John Cratchley
Eclectic, intense, ground-breaking, inspiring composition and improvisation...
Try the multi-cd set on Not Two called 'Tensegrity' by the same group of musicians to get an even fuller experience.
After his great compositions for the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and the Barry Guy New Orchestra, Barry Guy has written a large scale work for a new international ensemble. Guy’s work The Blue Shroud is an hommage to the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso. It is for the people of the Spanish town, who were victims of the Nazi German air force bombardment during the Spanish Civil War. Guy also wants us to remember the occasion in 2003, when the Guernica-tapestry at the UN Security Council was obscured by a blue drape as Colin Powell made the case for invading Iraq. The strength of art against the power of the military, government and the media. Barry Guy uses the techniques of new music and jazz improvisation, as well as fragments of Baroque music and a poem by Irish writer Kerry Hardie. He has transformed the poem into moving songs for vocalist Savina Yannatou. Fragments of compositions by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and J.S. Bach are mingled into Guy’s intricate work. “The work might just be the crowning achievement in the Englishman’s long and varied career”, wrote The New York City Jazz Record magazine after the premiere of the 70 minute long masterpiece.
Barry Guy: Bass, Director
Savina Yannatou: Voice
Ben Dwyer: Guitar
Agustí Fernández: Piano
Maya Homburger: Violin
Fanny Paccoud: Viola
Percy Pursglove: Trumpet
Torben Snekkestad: Soprano Saxophone, Reed Trumpet
Michael Niesemann: Alto Saxophone, Oboe
Per Texas Johansson: Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet
Julius Gabriel: Baritone Saxophone
Michel Godard: Tuba, Serpent
Lucas Niggli: Drums, Percussion
Ramón López: Drums, Percussion
Composition by Barry Guy (PRS/MCPS). Recorded October 17, 18, 2015, during the Ad Libitum Festival Warsaw organised by the Polish Music Council Foundation at the Witold Lutoslawski Concert Studio of Polish Radio. Festival director: Krzysztof Knittel, Curator: Maciej Karlowski, Coordination: Joanna Gratkowska. Recording engineers: Jaroslaw Regulski and Zbigniew Kusiak. Mixed by Jaroslaw Regulski and Zbigniew Kusiak, Warsaw, February 16, 17, 2016, and by Ferran Conangla, March 15, 16, 2016. Liner notes: Barry Guy, Maciej Karlowski Photos: Francesca Pfeffer (Portrait Barry Guy), Michelle Ettlin (live at Unerhört-Festival 2015), Krzysztof Machowina (photo of the band, 2015) Cover art and graphic design: Jonas Schoder. Produced by Barry Guy, Maya Homburger and Intakt Records, Patrik Landolt
supported by 13 fans who also own “The Blue Shroud”
Total mastery of patience, time, and drama create a constantly engaging journey that never gets tiresome or same-y: in fact the harder you listen the better it gets! Somehow Sorey et al. find a way to combine the deep listening and spontaneous interaction of the best jazz with the sense of every tone and sound being worth a universe of listening, which could be equally from Cage and Feldman or the accompaniment to an ancient ritual.
The recording/engineering is absolutely perfect as well. Giles