purer, stronger and the improvisations more straight ahead, specialy when Hamin Honari handles the pear shaped tombak (The Joy That Wounds). Ivo Perelman is pushed inside his reserve extracting the weirder harmonics in synergy and syncoped shakes with his two compadres. His haunting high sounds match the purposeful odd intervals and his lyrical extreme bending overtones. There are some interesting common grounds inside the playing of both oudist and saxophonist in the way they calibrate their sounds, curving the notes : the ghosts of mutual listening almost perceptible. A serious, joyful and dramatic journey in between “world” musics creating a marvelously unknown but palpable musical adventure.
With such three uncommon recordings, Ivo Perelman demonstrates his determination to explore new musical ways and sounds’ occurrences extending the real time instant composing / free improvising practices through the meeting of new very gifted individuals (Marzan, Grdina, Honari, Mahall) and deepening his longstanding collaborations into his NY brotherhood (Shipp, Morris, Parker, Dickey, Cleaver). About Dust of Light again.What does Pascal is beyond "normal" imagination. And this also the case of Ivo with his crafted curved notes !! Pascal 's guitar is tuned this "strange way" as I can exemplifiy here : one string open is by example tuned one third- flatted D , the second fret is thus a one third- flatted E and the middle point / first fret has a one third sharp D + one sixth . The next higher string open is a natural D. So there are two series of thirds following the position of the left hand fingers on either the odd frets or the even frets (french pair/impair) . Piling up sixth of tones : plucking different strings stopped on even or odd frets one fret of each other . That seems quite complex saying it but this requires a quick mind to manage such tuning and creating architectures of patterns, waves , lines etc... juggling in between the idiosyncracies of such resonances and their connecting points / notes ... It is actually mind boggling. Not only does Ivo Perelman have a superlative instrumental talent and is a very original musician, but in addition he knows, through instinct, his deep sensitivity, and his instant imagination, how to play the things that go best with many different situations and the most varied instrumental and personal configurations, which as far as I know are written in purely acoustical music. In the beginning he was involved with his own selected colleagues such as Matt Shipp, William Parker, Michael Bisio, the late Dominique Duval, Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Gerald Cleaver, Whit Dickey, etc. But now, he himself discovers his abilities to express the unspeakable in blending in as close as possible with the universe of a Pascal Marzan or a Rudi Mahall, while remaining faithful to his own language with a marvelous suppleness and very fine empathy. The points of convergence are drawn by an innate sense of suggestion and micro-details which one captures in the wind in the unfolding of improvisation. These qualities are not shared often by all improvisers, even among the most esteemed or legendary ones. Some are even geniuses, but certain confrontations don't change their sound print by one iota. This particular quality,for example, is the essence itself of the art of Derek Bailey during his ascendant period, or the great Fred Van Hove who could stay himself in his own universe while creating dialog with such different players like Albert Mangelsdorff, Paul Rutherford, George Lewis, Anthony Braxton or Lol Coxhill. Like both these champions of free improvisation, Ivo's playing unleashes secret hooks to tie these unexpected little correspondances and ephemeral echoes with the other's players sounds and signals in a way that (deep) mutual listening is genuinely palpable. This is what, I think, makes his work important, as a worthy proper expressive musical heir (fire eater) of an Albert Ayler with a stunning capacity for melodic invention, Ivo Perelman became a true free-improviser (and never behaving like a "soloist - jammer" while remaining a real jazz player." Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Orynx – Improv and Sound, 2020.

