Christy Doran & Stefan Banz: Aerosols

  The visual arts have inspired musical creativity in many different ways over the centuries. Typically, a composer or performer will react to a work of art without the participation of the artist. But not always. Guitarist Christy Doran & Stefan Banz, a Swiss artist, had known one another for a long time when Banz approached Doran about a project they could work on together. Doran immediately agreed, and the result is the endlessly intriguing Aerosols. To begin, Banz responded to five of Doran’s solo compositions with paintings done in acrylic on cotton. Doran then reacted to five other Banz paintings with a batch of new pieces. Banz unfortunately died of a heart attack in May 2021, but all the music had been recorded by then, and the booklet was nearly done. The artist’s son, his partner, and some friends pitched in to help complete the project. Doran has been heard in an amazing array of contexts since his recording debut in 1970 with Jazz Rock Experience. A founding member of Om, the Swiss quartet, Doran has worked frequently with drummer Freddy Studer (also in Om), with another Irish-Swiss artist, pianist John Wolf Brennan, along with Django Bates, Joe McPhee, Han Bennink, and many, many others. Having recorded a number of solo projects, he wasn’t inclined to do another until Banz presented his idea for this set. The guitarist’s suggestions for five paintings comprise the first half of the CD, followed by the five pieces composed in reaction to the images. The booklet reproduces Banz’s paintings, so the listener can try to get a sense of how this partnership developed. The images tend to be boldly colored and abstract, but there’s also a portrait of Banz’s brother Alexander and a group of loosely sketched people in From the Ballad of Affection. The variability of Banz’s visuals, from the plain pinkish moon of Cat Care to the surreal pale red and blue of Precious Sky to the color-altered portrait Alexander, finds its analog in the boundary-less musical zones that Doran explores with electric and acoustic guitars and electronic devices. The enhancements provide drones and loops, contributing to an overall fuller sound. Hard as it is to describe music with words, there’s really no way to convey anything about the relationship between say, the burning red of Broken View, the painting, and Kaleidoscope in a Blizzard, the mostly peaceable electric guitar piece that inspired it, or how the busy multi-colored patchwork of Banz’s Upgrading Equality evoked the folky blues feeling of Doran’s composition. All I can say is that I keep listening to Doran’s intricate pieces, full of surprising twists and turns, while looking closely at Banz’s art, marveling yet again at the human capacity for creative expression and startling beauty. 

Between The Lines BTLCHR71251; Christy Doran (ac & el g, electronic devices); Lucerne, Switzerland, January-April 2021; Cat care/ Venice/ Kaleidoscope in a Blizzard/ White Fields Full of Diamonds/ Defense of Defeat/ Lactus/ From the Ballad of Affection/ Alexander/ Aerosols/ Upgrading equality; 49:03. www.challengerecords.com

