Music is all about sound. Sound is all about vibration. Vibration is all about pulse. Pulse is all about life. Therefore music is life’s tuning fork.

This recording is all about sound, and what better way to express the vibrating pulse of life than with percussion instruments which inherently produce sound by the way they vibrate and influence air movement. And the same can be said about a plucked guitar string whose vibration is reinforced by the body of the instrument. Combine the two instruments and you have the ingredients to create and generate an abundance of ear candy.

The dozen pieces in this collection are all world premiere recordings that combine jazz rhythms with ambient and chamber music textures, and are as varied as the archetypes they strive to represent. I hear Weather Report, Latin soul, Brian Eno, Reich, Partch … lurking here and there, along with plenty of original touches. The addition of piano and wordless vocalization now and then by Clarice Assad expands the sonic canvas to great effect. Her father, Brazilian guitarist Sérgio Assad has been a prominent figure, one could say an archetype, of the jazz and classical guitar world for many years. The Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and David Skidmore) were the first percussion ensemble to win a chamber music Grammy award. They command a large arsenal of percussion instruments ranging from a large gong (Sage) to a tiny Jew’s harp (Jester) and everything in between. Some of the pieces on this CD like Creator will set your mind travelling back through time and space, while others like Hero and Rebel will give you the urge to get up and dance.

Click here to see the article. Click here to pre-order Archetypes, available from Cedille Records on March 12.

« Previous post: “Metamorphosis” comes to WMPAC

Next post: Devonté Hynes, Third Coast Percussion Bring A Cutting-Edge Style To the Classical Category Of the Grammys »