990 - Sainkho Namtchylak et Evan Parker "Mars Songs"

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To my knowledge this is the first time Evan Parker has recorded with a vocalist (both musicians appeared on a 1993 Leo double-CD, Synergetics / Phonomanie III, but performed together only briefly, and not in a duet setting). But don’t expect Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Evan Parker Songbook. Like Chick Corea, now Namtchylak sings, now she sobs. Not metaphorically, but really. Now she cries, growls, hums, chatters, chirps, and, yes, throat sings, producing a weird high tone in harmony with herself. Anyone expecting anything resembling conventional Western singing need not look into this one.

Yet it is a striking artistic statement. Parker’s playing is precise and empathetic. Namtchylak produces a huge array of sounds that intertwine with the sounds of Parker’s instrument to create a hypnotic tapestry. A thousand moods and emotions are evoked and transmuted. Parker is a paradox: he always sounds like himself, and to the casual listener might seem to be forever recycling a few formulas. And yet the intricacy of his attentiveness to whomever he is playing with, and his adaptibility, is on a level with the very greatest tenor and soprano players, even his mentor Coltrane. While Mars Song is not for those who cannot do without established song forms and traditional patterns of tension and release, it is an immensely rewarding musical document

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All About Jazz

917 - Evan Parker & John Wiese "C - Section"

Featuring Evan Parker on tenor & soprano saxes and John Wiese on electronics, tape and MSP. Although British saxist extraordinaire, Evan Parker, certainly needs no introduction, noise musician, John Wiese, also has an impressive resume with dozens of discs released under his own name, as well as collaborations with Merzbow, Sunn O))), KK Null, Lasse Marhaug, Pain Jerk & Wolf Eyes, a noisy bunch to say the least. Over the past few years, Evan Parker, has been working with more electronic musicians and assorted sound manipulators, so this collaboration should come as no surprise. What is surprising is how well it works to both of their advantages. It says on the CD to be played at maximum volume, so that is what I did at home. Starting with "The Jist", Evan's spiraling soprano is at the center of the storm with thick yet well-sculptured swirling layers of electronic/noise sounds. The electronic/noise sounds are rather industrial in their sonic textures, it often sounds as if the sounds are erupting with controlled violence. Another thing that this reminds me of is music concrete, popular in France in the fifties and sixties, when composers manipulated sounds by splicing tape. What I dig about this is the way Evan plays soprano, twisting and bending his notes, as well as repeating certain phrases, it works perfectly with John's equally twisted sonic landscape. "Little Black Book" is shorter and more restrained, yet just as effective with fractured sax and more spacious electronics in a rich yet subtle tapestry. On "No Shoes" it sounds like John is taking Evan's sax sounds and manipulating them further, looping certain lines in a more hypnotic way. The final piece, the oddly titled "Dog Cesarean" is the longest and most focused, evolving slowly through different sections. The music has a sort of calm center with kaleidoscopic noise swirling around the sax. Brilliant or too much, I guess that depends on your mood or stamina. — Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

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