"(...) Ivo Perelman nous propose trois albums, en rafale. Il ne s’embarrasse pas de détail, tant il a d’enregistrements à son actif : plus de 100.
Il s’agit pour lui de fêter ses trente années d’enregistrements. Et il le fait avec trois figures de la guitare improvisée d’aujourd’hui : Gordon Grdina (plus Hamin Honari) chez Not Two, Joe Morris (plus Matthew Shipp) chez Mahakala, et Pascal Marzan chez Setola di Maiale, donc sur trois labels différents.
Ce dernier album, ainsi qu’un autre encore, toujours avec des cordes, London String Project, sont à l’initiative de Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg.
Avec ces quatre enregistrements, les plus insatiables aficionados du Brésilien ont de quoi se satisfaire, au moins pour un temps.
Ivo Perelman est une référence très particulière du free et de l’improvisation aux États Unis. D’ailleurs, chez lui, cette distinction n’existe pas, d’autant qu’il parsème parfois ses discours de résonances d’une tradition jazz plus lointaine. C’est un transfrontalier, non seulement des esthétiques, mais aussi des timbres et des gammes. Son jeu propose des notes buissonnières, des glissandi, de courtes séquences où les vibratos dérapent un peu, où un certain lyrisme est distordu en un entre-deux incertain et instable. Il est vite reconnaissable.
Outre ses rencontres multiples avec Matthew Shipp, il aime à côtoyer des cordes, parmi les plus innovantes. C’est en particulier le cas pour la série des Strings, pour Strings and Voices Project, avec Arcado String trio, et avec cette rafale de sorties.
S’il est assez facilement identifiable, son jeu connaît des inflexions selon les rencontres, et l’humeur du moment. Il aime en particulier se frotter aux improvisateurs européens.
Avec Pascal Marzan, il est servi. Ce dernier est un musicien discret, affable et particulièrement innovant. Il a quitté la France pour Londres parce qu’ici, il n’y a pas assez d’opportunités de concerts et de rencontres, pas assez de public et de lieux pour l’improvisation libre.
Depuis quelques années, il a ouvert une voie consistant à jouer d’une guitare à 10 cordes accordée en tiers de tons, ce qui lui permet de jouer en sixièmes de tons (36 notes par octave) en combinant les frettes espacées en demi-tons. Cette gymnastique nouvelle lui permet de proposer des discours subtils, de parcourir des sentiers inhabituels, pour l’expression d’une sensibilité aiguisée. On l’avait signalé pour Vu, avec Alex Ward ; cet album avec Ivo Perelman en est une nouvelle illustration.
Douze pièces, chacune avec ses couleurs propres. Il est illusoire d’écrire sur chacune d’elles, quelques focales suffiront.
Par exemple, ces deux titres qui donnent leur nom à l’album. « Dust of Light-Dancing in Shadowed Forest » est un exemple de rappel de la tradition jazz… à la manière du duo. On y reconnaît quelques éclats de thèmes d’antan que certains plus cultivés identifieront, mais les notes dérapent, les lignes deviennent élastiques, et la guitare crépite de notes d’ailleurs. Une forme de suavité délicieusement pervertie. « Ears Drawing Sounds » est une virgule, comme propulsée par une guitare douce et volontaire, avec des grappes étranges, des arpèges surprenants qui savent faire vibrer nos cordes sensibles.
Les titres vous paraissent bien évocateurs ? C’est que ces improvisations libres se font à partir de quelques mots jetés là, comme « Bees and Squirrels in the Garden ». À vous de vous promener dans ce jardin, à l’affût. Rendez-vous au bas de cet article.
Les trois dernières pièces sont superlatives et propulsent cet album parmi les meilleurs. Dans « High Mountain Walk », le duo nous asphyxie par un dialogue serré, vibrionnant, qui zigzague dans une course folle. On ne sait vraiment qui impulse et qui suit tant les deux entrelacent leurs initiatives, leurs traits. « Reflections » projette le son du sax, les notes isolées et les grappes sur les cordes, ainsi que quelques traces d’un jazz d’hier, avec une retenue et une délicatesse partagées. Encore une fois, le dialogue est total. Enfin, avec « Mysterious Bells », l’album finit en feu d’artifice. Au lyrisme exacerbé d’Ivo Perelman, à ses courtes phrases interrogatives, à ses propulsions de notes, répondent une richesse d’interventions sur les cordes, des clochettes esquissées, évidemment en raison du titre, mais aussi des caresses, des semis et grillages de notes, des micro-percussions, des crépitements et des résonances, des vaguelettes douces-acides, des essaims de notes. On en reste subjugué. Un temps fort de cette rencontre.
On ne peut qu’être heureux de cette rencontre. Ce n’est pas la première fois que Pascal Marzan collabore avec Ivo Perelman, mais cette fois, ils ont tout l’espace pour eux. L’intensité de leurs échanges, leur vivacité, leurs intrications laissent pantois. Pour les oreilles ouvertes à l’improvisation libre, cet album est un must." Guy Sitruk, Citizen Jazz, 2020.

