Pianism often has a bad name, in suggesting the instrument dominates what the instrumentalist wants to do or say. In “classical” music, the composer avoids the problem by being unashamedly pianistic. When the composer is also the performing musician, as in jazz, such dominance is more difficult to negotiate. Not the least of Kit Downes’s attributes is his success in doing so, especially on this album. It’s his third for ECM as leader, though the piano leads here only because it’s the most comprehensively equipped on show.
Downes, with bassist Petter Eldh and drummer James Maddren, are also known as Enemy, under which moniker they have recorded and toured; but in a typical ECM deconstruction they are listed here in their own individual right. Downes’s previous two albums for the company were the church organ-inspired Obsidian and Dreamlife Of Debris, the latter performed with a quintet. The three are all different, this one more probing and, well, pianistic. Downes and Eldh share the composer credits with five charts each. Jimi Hendrix’s Castles Made Of Sand is the final one.
With some room made for Eldh to solo – really a parting of a thin veil as he is ever active off the beat just two-thou behind the piano – these are almost all straight Downes features, with Maddren taking the art of accentuation to a level that would be self-effacing if it were not so fertile and resourceful.
Sister, Sister echoes Debussy in its descending figures; the theme of Minus Monks is concealed in swirling surface harmonies and figures which allow a telling repetitive phrase to break through its seductive revisions; and the fugitive, impressionistic opening of Seceda heralds a wider dynamic range and a modicum of quirkiness. The febrile Rolling Thunder, with its raindropped piano notes and shivering cymbals, is not so much a storm on the way as is Sandilands; and in Class Fails, pianism as the method of elegant disguise gives way to a mood that’s almost funky.
Discography
Minus Monks; Sister, Sister; Seceda; Plus Puls; Rolling Thunder; Sandilands; Waders; Class Fails; Bobbl’s Song; Math Amager; Castles Made Of Sand (43.29)
Downes (p); Eldh (b); Maddren (d). Lugano, May-June 2021.
ECM 3885003
