more from
Intakt Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
Intakt-Records-Bandcamp-Store Link to Intakt Records
/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD  or more

     

1.
Fire and Ice 10:21
2.
3.
First Shard 01:50
4.
5.
Second Shard 01:12
6.
Ithaca 08:47
7.
Zinc 03:31
8.
Third Shard 02:41
9.
Unfolding 03:55
10.
Zig Zag 10:08
11.
Klaglied 04:47

about

Intakt CD 096

After the highly praised trio CD, Odyssey, the composer and bassist Barry Guy presents a new CD - ITHACA with the same trio members, pianist Marilyn Crispell and percussionist Paul Lytton. For his new compositions, Barry Guy was inspired by modern architecture and painting. George Vaughan's painting Ithaca as well as the constructions of both architects Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind served as inspiration.
A music has emerged of a tense and lacerating beauty. Tonal painting contrasts with abstract reflection. Expressive moments stand next to elegant moods. Powerful improvisation goes up in lyrical intimacy.


REVIEW
These three players share quite a bit of history. Bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton are two thirds of an extraordinarily long lived and uncompromising free improv trio with Evan Parker; pianist Marilyn Crispell has worked with both that ensemble and the grouping that makes a return appearance on this disc. Still, they find a distinct group voice on Ithaca, one shaped but not dominated by Guy’s compositions.
His writing here is inspired by painter George Vaughan, whose painting “Ithaca” gives the record its name, and architects David Libeskind and Zaha Hadid. The liner notes discuss their respective creative efforts, but one doesn’t need to know their work at all to notice the spaciousness, carefully etched shapes, and planned progress of the 11 tracks on this CD, which is very different from either the blizzard-like density of the Parker-Guy-Lytton trio or the gauzy impressionism of Crispell’s recent ECM recording Storyteller.
Crispell really shines here, negotiating dramatic dynamic shifts with aplomb. Her lumpy, left-handed opening gambit on "Fire And Ice" is as heavy and rough as a formation of black volcanic; then Lytton pummels her rocky shapes with a resolutely unswinging cymbal assault. The piece comes to a sudden halt two and a half minutes in, after which the pianist issues an alternately stern and tenderly imploring statement. She also matches Guy's mad, virtuosic velocity on the penultimate track "Zig Zag." Special credit is due to Martin Pearson's lustrous, vivid recording. Throughout, spontaneity and structure complement each other, yielding music that is at once lyrical and implacably forceful.
By Bill Meyer, Dusted Magazine, New York, USA, March

credits

released January 1, 2004

Barry Guy: Bass, Compositions
Marilyn Crispell: Piano
Paul Lytton: Percussion

All compositions by Barry Guy (PRS/MCPS/PAMRA) except Unfolding and Broken Silence by Barry Guy, Marilyn Crispell (BMI) and Paul Lytton (GEMA). Recorded January 14, 15, 2003 at Radio Studio DRS Zürich by Martin Pearson. Produced, published and copyright by Intakt Records. Executive production: Patrik Landolt

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Barry Guy Switzerland

contact / help

Contact Barry Guy

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Ithaca, you may also like: