Search - John Tilbury & Evan Parker :: Two Chapters and an Epilogue

Matchless

John C. Graham | toronto, ontario Canada | 11/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This unique duo recorded at Gateway Studios, England on Monday the third of August 1998. The recording engineer, Steve Lowe, has done a first rate job capturing all of the nuances of this first time meeting. The first number-or chapter 1 is 32'10", chapter 2 is 36'45" and the epilogue is 2'42".



John Tilbury has played for many years with AMM,which is a school in itself,and has many recordings on Matchless and Erstwhile. His playing comes from the classical avant garde and the minimalist arena of Morton Feldman. Pairing him with Evan Parker was an interesting idea,to say the least.



Evan Parker is a saxophonist without peer. He has developed and evolved a style of playing that is entirely his own. Anyone familiar with Parker's astonishing abilities will be interested in hearing him in this context.



Everything starts slowly, the musicians feeling one another out. Parker tends to be the dominant voice, the stronger of the two. Tilbury, however, is brilliant and never backs away when challenged. He has a way of offering chords and glisses that seem to frame the musical structure. There is a gradually building tempo to most of the proceedings, the musicians easily adjusting to one anothers' inner clock. What will strike you initially is that this is a meeting of musical masters...and that thought will be confirmed time and time again with successive hearings.



Parker has an abundance of available discs from his many different projects. Tilbury's recordings may be more difficult to find. Two Chapters and an Epilogue documents an entirely successful and stimulating meeting of the two, a meeting that Matchless had the foresight to record and produce. This is one to own."