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Thread: AAJ Review: Ben Monder, Amorphae

  1. #1

    AAJ Review: Ben Monder, Amorphae



    My review of Ben Monder's ECM leader debut, Amorphae, today at All About Jazz.

    Having made his first—and, up to now, only—appearance on Munich's lauded ECM Records on the late drummer Paul Motian's Garden of Eden (2006), it's certainly taken a long time for the virtuosically talented guitarist to get a date of his own. Monder's résumé—while filled with significant associations including, in addition to Motian, composer/bandleader Maria Schneider, double bassist and occasional ECM label mate Marc Johnson, saxophonist Donny McCaslin (with whom Monder will also be appearing on the upcoming * (Black Star) by David Bowie) and drummer/composer John Hollenbeck—has always been a little shy on recordings under his own name, but for his ECM leader debut he takes a complete left turn from more rigorously composed, band-centric albums like Oceana (Sunnyside, 2005) and Hydra (Sunnyside, 2013). Instead, with Amorphae, he delivers an album of almost entirely improvised music, and of a far more atmospheric nature than those that came before.

    The two solo guitar improvs that bookend Amorphae—the aptly titled "Tendrils," with its reverb-drenched linear phrases expanding well, like tendrils, out of oblique, volume-swelled chords; and the more celestial "Dinosaur Skies," where volume pedal and digital delay create a real-time layering of notes, phrases and chords that allow harmonic overtones to build into dense clouds of soft, cushiony sound that gradually turn darker and more angular—are something of a shift from the technique-driven (but never for the sake of it) approach that has garnered Monder such a strong reputation, especially amongst guitarists. Neither track—nor any of Amorphae eight pieces, for that matter—approach the kind of relentless fingerpicking that defined, for example, a stunning but exhausting half-hour solo performance on the second evening of Ottawa, Canada's GuitarNow! workshop weekend in 2013.

    Continue reading here...

  2. #2
    Those links aren't working.

  3. #3
    Member FrippWire's Avatar
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    Just got done listening to this CD and I love it. I have a couple of older Ben Monder CDs and haven't kept entirely up to date with his career but I had no idea he had this kind of album in him. Just goes to show you what working with ECM can do to you. Props to producer Sun Chung as well. Just a gorgeous sounding and powerful record.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Reid View Post
    Those links aren't working.
    All About Jazz has been uttering technical problems for the past few days, sadly (right after my article was published, dammit!). It's serious, and requires a lot of work to fix, which is apparently ongoing with hopes of being back tomorrow (so I'd say Sunday to be safe). Beyond OS and other underlying things, All About Jazz is, in order to be the fully integrated database it is, a very complex piece of software (this ain't Wordpress...).

    So the links are fine; it's the site that's been up and down and finally taken down until the problem is resolved. It involves an operating system upgrade as a start, and then a bunch of stuff more. I am not directly involved, just relaying the message.

    Unfortunately, for All About Jazz, it couldn't come at a worse time with the holidays.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by FrippWire View Post
    Just got done listening to this CD and I love it. I have a couple of older Ben Monder CDs and haven't kept entirely up to date with his career but I had no idea he had this kind of album in him. Just goes to show you what working with ECM can do to you. Props to producer Sun Chung as well. Just a gorgeous sounding and powerful record.
    Sun also produced Aaron Parks' wonderful solo piano album for ECM, Arborescence (the review link won't work now, as per my last message, but it will tomorrow or Sunday) a couple years back.

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