"(...) Den brasilianske saksofonisten Ivo Perelman, er en musiker vi har forsøkt å følge i flere år, men platene hans har ikke alltid vært like tilgjengelige her oppe i nord. Men noen ganger har vi vært heldige å fått «gribbet» til oss noen utmerkede innspillinger, særlig noen hvor han samarbeider med den utsøkte pianisten Matthew Shipp, som platen «Live in Nuremberg» fra 2017 (som er anmeldt HER), eller hans samarbeid med Arcado SAtring Quartet på platen «Deep Resonance» fra 2018, anmeldt HER.
Han startet med å lære seg både gitar, cello, klarinett, trombone og piano, men bestemte seg for å satse på tenorsaksofonen da han var 19 år. Han studerte ved Berklee i ett semester, men droppet ut for å flytte til Los Angeles i 1986.
Han har siden slutten av 80-tallet gjort en haug med plateinnspillinger, som startet med «Ivo» på ITM i 1989, hvor han hadde med seg musikere som Peter Erskine, John patitucci, Airto Moreira, Elaine Elias og Flora Purim som gjester, og fram til i dag har han samarbeidet med musikere som Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Nate Wooley, Andrew Cyrille, Michael Bisio, Jim Morris, Gerald Cleaver, Mat Meneri, Whit Dickey, Karl Berger, og mange andre av de mer frittgående musikerne fra andre siden av «dammen».
Den franske gitaristen Pascal Marzan kjenner jeg mindre til. Men jeg vet at han spiller med London Improvisers Orchestra, og at han har gjort plater med Roger Smith, John Russell, Alex Ward og flere innenfor den friere delen av jazzen. Så å høre disse to sammen, gledet jeg meg virkelig til. Han har studert klassisk gitarspill, og relativt tidlig studerte han Heito Villa-Lobos og spilte han preludier, etyder og gitarkonserter. Men etter å ha holdt påp med det noen år, fikk han øynene opp for den nyere, eksperimentelle musikken. Han kjøpte seg en 10-strengers klassisk gitar, som var bygd etter kravene til den legendariske gitaristen Narciso Yepes, og etter hvert stemte han hver streng med et intervall på en tredjedels tone, for å utvikle en slags mikrotonalitet.
Vi får 12 «strekke» som er laget der og da, i London dem 30. januar i år. Og i forhold til mye annet jeg har hørt fra Perelman, skiller dette seg ut på en original måte. Marzan’s 10-strengsgitar låter helt spesielt, og jeg føler det høres litt ut på sammen måte som når man hører for eksempel Derek Bailey eller John Russell. Og over det «svever» Perelman med kreativt og fint spill.
Når jeg hører musikk, enten på konsert eller plater, hvor all musikken er laget der og da, uten særlige forberedelser, blir jeg ofte imponert. For dette er en kunst som krever at man, for det første kjenner sitt eget instrument, og for det andre at man kjenner den man skal «leke» med. Noen ganger kan dette gå helt galt, for det skal en del kreativitet til for at musikerne skal «finne hverandre» og fremføre noe som ikke kun er spennende i deres egne ører, men også for oss som lyttere.
Og på denne innspillingen, og gjennom de 12 «strekkene» høres musikken nesten komponert ut. De to kommuniserer som siamesiske tvillinger, og selv om musikken gjennomgående er nedpå og litt melankolsk, er det aldri hvileskjær eller «langhalm» i det som fremføres. Det kan selvfølgtelig hende at de under innspillingen kom til punkt hvor de selv ikke følte det fungerte, og utelot det fra det vi her får servert, men det er også fordelen med at vi får det på plate, hvor de kun har med de beste «strekkene».
Og her synes jeg det kryr av høydepunkter. Perelmans litt såre og melankolske tone i tenorsaksofonen passer perfekt til Marzans akustiske gitar, og kommunikasjonen er nærmest perfekt gjennom hele innspillingen.
Jeg synes dette er blitt et spennende studium i hvordan en tenorsaksofon kan samarbeide med en akustisk gitar, stemt på en litt spesiell måte. Perelmans spill er hele veien strålende, og Marzans gitarspill tyder på en utmerket tekniker og utøver av den klassiske gitaren. Dette er improvisasjon på aller øverste hylle, og selv om musikken er melankolsk, inneholder den en helt egen energi og et engasjement som fascinerer.
Anbefales for alle gitarister og saksofonister, men også for alle andre med sans for eksperimentell kommunikasjon i musikken!" Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts, 2020.

01 _ Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies 7:27
02 _ River Mirroring A Smiling Moon 5:25
03 _ Bees And Squirrels In The Garden/Two Bees At My Window 8:16
04 _ Sun Through Closed Eyelids 2:57
05 _ Ears Drawing Sounds 1:24
06 _ Dusts Of Light/Dancing In Shadowed Forests 1:52
07 _ Swinging Swallows 1:16
08 _ Conversation In The Wind/Conversation With The Wind 2:00
09 _ Calling At The Doorway 2:17
10 _ High Mountain Walk 8:13
11 _ Reflections 2:49
12 _ Mysterious Bells 7:45

(C) + (P) 2020

CD digipack 4 pages

Ivo Perelman _ tenor sax
Pascal Marzan _ ten strings acoustic guitar

Two incredible musicians together here for the first time. Adventure music! Produced by Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg.

For more info:
https://www.ivoperelman.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivo_Perelman
http://pascalmarzan.blogspot.com/

