Search - Evan Parker :: Time Lapse

Evan Parker and Evan Parker

R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 10/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Evan Parker's first recording for John Zorn's Tzadik label is a solo record with a twist. Half the cuts feature EP alone, which is scarcely believable given that his circular breathing and multiphonics can produce the sound of what sounds like an entire flock of birds. The other half, which alternate from Track 1 on, the odd tracks, feature two Evan Parkers, one overdubbed, soloing over an original solo line. These recordings were not made in one session, but are rather collected from a several-year period, all from a particularly superb recording studio in London.



Overall, the tempos are slower and the tone is more subdued than the highest energy recordings of the Parker/Guy/Lytton trio from the 1990s, or earlier solo EP recordings such as CONIC SECTIONS or PROCESS & REALITY. But the term "subdued" is relative -- this is intense, abstract music which will certainly not appeal to the ordinary person. If you are an extraordinary person, open to mind and ear-bending saxophone playing, then by all means check out this latest release by the incomparable Evan Parker!



See my list THE EVAN PARKER DIMENSION for more recordings and reviews."

Shamanic Otherworlds

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 10/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the Evan Parker album for you if you dislike the ecm Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble albums. Time Lapse is one of his masterpieces. As much as he has done things I love with other people, for me, solo soprano saxophone is still Evan's pinnacle "format" or instrumentation. Simply put, alone on soprano saxophone (and overdubbed with himself as he is here on half the tracks), Evan is a genre unto himself. It's a Sound World that didn't exist anywhere before him, and it'll come to a sad goodbye on the day he dies.



This album is beautiful. While it's true that this is more subdued than Monoceros or Conic Sections, it's in no way smooth, or background music. The pieces here range from somehow making R. Carlos Nakai (at his best, like on Emergence) & the sounds of bugling elk become one, to utterly riveting, hypnotic sound fields that somehow manage to make my eyes go moist. A couple of the tracks here are some of the most beautiful, spiritual things he's ever done. This is totally organic, dreamworld stuff.



If you're new to Evan, don't ever let anyone talk you into the idea that Evan's music is about technique and circular breathing. Those are just tools by which he makes certain things come to life. His music, at his best, is all about heart and imagination.



I didn't buy this until 2007 but I've been feeling like this and Carla Bozulich's Evangelista are my 2 favorite albums of 2006."

No lapses in this music

Read-Only | New York City | 07/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It probably only turns people off when a reviewer uses a word like "transcendent" to describe a CD, but it is difficult for me to find words to describe the strange beauty of this music. Parker has invented a truly unique (not just "unusual," but singular) technique of playing the solo saxophone, which sounds more like a flock of birds or woodwind choir than a single instrument. The present disk uses overtracking so that the texture becomes denser and richer, filling up your room with sound. The amazing thing about the recording is that, since all the tracks were improvised, in order to overdub parts, he had to memorize the first recorded improvisation to add the second and third parts... there was no musical score for him to work from. Yet, each piece sounds like an organic whole.



Although in some obvious sense, the music is "avante garde," it is by no means difficult to listen to. Instead, you may find it difficult to have it on while doing anything else, because the amazing sounds and raw beauty keep drawing you back to listen to it instead of doing whatever you are supposed to be doing."