Reviews that mention Mark Wastell
September 22, 2021
A More Attractive Way
Confront Core Series/Core 21
Wadada Leo Smith
Sacred Ceremonies
TUM Records Box 03
Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp
Embrace of the Souls: Special Edition Box
SMP 2020
Something in the Air: Box Sets mark musical Milestones
By Ken Waxman
Like other out-of-the-ordinary keepsakes, boxed sets of recorded music are issued to celebrate a special occasion, to honor an unrepeatable situation or to assemble all parts of a unique situation. Each of these sets fit one of these criteria. MORE
May 23, 2021
Spencer Grady/Fermata Ark/Mark Wastell
Thus: Excerpts from a Smaller Work
Confront core 15
Gelber Flieder
Ölbaumgewächse
Creative Sources CS 626 CD
Working with electronic processing plus post-creation mixing and mastering is a skill now added to the trick bag of improvisers. With these considerations come new resolutions to emphasize the live feel over the programming or vice versa. These trios offer an opposite decision to the equation which makes each CD compelling.
Ölbaumgewächse or olive tree reproduces a brief live concert by Gelber Flieder or the Yellow lilac band. Despite the verdant references there’s nothing particularly rustic about the Paris performance except when the three harmonize vocally on a simple ditty at the top. Other than that, action involves extruding squeaks, slurs and synthesized sounds. Featured are German alto saxophoneist Luise Volkmann, who has worked with the likes of Eve Riser, Portuguese violist João Camões, who has recorded with Jean-Marc Foussat and French electronics/objects improviser Yves Arques of Ensemble Maât. Mostly off centre and bracketed with whooshing oscillations, the acoustic instruments maintain the exposition with long-lined reed trills and sliding fiddle sweeps that become more staccato as Volkmann’s strategy accelerates to vocalized smears. Eventually the violist introduce banjo-like pizzicato twanging and the saxophonist tongue slaps that join Arques’ cuckoo-clock-like echoes and door-stopper-like vibrations in double counterpoint, reaching a climax of stretched tones that criss-cross while intersecting. Finally as the programmed undertow becomes terser, sul ponticello string lines and whistling reed glissandi predominate until individual timbres unite and dissolve. MORE
May 3, 2021
Twenty
Confront Core Series core 17
Marking an extended musical alliance a with cusp-of-Covid-lockdown concert, the Sealed Knot trio convened for a nearly hour-long concert which indicated how its blend of noisy and muted tension-release has been refined over 20 years together. Ranging through build up, synthesis and dissolving timbres during a nearly hour-long set, Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies plus British multi-instrumentalist Mark Wastell and German percussionist Burkhard Beins used amplification, silences and integrated tones to their fullest and near-singular expression. Veterans of multiple associations that encompasses Wastell’s work with the likes of Simon H. Fell, Davies with John Butcher and Beins with Michael Vorfeld, the trio’s voice is non-doctrinaire, as reductionist and ambient echoes share space with outbursts that could migrate to Free Jazz or Metal sessions. MORE
August 17, 2020
Virtual Company
Confront core series/core 12
A gimmick that transcends its gimmickry, Virtual Company is a purposeful matching of live and pre-recorded sounds from living and dead musicians to sophisticatedly create a never to be repeated concert. Unlike other discs which grafted a modern rhythm section onto Charlie Parker solos or used technology to forge a duet between Natalie and Nat King Cole, bassist Simon H. Fell used random algorithms to organize a live session featuring the on-the-spot improvising of himself and cellist Mark Wastell with fragments taken from solos by guitarist Derek Bailey (1930-2005) and tap dancer Will Gaines (1928-2014), separated by numerous pre-recorded silences. Critically this experiment works even better as an audio session than it probably did at the London club in which it was created. For while the live audience would have noted the absence of two players all are aurally present during the over 46½ minute performance. MORE
May 25, 2020
Max Eastley/Fergus Kelley/Mark Wastell
The Map is not the Territory
Confront core series core 08
There’s a feeling engendered while listening to the eight tracks which make up The Map is not the Territory that the item on hand is an art object not a music CD. Of course music is art, but the sonority seems poised between stasis and progression rather than harmonic evolution from introduction to finale.