"(...) I have written with Ivo Perelman for a while now and one thing I know about him is his love for the guitar - all its sounds, intricacies and variations. Ivo studied nylon string guitar early in his career and it is no surprise that he has been working with 3 guitarists on new CDs. The first I am reviewing is 'Dust Of LIght/Ears Drawing Sound' which is the result of a coincidental meeting between French guitarist Pascal Marzan and Perelman.
In a remarkable mirroring of lives Marzan learned and mastered classical acoustic guitar later in life and studied under the same Brazilian composer - Heitor Villa-Lobos who tutored Ivo on the instrument when he was a young musician.
Marzan worked with legendary British improvisers including guitarist John Russell, violinist Phil Wachsmann and clarinet player Alex Ward, as well as playing classical music. He decided recently to completely overhaul his repertoire and playing and bought a new ten strings classical guitar built to the requirements of the legendary virtuoso Narciso Yepes. He then tuned each string with an interval of a third of a tone from the next string in order to develop microtonality. It is not surprising that Ivo was captured by this idea as one of his musical collaborators, Mat Maneri, who learned the microtonal philosophy from his father, Joe Maneri. The Maneri's sound was captured on a couple of recordings for ECM.
When Pascal and Perelman met at a London gig and there was instant connection. Pascal's tuning meant that he can play in sixths of tones due to the one and a half tone spacing of the guitar frets whilst two different scales of thirds of tones as well as “normal” notes still being available. The complexity is astounding but simplified in the hands of a true virtuoso.
There are 12 tracks here and each one displays a little of the intimate relationship between the instruments and players. In 'Hot Dust-Obscured Galleries' Perelman has to play at times so pianissimo and even then the listener finds themselves straining to catch the whispered intonations of the guitar, whilst in 'River Mirroring A Smiling Moon' there is a playfulness from both instruments and the guitar occasionally rises into the pauses left by the sax - those important but brief pauses.
'Bees And Squirrels In The Garden/Two Bees At My Window' is busy, buzzy and energy driven, the two instruments cascading and rising in harmony before diverging, creating a sense of coming and going, hovering and flying, like the mating dance of butterflies or bees. Perelman's altissimo creates an uncanny bee-like sound with the thrumming guitar sounding remarkably hive-like. 'Sun Through Closed Eyelids' is mellifluous, flowing and coloured with a sense of lightness, with a lovely descent part way through which evolves naturally on both sides. 'Ears Drawing Sound' is short and explorative, whilst 'Dusts Of Light/Dancing In Shadowed Forests' and 'Swinging Swallows' are apposite mood swings with the latter somehow distilling down to a narrow trench of musical variation on both sides - again, completely unplanned - it just happens but the bandwidth of notes is narrow, the intricacies wide. 'Conversation In The Wind/Conversation With The Wind is lower, darker and rooted in those dark corners we sometimes find and open, thoughts disparate and flickering into view - the listener gets glimpses of ideas before they vanish like whirls of mist, batted out of existence by a sudden flicker of aggression form the sax.
'Calling At The Doorway' is lighter, high and sweet whilst 'High Mountain Walk' is powerful, atmospheric and travels different musical pathways. There is a touch of Sharrock, a touch of Ayler in the players respectively and it works well as the conversation goes from competing to harmony on the spin of a note.
'Reflections' is a lot of pipe work from Perelman over light guitar and 'Mysterious Bells' closes out the album in a blaze of intuitive playing from both players.
Responding to the intricacy shown on the guitar, Perelman challenges his own playing by entering in micro tones above or below the guitar 'pure' notes which involves meticulous adjustment of his reed, mouthpiece, embouchure and air flow. Just occasionally there is a microtone of difference which catches on the ear as it is so difficult to place but this is rare. Perhaps hardest for Perelman on this recording is the fact that to enhance the guitar, he has to play dulce, softly and quietly at times in order to allow the microtonality of the guitar intervals to be heard and felt.
At times the two instruments appear to converge so that there is a sense of a chimera, a hybrid and perhaps a re-birth, if that was possible, of Perleman's playing.
There are moments of eerie reverberation which reveals the frail nature of the Spanish guitar wood in the guitar's frame, comprising as is does of small pieces of wood held together. Pascal brings from the guitar a life-like change of mood, veering from effervescence to gentle, sensual strokes and touches using hands, nails. He also creates wildly rampant arpeggios. The sensuality and engagement derived from the guitar means Perelman has to commit to utter control of his sax, something which is always a facet of his playing but here in the soft intricacies, it is a vulnerability which would lay bare any tiny deviation from perfection. Perelman rises to the challenge admirably and delivers yet another factor of his playing. There are nods to historical styles of Ayler and Webster but also a modernistic approach to delivery which is appealing to a wide section of listeners.
This is a recording which invites close listening because on some of the tracks it feels like Perelman solo work but you need to listen to the gentle, intricate, delicate pickery going on behind and then that sound somehow comes forward. Perelman achieves a quietude at times which allows the strings to come forth and dominate but not often. More, the music is a oneness yet a due performance which is complementary and enjoyable.
This is improvisation in the true sense - two musicians listening, engaged, challenging, rising, falling away seemingly effortlessly yet the expertise is such that anyone copying this would find it nigh on impossible. The variety of musical forms created in the spur of the moment is amazing and strangely lyrical and earthy." Sammy Stein, The Free Jazz Collective, 2020.

