A 2023 set from Parkins (harp), Brown (piano, electronics), Winant (percussion) and Davis (cello), the first three of whom, at least, were teaching at Mills College where the music was recorded so, in a sense, a kind of faculty recital.
The eight pieces are improvisations and, happily, for the most part, they avoid the crowded, rough and tumble approach one may have expected, although the brief first track, "Minotaur", fits snugly in that vein. But beginning with "Far", the quartet allows much more space into the session, letting things unfurl in a more expansive, thoughtful manner. Davis' cello line, plaintive and almost evocative of Messiaen, leads into delicate harp pluckings and well-considered piano; a tense but reflective mood is established from which contributions emerge naturally and unforced. The following cut, "Spinner", retains the thoughtfulness but adds a rich, quasi-tonal element that provides the barest hint of droniness and languor, quite dreamy and lovely.
The remaining shorter tracks pretty much revert to the hyperactive mode but not so "Archean" and the closing "Metamorphosis". The former, via muted gong and bell tones (from whom is difficult to say), generates a gently undulating bed for piano and scraped strings to roll across. Indeed, both approaches meld wonderfully together on that final track, where the density and flurries of activity stem much more evocatively and smoothly from the opening, foggy eeriness. The percolating music of the last several minutes has the aspect of a large colony of entities, human or otherwise, seen going about its daily, scurrying business. A fine and fitting conclusion to an evocative set.
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