Musicians: Chris Gestrin (piano, prepared piano, percussion): solos/duos/trios with: Joseph Pepe Danza (shakuhachi, percussion, hang, ney), Ron Samworth (guitar), Miles Black (piano), Peggy Lee (cello), Jon Bentley, (saxophones), Bernie Arai (drums), Gordon Grdina (guitar, dobro), Bill Clark & JP Carter,(trumpets), Jeremy Berkman (trombone), Jesse Zubot (violin), Dylan van der Schyff (drums)
Review: after the city is gone : quiet by Vancouver pianist Chris Gestrin presents over two hours of music that is unusual and creative - unusually creative. The 2 CD set was recorded in the summer of 2004 by Songlines in high-resolution (DSD) and represents three days of improvisation by Gestrin in collaboration with other gifted Vancouver musicians: a few piano solos, piano duets and various duo and trio combinations involving piano and trumpets, guitar, dobro, cello, saxophones, trombone, violin, drums and percussion. This free interaction resulted in music that is interesting, varied, difficult to categorize. I listened to the two discs straight through and found the experience soothing and peaceful.
For me, Gestrin's production is a whole, not 27 individual musical snippets to be probed, analyzed and critiqued. It is meant to be felt, and reflected upon, in the way you might react to the words "after the city has gone: quiet" or the surrealistic art that replaces the conventional liner notes. He believes that music should speak for itself which makes the few words Gestrin includes in the album all the more valuable.
" I don't like to write about music, I think this, like any art, speaks differently to different people. I draw musical inspiration from nature and visual art but most often my motivation is sound itself. With the exception of four original compositions, these sessions were entirely improvised with no pre-determined framework or starting point. To me, improvised music is a form of meditation. It's the only time my overactive mind is ever free from the city of thoughts and in the moment I feel that I am somehow not responsible for the music being created. I am just there to facilitate the physical aspect of it. This is my music in its purest form."
... and for ears that hear.
Tracks: Disc 1: Metres per Second, To Sink in Posture, Living Candles, Viewpoint 1, Prelude in D, Turnstile, Many Skies, Beauty Walks in this World, Bees, The Seeds of my Departure, Viewpoint 2, As Pointless as the Weather, D.S.. With such Unsettled Heart, The Loves of the Angels. Disc 2: Write by Return to your Longing, The Melody that is, Guilty Gates, #47, Moonshine Run, Command and Promise, On the Back of a Tiger, The Lasting Taste of Spring, Storied Walls, Silence of Faded Emblem, The Evening's Influence, The Phonometrographs and the Turing Machine, Meet me at Uji Bridge.
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