Words Unspoken

1970年代から活躍するイギリスのサックス/クラリネット奏者ジョン・サーマンによる6年ぶりの新作。

前作『Invisible Threads」にも参加していたヴィブラフォン/ハープ奏者のRob Waringのほか、ECMリスナーにはおなじみのロブ・ルフト(g)とドラマーのトーマス・ストレーネンが入った新カルテットによる作品。

この軽快なカルテットのメンバーが、瞬時に音楽的な理解を見出したことを暗示している作品で「私が考えたのは、集団としての目的意識を持ちつつも、各自が一緒に素材を発展させる他の方法を提案できるような、オープンな音楽的アイデアをまとめることだった。すべてがすぐにうまくいった。でも、それがうまくいったのは、音楽的なアイデアというより、ミュージシャンのおかげだとすぐに気づいたよ」とサーマンはコメントしている。この4人の頭の回転の速いプレイヤーたちとの共演では、サーマンの強いメロディックなテーマと即興的なイマジネーションに刺激され、すべての議論が音楽の中で行われる。

〈パーソネル〉John Surman(ss,bs,b-cl) Rob Luft(g) Rob Waring(vibes) Thomas Stronen(ds,perc)
★2022年12月、オスロ、レインボウ・スタジオにて録音

British saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer John Surman turned 80 in 2024. During six decades of laudable achievement, he has recorded and performed in dozens of configurations from solo to big band, chamber quintet to orchestra conductor. Words Unspoken is Surmans first ECM date since 2018s trio offering, Invisible Threads. It marks a reunion with the remarkable, Oslo-based American vibraphonist Rob Waring. Award-winning British guitarist Rob Luft (whose solo albums on Edition have won international praise) and Norwegian drummer Thomas Stronen balance the quartet. The bandleader brought some sketches into the studio and passed them out without specific instructions as to who would play what when. He wanted the recording to sound like the band created it spontaneously by wedding modern jazz, avant improv, and folk music in the moment. "Pebble Stone" commences with Warings arpeggiatic theme before Stronen and Luft join him. The guitarist adds a tempered, contrasting chordal pulse which he doubles on the high strings. Surman enters on soprano, playing an Eastern-tinged folk melody buoyed by washed guitar sounds, thrumming kick drums and tom-toms, and a circular vibraphone vamp. They ride it until the halfway mark when Surman begins soloing like a snake charmer. The sparse instrumentation and minimal theme recall work he did with oudist Anuoar Brahem and Dave Holland on 1998s Thimar. The proceeding title track is a study in layered textures, resonance, and space. Surman, on baritone, floats above and below his bandmates playing a lyric that embraces noir cinema, ambient electronics (courtesy of Lufts rainbow palette of sounds), and lithe, nearly contemplative post-bop. A mysterious root theme foreshadows the limber baritone-and-guitar interplay on "Graviola." "Flower in Aspic" is a halting ballad carried by a conversation between vibes, soprano and guitar in a ballad. The band enters "Around the Edges" with Waring, Luft, and the ever-imaginative Stronen, establishing a spectral drone from chord voicings, low-register mallet invention on vibes, and a broken, unfixed beat. Surmans baritone centers itself on that pillow of sound then investigates it in his solo. Luft introduces "Onich Ceilidh" with probing guitar lines that open a harmonic door for Surmans soprano atop a gorgeous, waltz-like swing from the ever-dazzling Waring (his solo here is a set highlight) and Stronen before Surman carries it out with a rhythmic statement on baritone. "Bitter Aloe" is a subtle yet canny post-bop improvisation. On closer "Hawksmoor," Surmans bass clarinet duets with Stronen in a lyric melody reminiscent of the Jimmy Giuffre Trio. Halfway through, Waring joins the vamp, then solos, before entering intricate dialogue with Surman. They introduce Luft, whose airy chords and sonics buoy the drummer in framing a fingerpopping frontline conversation. Words Unspoken erases boundaries between styles and genres, and this quartets members listen so closely, they dont overshadow or step on one another -- theyre always conscious of their individual places inside the group. The control, drama, and intimacy Surman supplies on this album sets it alongside his best recordings on the shelf. ~ Thom Jurek