"(...) [A long cumulative review of three albums by Ivo Perelman follows with as many guitarists, including our Dust Of Life] Brazilian saxophone player involved with the NYC Avant-jazz scene and iconic players like Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Joe Morris and Mat Maneri, Ivo Perelman is feeling a deep inner love story for the guitar, the instrument. Indeed, since the time of his sixth year he has practiced the classical guitar and the music of his compatriot composers like Heitor Villa-Lobos and studied in the Conservatory named after this legendary composer. His musical evolution took him to become one of the leading tenor sax player and improviser in the U.S. Perelman sax tenor playing is inspired by the saudade from Rio and one hears how marvelously he blows in the high range of his horn above its register using overtones and making them sing and curve with melody-like unique glissandos. Blindtesting, one can recognize Ivo’s playing from the first note. This specific and genuine pitch placement on any note on the saxophone, creating a kind very individual scales/intervals requires a huge daily work beyond imagination. Ornette Coleman is another great example of this. As his listeners have noticed, Ivo Perelman is working intensively with the same bunch of like-minded spirits since years as he wants to deepen fructuous musical relationship through mutual listening. But he likes, above all, renewed musical challenges. As Perelman maintains wonderful duos with Matthew Shipp, one of the most in-demand contemporary Afro-American pianist and with the very gifted and imaginative guitarist Joe Morris, they decided to create an intense soundworld contrasting and challenging the chordal and harmonic flurries and constructions of supreme piano and guitar playing simultaneously. In the piece Shamanism, the three are building pointillistic twists and turns and moving multi-angular shapes and sonic sculptures intertwining their capacities of instant composing in real time. There is some relationship to ping-pong or dancing in their improvisations specially in the interactions between the six strings and the 88 keys. Undulating on the waves of this pair, the saxophonist never looses his lyric vision and his surreal and natural sense of melodic invention. While listening to their chasing - free-wheeling flights along winding roads (Shamanism), you can always catch their precise knowledge of refined and complex harmonic structures. But as Spirit World testifies, the three are reaching the realms of balladry with a real poise and wit. Shipp’s touch reveals as a real asset and what does Joe Morris’ ricocheting with such piano playing is nothing else than acrobatic but deeply musical. On each nano second of its recording, Shamanism is coincidental music.
Coincidence came out at the meeting of French guitarist Pascal Marzan with Ivo Perelman. Like Ivo, but later in his life, Pascal Marzan dedicated his time to the learning and the mastering the classical acoustic guitar, studying and performing the same Brazilian composer that the young Ivo teethed as a youngster : Heitor Villa-Lobos and his Préludes, Études and Guitar Concerto … But after having performed classical music and also improvised music with legendary British improvisers like guitarist John Russell, violinist Phil Wachsmann and clarinettist Alex Ward, Pascal decided very recently to refound completely his practice of his axe in tuning it very differently. He bought a new ten strings classical guitar build at the requirements of the legendary virtuoso Narciso Yepes, one of the greatest guitarist of the Twentieth Century. With a lucid and premonitory intuition, he tuned each string with an interval of a third of a tone from the next string in order to develop a kind of microtonality. Coincidentally, one of the closest musical mate of Ivo, alto virtuoso improviser Mat Maneri is completely involved in this microtonal universe since he learned it from his father, the now deceased composer and reed maestro, Joe Maneri. They even both recorded for the ECM label. When Pascal and Ivo met at one London gig, they both clicked like twins. I would add that Pascal’s tuning is allowing to play in sixth of tone, because as you know guitar frets are slicing one tone in two half-tones… and in two different scales of thirds of tones and also in equal temperament as the “normal” notes are still available. Mindboggling. Ivo Perelman strives to challenge his own diving in microtones playing above or below the “pure” notes adjusting meticulously his reed and mouthpiece air pressure and sticking to no Forte, but a softer breath with more nuances. As the intervals of the notes of this 6th tone guitar are so tiny, you wonder at listening to Dust of light/ Ears Drawing Sound. Is it a hybrid string instrument, an harp or an harpsichord? For my opinion of dedicated writer about improvised music, this is the most brilliant and deepest guitar concept in contemporary improvisation since the legendary Derek Bailey. Strangely, this string arrangement produces a spooky reverberation revealing the frail nature of the Spanish guitar body made of glued tiny pieces of wood. The session went unnoticed and the result went beyond any expectation. Confronted to all kinds of plucking and touching the strings with Pascal Marzan incredible right hand, fingers and nails and his multivoiced wild arpeggios, Perelman exceeds his current inspiration concentrating his breath and fingering to extend forcefully his high soaring notes and his singing alto range while you hear clear ruminations of past jazz heroes like Ben Webster and Don Byas or nods to Albert Ayler. The variety of musical forms created in the spur of the moment is absolutely amazing and strangely lyrical and earthy, both players making a tour de force of this unexpected musique de chambre.
Now the third piece of this unusual guitar-focused Perelman tryptich is centered around the oriental lute or oud of Gordon Grdina, also a jazz guitar player. His oud is of the same family of instruments of the Iraqi and Turkish classical music, the oud played by the geniuses - composers Munir Bashir and Cinuçen Tanrikorur. And to keep the music pulsating closer to its origin, both artists conveyed Hamin Honari, a specialist of the daf and tombak, the classic hand percussion instruments of Persian and Kurdish music. All three musicians of this Purity of Desire are avoiding “fusion” but create the interpenetration of their own musical experiences into new realms. In Purity of Desire – their first piece, Honari’s rhythms on the daf are pure Tabriz half-root Kurdish half-Persian radif with some fierce gyrations of crossing meters and rubbed and scratched effects on the skin. The saxist his biting his reed and overblows his fire articulation while the oudist plucks like a mad cellist would match wild Mingus fingerings. This is the embarkment ! Caution ! Each piece is nailed to propose the listener new rhythmic patterns and refreshed revamped melodic turns inclined to different kinds of trilogue. Everyone is an equal member of the group. It goes far beyond the so-called Folklore Imaginaire, once a moniker for improvised jazz blended with native music practice. This is real life for a Brasilian overblowing saxophone poet, an unconventional oud player with bravado and a pure Middle Eastern rythmician con fuego. Gordon is playing his oud in a quite original way improvising on the finger board like a dervish possessed, keeping the pulse and the extemporizations altogether, Hamin unleashes fingers strokes on the skin which bounce like a water stream on mountain pebbles. Gordon Grdina’s playing oscillates between his idiosyncratic soulful duende and some Middle Eastern reminiscences like a Scott La Faro on acid. As long we plunge the next pieces the music becomes purer, stronger and the improvisations more straight ahead, specialy when Hamin Honari handles the pear shaped tombak (The Joy That Wounds). Ivo Perelman is pushed inside his reserve extracting the weirder harmonics in synergy and syncoped shakes with his two compadres. His haunting high sounds match the purposeful odd intervals and his lyrical extreme bending overtones. There are some interesting common grounds inside the playing of both oudist and saxophonist in the way they calibrate their sounds, curving the notes : the ghosts of mutual listening almost perceptible. A serious, joyful and dramatic journey in between “world” musics creating a marvelously unknown but palpable musical adventure.
With such three uncommon recordings, Ivo Perelman demonstrates his determination to explore new musical ways and sounds’ occurrences extending the real time instant composing / free improvising practices through the meeting of new very gifted individuals (Marzan, Grdina, Honari, Mahall) and deepening his longstanding collaborations into his NY brotherhood (Shipp, Morris, Parker, Dickey, Cleaver). About Dust of Light again.What does Pascal is beyond "normal" imagination. And this also the case of Ivo with his crafted curved notes !! Pascal 's guitar is tuned this "strange way" as I can exemplifiy here : one string open is by example tuned one third- flatted D , the second fret is thus a one third- flatted E and the middle point / first fret has a one third sharp D + one sixth . The next higher string open is a natural D. So there are two series of thirds following the position of the left hand fingers on either the odd frets or the even frets (french pair/impair) . Piling up sixth of tones : plucking different strings stopped on even or odd frets one fret of each other . That seems quite complex saying it but this requires a quick mind to manage such tuning and creating architectures of patterns, waves , lines etc... juggling in between the idiosyncracies of such resonances and their connecting points / notes ... It is actually mind boggling. Not only does Ivo Perelman have a superlative instrumental talent and is a very original musician, but in addition he knows, through instinct, his deep sensitivity, and his instant imagination, how to play the things that go best with many different situations and the most varied instrumental and personal configurations, which as far as I know are written in purely acoustical music. In the beginning he was involved with his own selected colleagues such as Matt Shipp, William Parker, Michael Bisio, the late Dominique Duval, Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Gerald Cleaver, Whit Dickey, etc. But now, he himself discovers his abilities to express the unspeakable in blending in as close as possible with the universe of a Pascal Marzan or a Rudi Mahall, while remaining faithful to his own language with a marvelous suppleness and very fine empathy. The points of convergence are drawn by an innate sense of suggestion and micro-details which one captures in the wind in the unfolding of improvisation. These qualities are not shared often by all improvisers, even among the most esteemed or legendary ones. Some are even geniuses, but certain confrontations don't change their sound print by one iota. This particular quality,for example, is the essence itself of the art of Derek Bailey during his ascendant period, or the great Fred Van Hove who could stay himself in his own universe while creating dialog with such different players like Albert Mangelsdorff, Paul Rutherford, George Lewis, Anthony Braxton or Lol Coxhill. Like both these champions of free improvisation, Ivo's playing unleashes secret hooks to tie these unexpected little correspondances and ephemeral echoes with the other's players sounds and signals in a way that (deep) mutual listening is genuinely palpable. This is what, I think, makes his work important, as a worthy proper expressive musical heir (fire eater) of an Albert Ayler with a stunning capacity for melodic invention, Ivo Perelman became a true free-improviser (and never behaving like a "soloist - jammer" while remaining a real jazz player." Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Orynx – Improv and Sound, 2020.

