Solar Eclipse

New Zealands Clear Path Ensemble is the jazz project created by DJ, drummer, sound artist, composer, and dance music producer Cory Champion (aka Borrowed CS). CPEs music collects several genres under its umbrella of expression, including jazz fusion, psychedelia, spiritual jazz, ambient, and more. Their eponymous debut album appeared to great acclaim in 2020, and was followed by a remix collection. Solar Eclipse, their sophomore long-player (on Soundway) expands the conversation immeasurably. Where their debut offered a group-wide juxtaposition of airy vanguard jazz alongside layers of subtle electronics, Latin and African rhythms, and various spiritual and modal approaches, Solar Eclipse is a much more grounded affair, though no less ambitious. The prime inspiration here appears to be the recordings of Weather Report from 1972s I Sing the Body Electric through 1975s Tale Spinnin, but theres also considerable input sourced from the ECM catalog, electro and dub traditions (think Nightmares on Wax), world grooves, and the nu-jazz scene of Wellington, New Zealand. Opener "Kihi" offers stacked guitars standing for sitars (a la Pat Metheny) atop intricate, pulsing polyrhythms, melodic fretless basslines, vibes, and keyboards. Single "Drumatix" is a short, polished groover offering a juxtaposition of neo-electro and smooth jazz with a complex rhythmic palette. "Revolutions" actually re-creates the rhythm track from WRs "Boogie Woogie Waltz" adding a bass clarinet in place of Wayne Shorters soprano sax. It also references subtler keyboard moments in Miles Davis "Its About That Time" as wah-wah guitars and layers of hand percussion and a drum kit frame an exchange between vibraphone, bass, and guitars. "Absolvo" inverts the vamp from John Coltranes "A Love Supreme," interlocking it with a theme articulated by alto sax and bass clarinet amid ambient production and trancey percussion. "Interlock" weds wah-wah keys, electric pianos, synthetic drum samples, and electric guitars in a sinister, funky vamp, and the title cut follows with syncopated, double-timed Latin and Caribbean rhythms with sitar effects, washed-out rhythm tracks, and fluid, yet busy Frank Zappa-esque keyboards. "Sunrise Motif" really sounds like Alice Coltrane playing harp with WR. The instrument interacts with tinkling bell-like keyboards, strings, vibes, and hand percussion as it swirls and floats, surrounded by a production palette of abundant atmospherics and an Indian modal tinge. "Plazma Plaza" offers the kind of hybrid beat collision evident in much neu jazz from the U.K., with jagged, synthetic breaks, ambient washes, and squiggly, rubbery basslines. Champions Clear Path Ensemble plainly boasts of his influences on Solar Eclipse. What he contributes to the dialogue is a sophisticated sense of harmony, a deft rhythmic approach as both a drummer/percussionist and producer as he embellishes, subtracts, extends, and reframes 70s electric jazz in dialogue with global music traditions, 21st century production, and the aesthetics of modern club culture. ~ Thom Jurek