COLIN FISHER QUARTET “Living Midnight” C53 (Astral Spirits)

Maybe it was an Astral Spirits reunion that kicked off the Colin Fisher Quartet’s sessions for “Living Midnight,” or maybe it was just the collaborative (or incestuous) relationship that these crazy jazz cats have among themselves. Regardless, Colin Fisher, Daniel Carter, Brandon Lopez, and Marc Edwards all ended up in the same room, and fortunately most of them brought their instruments. (I wasn’t there – I can’t vouch for everybody.) The result is a whip-smart collection of moonlit magic and ESP-aided (again, probably, since I wasn’t there) interplay that blew air into the lungs of the night and sent it on its adventurous way. This is that story.

Not one that I’m going to tell, that’s for sure! I gotta step back and let the players take center stage here, because this “Living Midnight” is a charmed foray into voodoo nocturnes and spellbound serenades. Stretching the quartet’s abilities over two lengthy sides, Fisher leads his cohorts like a shaman at a séance, each tune bursting to life and growing, expanding, evolving as the veil between the (astral) spirit world and ours becomes ever thinner, till we’re whirling through forests with ghosts. The inky blackness of the  wee hours is pierced by the glow of intense energy that flows like magma through the veins of Fisher, Carter, Lopez, and Edwards – heat and movement enliven everything around them.

Behold, the “Living Midnight”!

https://astralspirits.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

BRANDON LOPEZ “Quoniam Facta Sum Vilis” (Astral Spirits)

As track 2, “And the Deep Indoors,” shuddered to a close, I wasn’t sure if the vibrations were coming from my speakers or from outside; there’s construction in the development behind our house, and we can feel the rumble throughout the day.

Such is the visceral experience of Brandon Lopez’s “Quoniam Facta Sum Vilis,” which translates to “FOR I HAVE BECOME VILE IN THE EYES OF THE LORD” (all caps my addition for effect). That’s an insanely damning self-appraisal. To wallow in abjection is to truly plumb the depths for inspiration. How’d our friend Lopez do?

But first, I’m gonna bounce some promo copy off you for a minute, just to get the descriptive stuff out of the way: the “virtuoso bassist” created “Quoniam Facta Sum Vilis,” “in part, as an answer to the musical ‘reason’ of the Bach cello suites. … [He intended to compose] something florid and beautiful from the violent and erratic and to deny the supremacy of the wrote in favor of the intuitive.” So, it’s improvised. The Astral Spirits way.

We answer our earlier question with, “Pretty well, actually.” Cello’s not a solo instrument with a wide spectrum of sonic possibilities, yet I find myself transfixed to the unusual approach Lopez is taking with it. Instead of fluid passages, Lopez juts and jags around the strings, ratcheting up the tension and not really letting us off with any less than a rattled feeling. It’s constantly interesting (not that the Lord would find any of this amusing), and you never know what’s going to happen next. And all this with a cello! I’ll never make fun of bass players again.

And what the heck is going on at the beginning of “Gruppo”? Are those shrieks? A power drill? Add that to the construction symphony outside my window – it can join in with the bulldozers and excavators.

Brandon Lopez

Astral Spirits


--Ryan

BRANDON LOPEZ “quoniam facta sum vilis” C37 (Astral Spirits)

From the low toque flutter of “Lay” to the run-aground boat-wail of “Pa,” Brandon Lopez shreds bow over contrabass strings with frontal lobe violence. His third solo album, quoniam facta sum vilis (see Lamentations 1:11), is partly a response to Bach’s six well-trodden cello suites. Avoiding paved common ground, Lopez constructs new rough surface. The album’s eight tunes glint murderous beauty as they push forward in rhythmic cycles like strangulated breath. Mostly recorded at the Horatio N. May Chapel in the Rosehill Cemetery (Chicago), the venue suits (or informs) the mood.

https://astrallopez.bandcamp.com/album/quoniam-facta-sum-vilis


--Rick Weaver