Christy Doran: 144 Strings For A Broken Chord

Christy Doran enlisted 19 fellow electric guitarists, 4 electric bassists, one lonely drummer, and a conductor for a 7-part composition he calls 144 Strings For A Broken Chord. Even before I started to listen to this rather beautiful music, I was captivated by a photograph of the entire band on stage with an impressive array of guitars, amps and pedals. Expecting a total onslaught of sound, I was pleasantly surprised when the opener, Cannon Street Canon, proved to be a nuanced exploration of the classical structure. The contrapuntal format is perfectly suited to this agglomeration of guitars. Doran built the band around his current trio with bassist Franco Fontanarrosa and drummer Lukas Mantel. He gives Fontanarrosa the only solo on Cannon Street Canon. Curiously, Doran doesn’t solo himself on any of the tunes. While most of the pieces make some room for solos, they tend to be quite short, and the full ensemble is really the focus. Andromeda begins with a four note melody. With licks passed around the ensemble over a perky beat from Mantel, the band proceeds to develop and elaborate on the simple theme for over 11 minutes. Bassist Wolfgang Zwiauer and guitarist Walter Beltrami are the featured soloists over richly textured guitar lines. The jittery Gunslingers is next, the occasion for a series of brief solos by guitarists Christopher Guilfoyle, Yves Reichmuth, and Philippe Emanuel Schåppi popping out of the ensemble, followed by an electric bass duet by Fontanarrosa and Andi Schnellmann. A broken chord is one in which the notes are played successively, and with so many strings available, there are plenty of possibilities for precisely how this can work. Broken Chords is a wild tune with tempo shifts and dynamic extremes amid the entrancing weave of electric guitars. Laurent Méteau’s screaming guitar solo is one of the disc’s many highlights. I am particularly taken with the funky and audacious Bad News Babe, a multi-part piece loaded with dissonant power chords and piercing licks. There’s a heavy metal feel to a number of sections, which hint both at parody and homage without ever really deciding which. Like all of Doran’s pieces in this setting, it’s got delicate sections right up against more robust passages. This is the longest track on the session, at just over 13 minutes, but the fullness of the sound and the intriguing paths that the music carves out justify the length. What follows is the shortest track, Goin’ In On the Way Out, with a lovely section of guitarists playing part of a scale, then passing the baton, as it were, to another player. The finale, Bows and Wahs, is deeply mysterious, with a dark subterranean feeling for most of its 10-minute length. Lukas Mantel’s steady and minimalist drumming holds down the center, with guitars and basses flowing around him, quietly at first but building slowly into an intense scrum of sound. Franz Hellmüller takes an energetically spunky solo to conclude the tune, and the disc. Via the thoroughly committed playing by all hands of Doran’s well-crafted compositions and the conducting of John Voirol, what could have been an undifferentiated mess is an eminently viable format and a triumph for all concerned. Definitely recommended, and the transparent sound quality and careful mix make 144 Strings a superb listen on headphones.
Between The Lines BTLCHR71245; Walter Beltrami, Manuel Büchel, Glauco Cataldo, Christy Doran, Lucia D’Errico, Dave Gisler, Christopher Guilfoyle, Franz Hellmüller, Laurent Méteau, Urs Müller, Yves Reichmuth, Florian Respondek, Simon Rupp, Philippe Emanuel Schåppi, Philipp Schaufelberger, Nicolas Stettler, Urs Vögeli, Christian Winiker, Christian Zemp, Gael Zwahlen (g) Martina Berther, Franco Fontanarrosa, Andi Schnellmann, Wolfgang Zwiauer (el b) Lukas Mantel (d) John Voirol (cond); Stalden, Switzerland, September 13-15, 2016; Cannon Street Canon/ Andromeda/ Gunslingers/ Broken Chords/ Bad News Babe/ Goin’ In On the Way Out/ Bows and Wahs; 59:47. challengerecords.com

Beady Beast: On The Go (Pandemic duo, #5)

  Beady Beast is the acoustic guitar duo of Christy Doran & Franz Hellmüller. On The Go is the pair’s vastly enjoyable pandemic project. Hellmüller was Doran’s student once upon a time. They’re now good friends and with both living in Lucerne, Switzerland, this studio collaboration a very natural event. Doran’s Every Dog has its Day opens the program. It starts out as a sort of mutant blues, with insistent rhythms, drops back to a quiet passage, then picks up again and, well, let’s say the flow of the music is largely unpredictable but always sounds inevitable. Their rapport remains uncanny through performances of four more pieces composed by Doran and four by Hellmüller. Highlights include the zesty interplay on Doran’s Slippin’ , the high-spirited rapid-fire demands of Hellmüller’s Minimaxbum, the jagged freedom of Hellmüller’s Light in the Dark, and the angular provocations of Doran’s Paros in November. But really, every piece has its charms, as the acoustic environment brings out the best in both musicians. On The Go is totally enchanting, and happily recommended. 

between the lines BTLCHR71250; Christy Doran, Franz Hellmüller (acoustic guitars); Winterthur, Switzerland, January 26-27, 2021; Every Dog has its Day/ Slippin’/ Minimaxbum/ Far Away From Home/ Light in the Dark/ Paros in November/ Su Giudeu/ Lift the Bar/ Oneiron Street; 57:11. www.challengerecords.com