"(...) Ivo Perelman nous propose trois albums, en rafale. Il ne s’embarrasse pas de détail, tant il a d’enregistrements à son actif : plus de 100.
Il s’agit pour lui de fêter ses trente années d’enregistrements. Et il le fait avec trois figures de la guitare improvisée d’aujourd’hui : Gordon Grdina (plus Hamin Honari) chez Not Two, Joe Morris (plus Matthew Shipp) chez Mahakala, et Pascal Marzan chez Setola di Maiale, donc sur trois labels différents.
Ce dernier album, ainsi qu’un autre encore, toujours avec des cordes, London String Project, sont à l’initiative de Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg.
Avec ces quatre enregistrements, les plus insatiables aficionados du Brésilien ont de quoi se satisfaire, au moins pour un temps.
Ivo Perelman est une référence très particulière du free et de l’improvisation aux États Unis. D’ailleurs, chez lui, cette distinction n’existe pas, d’autant qu’il parsème parfois ses discours de résonances d’une tradition jazz plus lointaine. C’est un transfrontalier, non seulement des esthétiques, mais aussi des timbres et des gammes. Son jeu propose des notes buissonnières, des glissandi, de courtes séquences où les vibratos dérapent un peu, où un certain lyrisme est distordu en un entre-deux incertain et instable. Il est vite reconnaissable.
Outre ses rencontres multiples avec Matthew Shipp, il aime à côtoyer des cordes, parmi les plus innovantes. C’est en particulier le cas pour la série des Strings, pour Strings and Voices Project, avec Arcado String trio, et avec cette rafale de sorties.
S’il est assez facilement identifiable, son jeu connaît des inflexions selon les rencontres, et l’humeur du moment. Il aime en particulier se frotter aux improvisateurs européens.
Avec Pascal Marzan, il est servi. Ce dernier est un musicien discret, affable et particulièrement innovant. Il a quitté la France pour Londres parce qu’ici, il n’y a pas assez d’opportunités de concerts et de rencontres, pas assez de public et de lieux pour l’improvisation libre.
Depuis quelques années, il a ouvert une voie consistant à jouer d’une guitare à 10 cordes accordée en tiers de tons, ce qui lui permet de jouer en sixièmes de tons (36 notes par octave) en combinant les frettes espacées en demi-tons. Cette gymnastique nouvelle lui permet de proposer des discours subtils, de parcourir des sentiers inhabituels, pour l’expression d’une sensibilité aiguisée. On l’avait signalé pour Vu, avec Alex Ward ; cet album avec Ivo Perelman en est une nouvelle illustration.
Douze pièces, chacune avec ses couleurs propres. Il est illusoire d’écrire sur chacune d’elles, quelques focales suffiront.
Par exemple, ces deux titres qui donnent leur nom à l’album. « Dust of Light-Dancing in Shadowed Forest » est un exemple de rappel de la tradition jazz… à la manière du duo. On y reconnaît quelques éclats de thèmes d’antan que certains plus cultivés identifieront, mais les notes dérapent, les lignes deviennent élastiques, et la guitare crépite de notes d’ailleurs. Une forme de suavité délicieusement pervertie. « Ears Drawing Sounds » est une virgule, comme propulsée par une guitare douce et volontaire, avec des grappes étranges, des arpèges surprenants qui savent faire vibrer nos cordes sensibles.
Les titres vous paraissent bien évocateurs ? C’est que ces improvisations libres se font à partir de quelques mots jetés là, comme « Bees and Squirrels in the Garden ». À vous de vous promener dans ce jardin, à l’affût. Rendez-vous au bas de cet article.
Les trois dernières pièces sont superlatives et propulsent cet album parmi les meilleurs. Dans « High Mountain Walk », le duo nous asphyxie par un dialogue serré, vibrionnant, qui zigzague dans une course folle. On ne sait vraiment qui impulse et qui suit tant les deux entrelacent leurs initiatives, leurs traits. « Reflections » projette le son du sax, les notes isolées et les grappes sur les cordes, ainsi que quelques traces d’un jazz d’hier, avec une retenue et une délicatesse partagées. Encore une fois, le dialogue est total. Enfin, avec « Mysterious Bells », l’album finit en feu d’artifice. Au lyrisme exacerbé d’Ivo Perelman, à ses courtes phrases interrogatives, à ses propulsions de notes, répondent une richesse d’interventions sur les cordes, des clochettes esquissées, évidemment en raison du titre, mais aussi des caresses, des semis et grillages de notes, des micro-percussions, des crépitements et des résonances, des vaguelettes douces-acides, des essaims de notes. On en reste subjugué. Un temps fort de cette rencontre.
On ne peut qu’être heureux de cette rencontre. Ce n’est pas la première fois que Pascal Marzan collabore avec Ivo Perelman, mais cette fois, ils ont tout l’espace pour eux. L’intensité de leurs échanges, leur vivacité, leurs intrications laissent pantois. Pour les oreilles ouvertes à l’improvisation libre, cet album est un must." Guy Sitruk, Citizen Jazz, 2020.