This shouldn’t be surprising since two of three participants usually are part of the fine arts museum and gallery scene rather than the gigging musician world. Dublin-based Fergus Kelly, who plays invented instruments, found metals and electronics here, is a sound artist and founder of a local field recordings association with his work used in soundtracks, tape/slide performances, installations and soundworks for radio, and public spaces. More oriented towards music, London’s Max Eastley, who on this disc plays an arc or electro-acoustic monochord, usually combines kinetic sculpture and sound, often from natural environment. He has collaborated though with the likes of Steve Beresford and Axel Dörner. Meanwhile Mark Wastell, who concentrates on tam tam, metal percussion and piano frame, is part of regular groups featuring full-time players such as Rhodri Davies and Graham Halliwell. MORE
April 8, 2020
Sound Mirrors
Confront core series core 10
Adapting rare strategies, two veteran British improvisers work out a set of unconventional string and percussion duets that revamp their instruments expected timbres on this notable disc. Someone who assembled a style out of acoustic folk-like references plus interaction with improvises ranging from Dave Holland to Chris Abrahams; Mike Cooper expresses himself here on lap steel guitar and electronics. Meanwhile Mark Wastell, whose cello work has been featured with the likes of Chris Burn and Rhodri Davies, instead uses tam tam, percussion and shruti box on Sound Mirrors’ six selections. MORE
July 24, 2019
John Coltrane 50th Memorial Concert at Café Oto
Confront Recordings Core 07
More than a half-century after his death tributes to saxophonist John Coltrane are still being produced, although the focus has gone from memorials by his contemporaries to tributes by those who have been affected by his music. So it is on this exemplary two-CD set by a group of mostly British improvisers who are fully in Trane’s orbit. On the 50th anniversary of the saxophonist’s death, they created live interpretations of two of Coltrane’s iconic, late-period works, “Sun Ship” and “Ascension”. MORE
December 15, 2011
Kiss of Acid
Monotype REC Mono 033
Taking full advantage of the re-compositional techniques now possible with granular synthesis and other inventive software programs, Norwegian electronics-manipulator Lasse Marhaug and British percussionist Mark Wastell combine to produce a dense sound program that while riveting, handily dispenses with acoustic properties.
Originally a cellist, Wastell’s work in the 1990s with the likes of pianist Chris Burn and harpist Rhodri Davies among others, was linked most strongly to reductionism. But before the 21st century was too old, the London-based musician began concentrating on so-called amplified textures, using preparations and particular sound sources to create unique percussion programs. Kiss of Acid’s nearly 42-minute single track, for instance, is based on an extended tam-tam or tuned gong improvisation Wastell recorded in 2004. The next year Arctic Circle-born, Oslo-based Marhaug spent nine months restructuring and recomposing the existing piece. Marhaug, who regularly works with the noise-improv band Jazkamer, is very cognizant of percussion and the allure of improvisation, playing often with drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and as part of alto saxophonist Frode Gjerstad’s Circulasione Totale Orchestra. MORE
May 27, 2010
And we disappear
Another Timbre at23
Activity Center
Lohn & Brot
Absinth Records 017
SLW
Fifteen point nine grams
Organized Music from Thessaloniki 107
Negotiating the chasm among noise, improv and notated music is Berlin-based Burkhard Beins, who over the past decade or so has solidified his identity as a sound artist as well as a percussionist. While not for the aurally squeamish – or the traditional jazzer – there are numerous exhilarating instances of timbre blending and sound collaging among this trio of discs. MORE
June 6, 2008
A Calculus of Loss
Clean Feed CF 104 CD
Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley
A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves
Another Timbre at06
Kidd Jordan/Kali Z. Fasteau
LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland
Flying Note FNCD 9012
Scott Fields
Bitter Love Songs
Clean Feed CF 102 CD
Open Loose
Strange Unison
Radio Legs RL 013
By Ken Waxman
Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch. MORE
June 6, 2008
LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland
Flying Note FNCD 9012
Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley
A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves
Another Timbre at06
Scott Fields
Bitter Love Songs
Clean Feed CF 102 CD
Open Loose
Strange Unison
Radio Legs RL 013
Jason Stein
A Calculus of Loss
Clean Feed CF 104 CD
By Ken Waxman
Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch. MORE
June 6, 2008
Bitter Love Songs
Clean Feed CF 102 CD
Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley
A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves
Another Timbre at06
Kidd Jordan/Kali Z. Fasteau
LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland
Flying Note FNCD 9012
Open Loose
Strange Unison
Radio Legs RL 013
Jason Stein
A Calculus of Loss
Clean Feed CF 104 CD
By Ken Waxman
Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch. MORE
June 6, 2008
Strange Unison
Radio Legs RL 013
Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley
A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves
Another Timbre at06
Kidd Jordan/Kali Z. Fasteau
LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland
Flying Note FNCD 9012
Scott Fields
Bitter Love Songs
Clean Feed CF 102 CD
Jason Stein
A Calculus of Loss
Clean Feed CF 104 CD
By Ken Waxman
Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch. MORE
June 6, 2008
Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley
A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves
Another Timbre at06
Kidd Jordan/Kali Z. Fasteau
LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland
Flying Note FNCD 9012
Scott Fields
Bitter Love Songs
Clean Feed CF 102 CD
Open Loose
Strange Unison
Radio Legs RL 013
Jason Stein
A Calculus of Loss
Clean Feed CF 104 CD
By Ken Waxman
Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch. MORE
August 4, 2006
Done
Quakebasket 24
With consort defined as an ensemble, the musicians here have chosen a particularly apt name for their band. While the two extended middle tracks features all three improvisers, track one breaks out harpist Rhodri Davies and the final track features only trumpeter Matt Davis and cellist Mark Wastell.
