Two bassists from two different continents -- Italian
Lorenzo Feliciati of the adventurous jazz-rock band Naked Truth and the
intensely searching nu jazz group Berserk! and Australian Colin Edwin of the
longstanding prog-rock band Porcupine Tree and the heavy-duty, experimental
Metallic Taste of Blood as well as Ex-Wise Heads and Burnt Belief -- come
together to make one potent statement on Twinscapes.
With special guest
appearances by acclaimed trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, saxophonist David
Jackson (of Van der Graaf Generator), Swiss percussionist Andi Pupato (of
Andreas Vollenweider and Nik Bartschʼs
Ronin) and drummer Roberto Gualdi (of the Italian prog-rock band PFM), this
bass-dominant project, which was mixed by renowned bassist-producer Bill
Laswell, travels from ambient soundscapes to slamming funk workouts and kinetic
grooves to cinematic-sounding pieces that defy easy categorization. And there
are plenty of virtuosic fireworks along the way by all the principal soloists
on this outstanding RareNoise release which is released on March 3rd on CD
/vinyl and Hi- Res digital download.
Feliciati
and Edwin first got together for an impromptu one-off gig in London early in
2013, and they discovered an instant chemistry on the bandstand. As Colin
recalls, "I was familiar with Lorenzoʼs
band Naked Truth and also his solo album Frequent Flyer, and coincidentally had
been toying with the idea of a dual-bass project with a bass player friend of
mine. So I immediately thought it was something worth doing as an experiment,
at least. And I knew that this project would lead us to explore other things
you tend to do a lot less of in a regular band set-up, like using different
effects, E-bows, have the bass playing melodies and so forth."
In
preparing for their session together, Feliciati and Edwin spent a few
productive days in a studio in the English countryside, fleshing out
compositions from the bones of each otherʼs
sketches.
Playing both fretted and fretless basses, the two kindred low-end
spirits create a formidable undercurrent on the 11 powerful tracks from
Twinscape while embellishing the open-ended pieces with freewheeling
improvisation. "We had a very short time to plan what to do and only a
small amount of rehearsal," says Edwin, "but even from our brief
rehearsal, it certainly felt like we had a natural way of playing together.
Without any real discussion we managed to find a way of fitting around each
other, despite occupying the same frequency area. It requires a certain amount
of intuition and sensitivity just to be able to do that, without stepping on
each others toes and filling up the same space."
That
kind of complementary attitude permeates Twinscapes, though each of the
bassists do step out with stunning solos from track to track. They kick off the
proceedings with "Shaken," which begins with a calming, ambient drone
before developing a thickly textured undercurrent from multiple overdubs laid
down by the two bassists. As drummer Gualdi fuels the track with powerhouse
backbeats, Edwin plays the fretless solo, the harmonic delays and the picked
bass parts while they combine on the tight unison riffs. Feliciati adds false
harmonics and octave bass lines on this dynamic opener. On the more lyrical
"Alice," a piece written by Feliciati for his daughter and which
appeared on his first-ever solo release in 2003, he plays the main bass part
and the chordal part while Edwin covers the melody, the harmonic slides and the
beautiful fretless bass work. Lorenzo provides the ambient wash with his bass
pedals on "In Dreamland" and Colin contributes to that ethereal vibe
by using the E-bow in conjunction with his bass.
With
Andi Pupato, Nils Petter Molvaer, David Jackson and Roberto Gualdi, Feliciati
and Edwin have gathered a group of world-class musicians who bring this release
to new creative heights.
No comments:
Post a Comment