Walter Faehndrich, Christy Doran, Remo Schnyder, & Samuel Wettstein: Âme Sèche

On a baker’s dozen of unnamed tracks, the quartet of Walter Faehndrich, Christy Doran, Remo Schnyder, & Samuel Wettstein gets down to some serious business on Âme Sèche. The freely improvised music of Faehndrich on viola and occasional vocal, Schnyder on saxophone, Doran on electric guitar and Wettstein on synthesizer is a mesmerizing jumble of sounds, some identifiable and some not. Âme Sèche, “dry soul” in English, is the perfect title for the grave and unemotional attitude of the music. The quartet’s primary commitment, it seems, in tracks that mostly last between 2 and 5 minutes, is to the purity of free improvisation with no preconceptions. The results are generally on the quiet side, with an easy-going camaraderie that only sometimes grows ornery. An intriguing session indeed, and ripe for some late-night headphone listening.
Leo CD LR 827; Walter Faehndrich (vla, vcl) Remo Schnyder (sax) Christy Doran (el g) Samuel Wettstein (synth); no recording information; 13 untitled tracks; 53:03. www.leorecords.com

Morpheus Trance: In Trance We Trust

  Guitarist Christy Doran is hard to pin down, working in a broad assortment of styles across his career, from the pioneering band Om, which he co-founded in the Seventies, collaborations with electric bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Yang Jing, who plays pipa and guqin, pianist John Wolf Brennan, drummer Han Bennink, and so many others. His latest project is the aptly named Morpheus Trance. This trio of Doran, electric bassist Wolfgang Zwiauer, and drummer Lukas Mantel has concocted In Trance We Trust, an extremely pleasing blend of groove, improvisation, and concentrated interaction. Sometimes the music is raucous (the title track), sometimes it’s sedate and dreamy (the lovely Starry Sky), but the trio never loses sight of the profound abstraction of trance. Morpheus is usually thought of as the god of sleep, but this mythical figure is also known as the god of dreams. It’s easy to just drift along with the music for 47 minutes, and end up feeling relaxed and refreshed. Then it will be time for another, closer listen to the set. The egalitarian mix allows the listener to focus with ease on different instruments: Doran’s spiky and adaptable guitar, Zwiauer’s melodically flowing bass guitar and Mantel’s minimalist yet propulsive drums. In Trance We Trust is a most enjoyable release, with music that’s worthy of repeated listening. 

Double Moon DMCHR 71452; Christy Doran (el g, devices) Wolfgan Zwiauer (el b, devices) Lukas Mantel (d, perc); Bern, Switzerland, 2023; Desert Flow/ BA-rock (duo version)/ In Trance We Trust/ Starry Sky/ Bali Sketches/ Continuum/ Small Round/ La Corrección/ BA-Rock (trio version); 47:09. morpheus-trance.ch

The music that kept me going in 2021

To say the least, 2021 was another confounding year. At least there was plenty of music to help with distraction and beauty.

Here are twenty releases that stand out.

First, fourteen new recordings: 

Beady Beast (Christy Doran & Franz Hellmüller) - On The Go (Between The Lines)

Benoît Delbecq - The Weight Of Light (Pyroclastic)

Whit Dickey/William Parker/Matthew Shipp - Village Mothership (Tao Forms)

Ben Goldberg - Everything Happens To Be. (BAG Productions)

Masabumi Kikuchi - Hanamichi (Red Hook)

Ochs-Robinson Duo - A Civil Right (ESP-Disk’)

William Parker - Mayan Space Station (AUM Fidelity)

Mario Pavone/Dialect Trio + 1 - Blue Vertical (Out Of Your Head)

Ivo Perelman - Brass And Ivory Tales (Fundacja Słuchaj!)

Ches Smith & We All Break – Path of Seven Colors (Pyroclastic)

Wadada Leo Smith/Jack DeJohnette/Vijay Iyer - A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday (TUM)

Wadada Leo Smith - Sacred Ceremonies (TUM)

Tani Tabbal Trio - Now Then (Tao Forms)

Natsuki Tamura/Satoko Fujii - Keshin (Libra)

and then there are the previously unreleased gems of the year:

Hasaan Ibn Ali - Metaphysics-The Lost Atlantic Album (Omnivore)

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings 

(Blue Note)

Roy Brooks - Understanding (Reel To Real)

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme Live In Seattle (Impulse!)

Roy Hargrove & Mulgrew Miller - In Harmony (Resonance)

Harvie S Trio - Going For It (Savant)