"(...) Den brasilianske saksofonisten Ivo Perelman, er en musiker vi har forsøkt å følge i flere år, men platene hans har ikke alltid vært like tilgjengelige her oppe i nord. Men noen ganger har vi vært heldige å fått «gribbet» til oss noen utmerkede innspillinger, særlig noen hvor han samarbeider med den utsøkte pianisten Matthew Shipp, som platen «Live in Nuremberg» fra 2017 (som er anmeldt HER), eller hans samarbeid med Arcado SAtring Quartet på platen «Deep Resonance» fra 2018, anmeldt HER.
Han startet med å lære seg både gitar, cello, klarinett, trombone og piano, men bestemte seg for å satse på tenorsaksofonen da han var 19 år. Han studerte ved Berklee i ett semester, men droppet ut for å flytte til Los Angeles i 1986.
Han har siden slutten av 80-tallet gjort en haug med plateinnspillinger, som startet med «Ivo» på ITM i 1989, hvor han hadde med seg musikere som Peter Erskine, John patitucci, Airto Moreira, Elaine Elias og Flora Purim som gjester, og fram til i dag har han samarbeidet med musikere som Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Nate Wooley, Andrew Cyrille, Michael Bisio, Jim Morris, Gerald Cleaver, Mat Meneri, Whit Dickey, Karl Berger, og mange andre av de mer frittgående musikerne fra andre siden av «dammen».
Den franske gitaristen Pascal Marzan kjenner jeg mindre til. Men jeg vet at han spiller med London Improvisers Orchestra, og at han har gjort plater med Roger Smith, John Russell, Alex Ward og flere innenfor den friere delen av jazzen. Så å høre disse to sammen, gledet jeg meg virkelig til. Han har studert klassisk gitarspill, og relativt tidlig studerte han Heito Villa-Lobos og spilte han preludier, etyder og gitarkonserter. Men etter å ha holdt påp med det noen år, fikk han øynene opp for den nyere, eksperimentelle musikken. Han kjøpte seg en 10-strengers klassisk gitar, som var bygd etter kravene til den legendariske gitaristen Narciso Yepes, og etter hvert stemte han hver streng med et intervall på en tredjedels tone, for å utvikle en slags mikrotonalitet.
Vi får 12 «strekke» som er laget der og da, i London dem 30. januar i år. Og i forhold til mye annet jeg har hørt fra Perelman, skiller dette seg ut på en original måte. Marzan’s 10-strengsgitar låter helt spesielt, og jeg føler det høres litt ut på sammen måte som når man hører for eksempel Derek Bailey eller John Russell. Og over det «svever» Perelman med kreativt og fint spill.
Når jeg hører musikk, enten på konsert eller plater, hvor all musikken er laget der og da, uten særlige forberedelser, blir jeg ofte imponert. For dette er en kunst som krever at man, for det første kjenner sitt eget instrument, og for det andre at man kjenner den man skal «leke» med. Noen ganger kan dette gå helt galt, for det skal en del kreativitet til for at musikerne skal «finne hverandre» og fremføre noe som ikke kun er spennende i deres egne ører, men også for oss som lyttere.
Og på denne innspillingen, og gjennom de 12 «strekkene» høres musikken nesten komponert ut. De to kommuniserer som siamesiske tvillinger, og selv om musikken gjennomgående er nedpå og litt melankolsk, er det aldri hvileskjær eller «langhalm» i det som fremføres. Det kan selvfølgtelig hende at de under innspillingen kom til punkt hvor de selv ikke følte det fungerte, og utelot det fra det vi her får servert, men det er også fordelen med at vi får det på plate, hvor de kun har med de beste «strekkene».
Og her synes jeg det kryr av høydepunkter. Perelmans litt såre og melankolske tone i tenorsaksofonen passer perfekt til Marzans akustiske gitar, og kommunikasjonen er nærmest perfekt gjennom hele innspillingen.
Jeg synes dette er blitt et spennende studium i hvordan en tenorsaksofon kan samarbeide med en akustisk gitar, stemt på en litt spesiell måte. Perelmans spill er hele veien strålende, og Marzans gitarspill tyder på en utmerket tekniker og utøver av den klassiske gitaren. Dette er improvisasjon på aller øverste hylle, og selv om musikken er melankolsk, inneholder den en helt egen energi og et engasjement som fascinerer.
Anbefales for alle gitarister og saksofonister, men også for alle andre med sans for eksperimentell kommunikasjon i musikken!" Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts, 2020.

