Moondial

新しい可能性に挑戦したパット・メセニーのスタジオ・アルバム!

2023年の『Dream Box』以来となるパット・メセニーのスタジオ・アルバムがリリース。
特注のナイロン弦バリトン・ギターを使用したソロ・ギター・アルバムである本作は、未知なる可能性を秘めたこのギターにインスパイアを受け制作された珠玉の楽曲の数々が収録。
ビートルズ「Here, There and Everywhere」のカヴァーを含む全13曲。

MoonDial is Pat Methenys second consecutive solo guitar album. It follows 2023s Dream Box (for electric guitar). While on that albums support tour, he played solo for more than two hours a night. During the concerts and later on the bus, he reflected on the various, sometimes profound differences between his solo recordings. He contacted luthier Linda Manzer, a longtime collaborator, and requested she build him an acoustic baritone guitar that could be played with nylon, rather than steel strings. The challenge was finding nylon strings that could take the pressure of the tuning he wanted to use, with a tonal range that can move from a resonant deep bass to a high-pitched ringing resembling a bell. Magma, an Argentine company, met his needs. He used the guitar on the rest of the Dream Box tour. During the tours first break, Metheny took the instrument into the recording studio. He cut tunes he specifically composed for the instrument, revisited earlier tunes, and cut several covers including standards, show tunes, a folk song, and a Beatles number. The sound on MoonDial reflects his iconic playing signature and is the third in an instrumental conceptual trilogy that began with 2004s One Quiet Night and continued on 2011s Whats It All About. The title-track opener showcases the range of tonalities on the instrument as Metheny cuts across nuevo flamenco, modal blues, and post-bop. Over more than six minutes, its various sections and recurrent lyric themes resemble a suite. The sets third track is a gorgeous reading of Chick Coreas "Youre Everything." Its followed by a tender, lilting read of Lennon & McCartneys "Here There and Everywhere," a tune hes been performing live for years. Though this set is absent overdubs, Methenys playing in that unique tuning approximates the sound of two guitars played simultaneously. He follows the intricate, lushly melodic "Falcon Love" with a medley reading of Matt Dennis standard "Everything Happens to Me" and Leonard Bernsteins "Somewhere"; the guitarists canny segue expands the drama and resonance of both tunes. He delivers the traditional "Londonderry Air," stripping it to its harmonic -- not lyric -- essence. "This Belongs to You” was recorded in 2012 with Pat Metheny Unity Group, but here it sounds like it was always intended as a solo piece, full of tiny details and natural reverb. "Shoga," the most uptempo track here, traces a path all the way back to the rhythm playing in the title track of 1979s New Chautauqua, his first solo guitar album. His haunting take of David Raskins "My Love and I" originally appeared in the film score for 1954s Burt Lancaster vehicle Apache. He follows it with a deeply moving rendition of Matt Dennis now canonical jazz standard "Angel Eyes." The album closes with a bookend reprise of the title cut. This deeply nuanced, lyrical set is described by its creator as "a hardcore mellow, dusk-to-sunrise record, full of intense contemplation." If you appreciate Methenys acoustic guitar recordings, MoonDial will undoubtedly delight, and its elegance folds seamlessly into its predecessors. ~ Thom Jurek

作曲家としての自身の可能性を追求した『ROAD TO THE SUN』、気鋭の若手ミュージシャンたちとの〈SIDE-EYEプロジェクト〉、そしてソロギターへ回帰した前作『Dream Box』から約1年。まさかの前作に引き続きソロギター作品ということだが、特注のナイロン弦バリトン・ギターを使用することで新たなセットアップが可能になったらしい。またひとつ表現の幅を広げたパット・メセニーはいったいどこに向かって行くのだろうか。次はどんな新しいことをやってくれるのだろうか。圧倒的な地位を築いた今でも尚、我々を楽しませ続けてくれる稀有な存在であることを再認識した。
intoxicate (C)栗原隆行