Ariel
Shibolet and Between the Strings
LIVE AT HTE TEL AVIV MUSEUM
Recorded live in November 2006 - Co- produced by Kadima Collective Recordings
and Ariel Shibolet
Liner notes:
Jazz musicians often talk about “taking risks”, improvising to the point of
not knowing what the next note will be, where the muse will take them
or the colleagues and, indeed, who will grab the reins next and take
the whole band on a magical mystery tour. Then there is free improvisation.
Free improvisation is a discipline that, by definition, requires courage.
There are no secure boundaries, there is no safety net, no rules to cling
to.
Live at the Tel Aviv Museum is a prime example of going out on a limb,
a bungee jump into wild blue beyond. All four players here have checked
their safety belts
and their preconceptions at the door of the Tel Aviv Museum. This is art in
joyous freefall.
Part 2, for example, encapsulates the sentiments, energies, colors
and textures of myriad worlds. The soundscape ostensibly plies unchartered
waters, but there
are plenty of reference points that stand out along the way. Dark, elongated
chords, stretch to the edge of breaking point and escape into the unknown.
There are passages that evoke images from a horror film. You wonder what
lurks beyond
the next corner.
But Live at the Tel Aviv Museum is not all darkness and gloom. There
are fleeting dabs of insouciant klezmer, a hint of a Scottish bagpipe
and a tongue-in-cheek
sonic foray that follows its own muse, regardless. This is what it’s all
about.
Gossamer thin threads, unfurled, fall into deep chasms of the soul and
the psyche, and claw their way up to the highest, most celestial
plains. Wailing
bows give
rise to thunderous percussive expletives and glimpses of gentle melody
segue into finely honed darts that mercilessly attack the senses.
Each of the players
infuses his own personal and cultural baggage into the fray, and it makes
for an electrifying eclectic mix. This motley crew manages to combine energies,
ideas and technical skills to the common good of exploring the back streets
and highways
of the improvisational endeavor, and do so with aplomb.
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