"(...) Se si guarda indietro nella discografia di Perelman si intuisce che il sassofonista abbia privilegiato nelle sue esplorazioni musicali determinati musicisti: per quanto riguarda la chitarra Morris è intervenuto in otto registrazioni (compreso Shamanism). Con Pascal Marzan, Perelman ha compiuto la sua prima eccezione, anche se non parliamo più di elettricità applicata allo strumento; in Dust of Light/Ears Drawings Sounds (per Setola di Maiale) Marzan contrappone al sax tenore di Ivo la sua chitarra acustica a 10 corde, una chitarra però non incordata con il sistema di intonazione tradizionale, ma con uno microtonale, come ricordato anche da Van Schouwburg nelle note interne: “…Pascal’s tuning is allowing to play in sixth of tone, because as you know guitar frets are slicing one tone in two halftones…“. Come si svolge il confronto? Marzan usa tecniche estese per improvvisare: vibra sul ponte, usa manualmente oggetti in vetro che stoppano le risonanze delle corde, fornisce una segmentazione delle battute e si muove agilmente sulla tastiera con una ricerca casuale dei punti dove suonare; tenuto conto anche di alcuni scorci condotti più cautamente e di una dinamica che in generale trae linfa da configurazioni oscure dei suoni, non c’è dubbio che Marzan faccia pensare ad un Downland debitamente trasportato nell’odierno circuito della libera improvisazione; di fronte a questa novità Perelman affila tutte le sue capacità di immedesimazione, sostiene questo regno della frammentazione in grado di creare una sostanza dialogica e la sua sfida sta nell’interpretare i segnali che arrivano dal suo partner, cercando di offrire una risposta adeguata. Il pezzo d’apertura dal titolo Hot Dust Obscured Galaxies è emblematico di questa ricerca perché in esso è piazzato una sorta di sistema di messa a fuoco, qualcosa che si produce nella performance sotto forma di allineamento simulatorio su battiti o registri e che poi si disallinea lasciando che ognuno dei due musicisti prenda la sua strada. Sentite l’apertura e lo sviluppo di Calling at the Doorway, dove Perelman si produce con il suo sax in una straordinaria enfasi melodica, direi quasi a riprodurre le pretese e il tenue lamento di un gentil fanciullo: all’interno c’è una politica del suono a cui Ivo non aveva forse mai fatto ricorso ed è il posto concepito per scorgere le “polveri” di luce." Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali, 2021.

01 _ Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies 7:27
02 _ River Mirroring A Smiling Moon 5:25
03 _ Bees And Squirrels In The Garden/Two Bees At My Window 8:16
04 _ Sun Through Closed Eyelids 2:57
05 _ Ears Drawing Sounds 1:24
06 _ Dusts Of Light/Dancing In Shadowed Forests 1:52
07 _ Swinging Swallows 1:16
08 _ Conversation In The Wind/Conversation With The Wind 2:00
09 _ Calling At The Doorway 2:17
10 _ High Mountain Walk 8:13
11 _ Reflections 2:49
12 _ Mysterious Bells 7:45

(C) + (P) 2020