Quiet Music

Outside jazz sounds, not necessarily quiet, ranging from almost loungy, rhythmic flows (A2) to abstract improv (A5), led by Eskelin's decade-old band of sax, keys(Sampler), and drums. Complemented by wordless vocals (airy female voice) on most tracks. Nice mix of cerebral and visceral stuff.

Personnel: Eskelin (sax), Andrea Parkins (sampler/accordion), Jim Black (drums) on every track. Jessica Constable (voice) most of the time. Philippe Gelda (piano on 12, voice on 13, organ on 2,4,13).

Side note: Eskelin's trio with Parkins and Black had a great run on Hat records, getting the support to grow and mesh as a band. This CD marks the debut of Eskelin's own label.

DISK ONE
1- Stumbling and exploratory, after a quiet intro. Includes a long stretch of sax over "things-falling-apart" background; nicely crazy
2- Flowing, almost loungy. Quite accessible.
3- Slow: chiming chords behind crazed sax/drums stabbings
4- Gentle and romantic, builds into a menacing slowish storm. Powerful, with a very pleasant, melodic ending
5- Stumbly, angular. Controlled chaos at mid/slow speeds.
6- Slow. Starts eerie and swampy, gets sadly melodic.
7- Sparse and often quiet. Opens gently, gets eerie.

DISK TWO
1- Upbeat jazzy ditty, w/accordion, almost loungy
2- Peppy, propulsive, maybe a bit cerebral (which is good). First half (3 mins.) piano intro.
3- Gently curving: unacc. sax in a slow vein, then a drawn-out vocal building to a mild frenzy
4- Calm, laid-back, slowish. Cool auto-harmonized vocal.
5- Healthy free-jazz jam. Abrupt change at -2:47 to a happy ringing piano tune, almost Christmasy
6- Heavy slow drama, w/guest male vocal in French
7- The 20-minute heavyweight, kind of a slow power scream. Opens slowly with floaty accordion, a bit tense. Then stern, harsh pulsing: slow, loud, dissonant, broken up by some looser segments. Last 5 minutes include fast sax solo.