Considering that each player – all British – extends his instrument’s output with electronics, preparations and amplified textures that create additional pulsations and triggered sound loops, subtracting players from the trio doesn’t necessarily result in what could commonly be termed a duo or solo performance. When all three are present and accounted for, the converse is true. Vibrational and timbral pitches heard don’t necessarily give the listener any idea of the size of the group or which instruments are being played. MORE
October 10, 2005
Unwanted Object
Confront
Davies/Hayward/Ekhardt/Capece
Amber
Creative Sources
The Cortet
HHHH
Unsounds
By Ken Waxman
October 9, 2005
Visions of formally attired symphonic types producing shimmering glissandi, or alternately of Harpo Marx manhandling the luminescent strings, remain in most folks’ minds when they think of harpists. That may be why the 47-string symphony harps or smaller 34-string Celtic harps are usually musically underrepresented except for their coloration qualities. MORE
June 6, 2005
Never Give Up On The Margins Of Logic
Antioptic AN006/LS002
MAGARIDA GARCIA/MATTIN
For Permitted Consumption
L’innomable 04
More dispatches from the electro-acoustic edge of the improv equation, appreciation of these two short CDs depends on your acceptance of pure textural sound unprettified with melody, structure or harmony – sound linked to the mechanism only available in the late 20th and 21st centuries.
With hiss and static counting as much as elaborated tones, one of the most mystifying products of the creation is that the five musicians involved in Sakada produce no more extended nor resonant tones than the two players featured on FOR PERMITTED CONSUMPTION. MORE
December 13, 2004
First Meeting
Trente Oiseaux
MS4
Mark Wastell/Mattin
Vault
w.m.o/r
By Ken Waxman
December 13, 2004
Going beyond expected instrumental tone and textures -- and even instruments themselves -- is the focus of many younger improvisers, and these two CDs show just how far this concept can be stretched.
Connecting these two is the inventions of London’s Mark Wastell, who usually makes his mark as a cellist, but on First Meeting plays Nepalese prayer bowls, gong and amplified textures, and on Vault just the last. His partners on the former are fellow Brit Graham Halliwell on alto saxophone and feedback and German Bernhard Günter on electric cellotar, while the latter is a duo with Barcelona-based Mattin on computer feedback. MORE
April 19, 2004
Relay
Spool Field SPF 304
KAZUSHIGE KINOSHITA/YOICHIRO SHIN
EKE
Hibari Music hmcdr-13
MARK WASTELL/TAKU UNAMI
small sounds in a quiet round
Hibari Music hmcdr-14
Textures produced with silences and non-traditional instruments are the points of congruence for these Canadian and Japanese sessions. Drawing on the timbres that arise from mixing percussion, turntables and electronics, Toronto-based Mike Hansen and Tomasz Krakowiak have come up with a CD as engaging as their earlier collaboration with British reedist John Butcher. MORE
December 8, 2003
Surface/Plane
Meniscus MNSCS012
PETER KOWALD/MIYA MASAOKA/GINO ROBAIR
Illuminations (Several Views)
Rastascan BRD 049
One percussionist, one musician who plays a four-string instrument and another whose equipment is strung with many multiples of strings make up both trios featured on these improv sessions. Yet despite these points of congruence, they’re as different as hot dogs and fish-and-chips, as one featured two Americans, the others two Brits.
Actually it’s the third man -- coincidentally a German -- who probably best defines the differences. ILLUMINATIONS (SEVERAL VIEWS) features the late Peter Kowald combining his bass fiddle and basso voice with Miya Masaoka’s kotos and Gino Robair’s percussion on 16 furious, roaring take-no-prisoners sound pieces. MORE
March 17, 2003
Still point
Rossbin RS 007
AKIYAMA/NAKAMURA/SUGIMOTO/WASTELL
Foldings
Confront 12
Silence and the overtones associated with near silence are the guiding factors of these CDs, which both include British cellist Mark Wastell. With textural space on show and protracted electro-acoustic wheezes characterizing many of the abstractions here, neither of the two chamber-style quartets could be confused with conventional jazz, rock or New music ensembles. Neither sounds like the other either. All of which proves that there are as many variations of near silence as there are types of noise. MORE
January 13, 2003
Ghost Notes
Bruce’s Fingers BF 28
A string trio with a difference, IST explores both notated and improvised music with a line up of cello, double bass and harp. But considering its members -- cellist Mark Wastell, harpist Rhodri Davies and bassist Simon H. Fell -- have wide experience on both sides of the divide created by music paper, there’s no disconnect when it comes to the performances or instrumentation.
It’s often said in reviews that one can’t tell where the written music ends and the improvisations begin, but that isn’t a problem with this disc. The compositions by Phil Durrant, Stace Constantinou, Gusto Pryderi Puw, Carl Bergstrøm-Nielson, Wastell and Fell are clearly labeled, as are the four improvisations. What is more noteworthy, though, is that by using extended techniques and preparations, IST pushes its acoustic string instruments to the limit to create this thought-provoking CD, its third. MORE