JOSHUA ABRAMS / ジョシュア・エイブラムス / REPRESENCING / レコード

かつてTHE ROOTSに所属し、現在までにPREFUSEやJIM O'ROURKE、SAVATH + SAVALAS、JEFF PARKER(TORTOISE)、自身ソロでのヒップホップ/ブレイクビーツ・ユニットREMINDER等々、数々のバンドやユニットでポスト・ロック~ジャズ、ヒップホップとジャンルを飛び越えベーシストを務め賞賛を浴びてきたシカゴの凄腕音響ベース奏者、ジョシュア・エイブラムスの2ndアルバム。モロッコの伝統楽器、ゲンブリを中心に様々な楽器の音色がに重なり、そこにクラウトロックの要素が加わる辺境ミニマル・ジャズ。
ドン・チェリーやサン・ラなどの宇宙的グルーヴが好きな方にはたまらない一枚です。シルクジャケも美しい。


Personnel:

Abrams guimbri, organ, ms20, harps, bells, harmonium, mpc
Lisa Alvarado gong & harmonium (B1,4,5)
Mikel Avery drums (B1&2)
David Boykin tenor saxophone (A1&3)
Emmett Kelly electric & acoustic guitars (B1&4)
Nicole Mitchell flutes (B3)
Jeff Parker electric guitar (B5)
Tomeka Reid cello (B2)
Jason Stein bass clarinet (B3)
Chad Taylor gong & drums (A1&2)
Michael Zerang tambourine (B5)

represencing is the second installment of the joshua abrams sound world introduced on his 2010 eremite album natural information.  recorded at home in chicago summer of 2011, abrams again organizes small group statements around the resonant grooves of the north african ceremonial instrument the guimbri with a unique & broadly assimilative compositional voice.  sources from traditional musics to minimalism, jazz to krautrock, animate represencing, but Abrams is always grounded in the solidity of true working musicianship & he proves himself an artist fluent not just in styles but traditions. 

abrams' guest musicians embrace his polyglot approach.  goaded (the guimbri is partly constructed from animal-hide) by abrams to focus on a particular facet of their musical vocabularies, jeff parker & emmett kelly appear as finely contrasting rhythm guitarists, michael zerang gets virtuosic on a tambourine & david boykin devotes himself to altissimo long-tones & circular breathing.  others perform more structural roles, such as jason stein's bass clarinet, or, as with nicole mitchell's diaphanous choir of flute parts, function as landscape.  the moondog-influenced "sungazer" is an aria for tomeka reid's spirited cello.  throughout the album gong rhythms, synthesizer "sub" bass, harmonium & organ return as unifying coloristic elements.  abrams likens the overall experience to "entering a forest from different directions," & cites the AACM, sandy bull's duets with billy higgins, don cherry, arnold dreyblatt, hamza el din, popul vuh, & pharaoh sanders as inspirations.