Ben Monder: Oceana
CML call number: CD/JAZZ/Monder
Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times: "'Oceana' … isn't really a jazz record, although it could only have been made by a jazz musician; there's its free-thinking attitude, its obsession with harmony and technique, the clean tone and heavy reverb of the guitar. … [Ben Monder's] sound is terrifically concentrated: he metes it out in rapid, fingerpicked puzzles with an independent thumb. … In some places, there are floating, repeated figures with Theo Bleckmann singing wordless vocals. Pat Metheny fans will recognize some of the guitar technique and the sweep of the ambition. … Two solo pieces, 'Still Motion' and 'Double Sun,' alternate between single arpeggiated chords and fast chordal movement, tracing larger areas of harmony as they progress. Recurring motifs bind the record together, culiminating in the full-band, distortion-drenched 'Rooms of Light,' which also contains the album's only breakaway guitar solo. … And the final 'Spectre,' with a row of intervals moving softly and slowly for eight minutes under Mr. Bleckmann's long tones, gets into Morton Feldman's territory; it's like walking slowly through a series of clouds" (11/21/05).
Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times: "'Oceana' … isn't really a jazz record, although it could only have been made by a jazz musician; there's its free-thinking attitude, its obsession with harmony and technique, the clean tone and heavy reverb of the guitar. … [Ben Monder's] sound is terrifically concentrated: he metes it out in rapid, fingerpicked puzzles with an independent thumb. … In some places, there are floating, repeated figures with Theo Bleckmann singing wordless vocals. Pat Metheny fans will recognize some of the guitar technique and the sweep of the ambition. … Two solo pieces, 'Still Motion' and 'Double Sun,' alternate between single arpeggiated chords and fast chordal movement, tracing larger areas of harmony as they progress. Recurring motifs bind the record together, culiminating in the full-band, distortion-drenched 'Rooms of Light,' which also contains the album's only breakaway guitar solo. … And the final 'Spectre,' with a row of intervals moving softly and slowly for eight minutes under Mr. Bleckmann's long tones, gets into Morton Feldman's territory; it's like walking slowly through a series of clouds" (11/21/05).
posted by casemusic at 10:08 AM
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