New Music From Nazoranai, Rez Abbasi
Nazoranai
Beginning to Fall in Line...
(W.25th)
This writer remembers witnessing the trio of the uncompromising Japanese noise-monger Keiji Haino, Sunn O co-founder Stephen O’Malley and Australian multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi in Knoxville in March of 2014 at the Big Ears Festival.
It was a punishingly intense set with ample moments of glorious chaos, but one scene in particular stuck in this writer’s memory, where Haino was frantically motioning toward his bandmates, as if to say, “More! GIVE ME MORE!”
The new record at hand has a mouthful of a title, translated from Japanese: Beginning to Fall in Line Before Me So Decorously, the Nature of All That Must Be Transformed. It was recorded at a live performance in Japan a few weeks before the aforementioned Knoxville show, and the trio, named Nazoranai, has only the faintest semblance of structure to frame their improvised sets—just enough to hint at the formality of a ritual.
With this in mind, the album begins with random glockenspiel notes as sort of invocation, before O’Malley introduces his monolithic electric bass notes; the tones slowly modulate, and any variation registers as a seismic disturbance that reverberates heavily.
Ambarchi provides a rustling of taps from his drum kit, gradually going from constant, pattern-free eighth notes to quicker yet subtle rhythms. Meanwhile, Haino stretches his arms the most out of the three, sonically; in the first of two parts, he offers his own Danse Macabre by playing a hurdy-gurdy, which is a sort of violin/keyboard hybrid, making ghostly sounds.
About halfway through the first part, a peak is reached before the sound retreats, only to build again to a powerful climax with atonal and disturbing squealing and rubbing on the hurdy-gurdy; however, in a tantalizing move, the part ends when it gets hot (perhaps unfortunately due to the side-length limit for a vinyl record release).
On the second part, Haino picks up his electric guitar, first meandering with one-note-at-a-time melodies using a piercing tone; again, halfway through this part, things get quiet and minimal with a sparseness and occasional guitar stabs. Haino speaks, saying lines such as “I saw a spirit speaking to me. Do you still have a mystery?” and “No one can change anything! I keep on changing!”
The chaotic and harrowing ending is worth the wait, with a barrage of apocalyptic sound. Clearly, Haino is in the spotlight, both with theatrics and sonic variation, but recalling Haino’s hand motions at the trio’s Knoxville show, this writer believes that Haino recognized the imbalance and wanted to push his bandmates more. Still, O’Malley and Ambarchi provide an intense bed of electrified nails on which Haino is free to dance.
Rez Abbasi
Unfiltered Universe
(Whirlwind)
Jazz guitarist and composer Rez Abbasi was born in Pakistan but was raised in the United States, where he grew up listening to hard rock and prog rock and picked up the guitar; after shifting to jazz, in his twenties he took an interest in the music of Pakistan and India, but his relationship with south Asian music, and how he uses it in the jazz idiom, isn’t straightforward.
Abbasi’s sextet Invocation features an incredible array of talent, including pianist Vijay Iyer, alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, drummer Dan Weiss, bassist Johannes Weidenmueller and guest cellist Elizabeth Mikhael.
Abbasi’s new album Unfiltered Universe, created with his Invocation lineup, is spirited and sophisticated; it’s consciously directed without feeling rigid, with the players allowed to show their individual strengths. Nimble runs from Abbasi pepper the album, with his electric guitar tone using a hint of overdrive distortion, so that each note remains clear, without any mud to hide in.
One particular Indian influence is the inclusion of jugalbandi duets, which in Indian classical music are performances featuring twin soloists who are “tied together,” as suggested by the word “jugalbandi.”
On “Turn of Events,” the quick interplay between Abbasi’s guitar and Mahanthappa’s sax is breathtaking, with the two players lining up at key moments with a natural, unforced synchronicity, before diverging.
The rhythmic precision is also remarkable between the players; for example, the beginning of “Disagree to Agree” features chords cycling through a progression with a ramping tempo, with the players tuned in with each other in an impressive mind-meld.
One thing the listener might notice is that there are no Indian instruments, such as the sitar or tablas. Also, there isn’t the use of blatant Carnatic (southern Indian classical) scales.
Instead, Abbasi’s compositions are very much rooted in the jazz world with subtle Indian influences, where he relies upon his sidemen’s own internal jazz-Indian hybrids—the result is an influence that is more organic and natural, relying less on formal structures to manifest itself.