Search - Alex Cline :: Continuation

A masterpiece

Music maven | Amherst, MA | 02/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you only read Cline's liner notes for this CD, which are full of philosophically tortuous phrases like "the designation I call 'I'", you might expect a lot of New Age noodling in the music. And certainly the music is profoundly meditative, but the key qualifier here is that word "profound." Cline and his bandmates manage an almost impossible combination of peace and intensity. Every note is exactly the right note, the only note for that moment, and no matter how slow or spacious the setting, the feeling is never languorous. You get the sense that each musician is intensely present, floating in a rushing stream in that actively passive way that Buddhism aspires to. Peggy Lee's cello playing, especially, is wonderfully expressive and passionate (she's always interesting in her recordings, but never more beautiful than on this CD). Cline plays an enormous kit on this session, but you would never know it--his uses it for color and places himself in a supporting role, adding exactly the right notes in exactly the right places. His solo introduction to "On the Bones of the Homegoing Thunder" is a masterpiece of texture, dynamics, and expression, and gives a sense of the enormous technique he could bring to bear if he chose. But like everyone else on this recording, he serves the music and uses only the necessary notes. Many years ago, in one of Robert Fripp's wonderful columns for Musician magazine he wrote, "Music is the cup that holds the wine of silence." That sublime idea has never been more perfectly manifested than here."

Alex Cline's best work?

Etan Rosenbloom | Los Angeles | 02/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is a gift. Like much of Alex Cline's previous work, Continuation is meditative and expansive in the compositional and global sense - it's a completely open system, taking in both eastern compositional aesthetics and a European refinement in the performances. Take a gander at Anne Fishbein's photos in the liner notes. They capture each member of Cline's ensemble in a moment of serene concentration. That's Continuation to a T. Whether this band is in full-band improv mode ("On the Bones of the Homegoing Thunder"), creepy mood piece mode ("Fade to Green") or lyrical soaring mode ("Open Hands (Receive, Release)"), there's a centeredness that keeps it all of a piece. Continuation's vistas wouldn't feel so panoramic were it not for the elite musicians that Cline has assembled. Violinist Jeff Gauthier and `cellist Peggy Lee each take particularly lyrical solo flights on "Steadfast;" Scott Walton's foundational bass pumps and thrums throughout. Myra Melford's harmonium girds the band's modal grooves, her piano seeks ecstatic free jazz peaks. And then of course there's Cline himself, whose startling command over every element in his massive kit is outweighed only by his restraint in using it. This album's 77 minutes are fully deserved."