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Drawn Inward
Evan Parker
Drawn Inward
Genres: Jazz, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (11) - Disc #1

Drawn Inward continues Evan Parker's merging of acoustic improvisation with live electronic processing, extending the six-piece Electro-Acoustic Ensemble's previous Toward the Margins. A seventh member, electronic composer...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Evan Parker
Title: Drawn Inward
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Ecm Import
Release Date: 2/29/2000
Album Type: Import
Genres: Jazz, Pop
Style: Avant Garde & Free Jazz
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 731454720922, 0731454720922

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Drawn Inward continues Evan Parker's merging of acoustic improvisation with live electronic processing, extending the six-piece Electro-Acoustic Ensemble's previous Toward the Margins. A seventh member, electronic composer Lawrence Casserley, has been added, further altering and combining the others' instruments and processors. The CD begins with a tribute to Johnny Hartman, and if the velvet-voiced jazz balladeer seems a surprising subject, it hints at a meditative lyricism that's often present on this album. It surfaces in different ways, from Parker's warm tenor on "Spouting Bowl" to Barry Guy's deeply resonant bowed bass on "Reanascreena." What may be most remarkable is the consistent balance achieved between the complex and the coherent. Parker's trio with Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton, the acoustic core of the Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, is independently capable of the densest swarms of sound, but in this expanded forum, each player has developed another approach to musical space, paring back the skittering lines and responding to the new environment. For their part, the electronic musicians, including Casserley, Walter Prati, and Marco Vecchi, exercise remarkable creativity and discretion in unleashing their resources, subtly blurring the sources and their manipulations. "Serpent in Sky" matches the multiphonic waves of Parker's untreated soprano with the gradually multiplying string parts of Guy and violinist Philipp Wachsmann. The strings also contribute a luminous, orchestral quality to the haunting "Drawninward," while "Collect Calls," based on a portion of a live performance, teems with chirping, spontaneous life. Beyond the novelty and complexity of its processes, this music is as accessible as it is fresh. --Stuart Broomer
 

CD Reviews

We're not in Kansas anymore...
R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 06/15/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first of Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble recordings that ECM has made available in the U.S. (The first, TOWARD THE MARGINS, has since been released here.) The EAE represents a major departure for Parker, and it is an exhilarating one for anyone turned on by the further reaches of experimental improv. The unit works with the simultaneous input of the acoustic players (sax, bass, violin and percussion) and several electronic processors. The sound produced is eerie, otherwordly, and fascinating. By all means, investigate, but be aware that you do not hear Parker, Guy, Lytton or Wachsmann distinctly very often -- look to any of the superb Parker/Guy/Lytton trio albums for a completely different excellence (unfortunately they're hard to get -- consult the Penguin guide or me for further guidance). This is one example of how European free jazz evolved into free improv, and here contacts developments of Xenakis, Stockhausen, and beyond.



Now there is a live EAE disc on ECM as well, MEMORY/VISION (recorded in 2002 -- see my review). I recommend starting with one of the superb studio discs -- the live recording adds piano and more prominent violin to the Parker/Guy/Lytton core, but sprawls and lacks the intense focus of TOWARD THE MARGINS and DRAWN INWARD (10/31/04)."
Intense
Thor Furbeck | maryland usa | 02/14/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the sound of aliens landing in motherships, of trips to other dimensions, flocks of birds and insects and mother nature screaming. Almost scary at times, in a great way. Enjoy."