SOLO WORKS
REVIEWS
ALL ABOUT JAZZ.COM, Oct. 1999, USA (Glenn Astarita) : SOLOWORKS AND TWINSBelgian acoustic guitarist Gilbert Isbin enjoys performing as a solo artist or within duet and trio settings. A veteran of the European jazz scene and involvement in documentaries film or dance, Isbin illustrates his multifold approach on two recent works, one of which is titled, Solo Works as Isbin goes it alone on classical and prepared classical guitar. Here, Isbin displays a good degree of ingenuity finesse and masterful technique as he whips through 13 seemingly improvised pieces.
Isbin performs with a vengeance on such an assumedly delicate instrument. Whether performing lush harmonics or practically battering his acoustic guitar into submission, Isbin is not lacking ideas or a sense of purpose. On many tracks, Isbin explores an abundance of motifs and unorthodox approaches while at times extracting unusual or perhaps unimaginable sounds from his ax. Unlike free-improv guitar god Derek Bailey, Isbin carves out thematic passages which almost seem composed yet is prone to detune his guitar or hammer his strings with blazing speed. Essentially, Isbin scolds his instrument or perhaps implements many things, which are not meant to be! Energy and effect are key as Isbin often discards the fundamentals in favor of dynamism coupled with nuance, poise and oddball voicings yet Isbin emits a sense of continuity along with his bold aggression and unusual permutations. It is safe to say Isbin stretches matters to the limits of perception and comprehension while twisting his classical guitar into knots as he fervently pursues strange sounds and at times, discordant themes.
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A haunted and minimalistic music like Paul Bley can play.
AKUSTIK GITARRE (n°3, 4 Jahrg, 1997, Germany)
On his newest CD Soloworks you can hear 13 short compositions which ask an intellectual challenge of the listener and point out new directions for the guitar.
PLANET JAZZ (Spring 99, Canada, Ethan Zames)
This is one of the most exciting guitar Cds I've heard in a long time.
MUSINGS.COM, Aug.1999, UK, (Richard Cochrane)Isbin is a classical guitarist who performs his own compositions. If early influences from Paul Bley and Bill Evans imply an impressionistic, tonal player, however, nothing could be more inaccurate. Here are pieces full of extended techniques and preparations; Isbin's love of piano music has expanded to include Cecil Taylor and Marilyn Crispell in later years, and it certainly shows.
Isbin has a fiendishly powerful technique; he's able to play fast and loud without falling back on cliche. Working with preparations is easy enough when the style is soft and reflective, but in this energetic, quick-changing music it's almost impossibly difficult, especially in a solo setting. Derek Bailey is one virtuoso who famously expressed a lack of interest in preparations, finding them too unwieldy for his mercurial style; Isbin proves here that it can be done, that exciting and dynamic music can come from the most awkward of modifications.
These pieces can reach apoplectic levels of activity, as on the frenzied and ear-boggling "Ogle". Not everything on this disc has the same headlong rush to it, however, and it comes across as anything but hectoring. Tracks like "Toeka" and "Nuances" are more spacious, and the sequence of thirteen pieces, all fairly short, works as a satisfying whole. Indeed, the sheer variety on this disc can, at first, obscure the consistency of vision which these pieces share; the wild, hammering tachism, the Stepan Rak-like trilling arpeggios, the scrapes and rattles, the Cagean preparations, the percussive sounds, single-note lines and big, dramatic chording.
It's remarkable, then, that Isbin's style manages to remain coherent throughout. Where many classical guitar compositions have been plagued by gimmicky compendia of "new sounds", Isbin has gone far beyond that first flush of novelty, and his compositions work as more than just technical work-outs. In short, Isbin is one of the most enthralling avant-classicists around. He may be one step back from the edge of the envelope, but that just gives him the perspective to make his music as intelligent as it is. Highly recommended to all, and indispensible for guitarists and afficionados of the instrument.
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Eugene DOLGIKH
You will definitely agree with the fact that Belgian jazz is hardly known in Russia. Not too long ago, Ivan Paduart, a pianist, was on a short tour in this country – everybody noticed the guest’s excellent technique and outstanding mastery of improvisation, and his ability to perform standard as well as his own mainstream-style masterpieces to the highest level.
And now we introduce to you another Belgian jazzman, the guitarist Gilbert Isbin. He is not mainstream; he plays non-classical music on a classic guitar. He has developed a unique “percussion” technique of sound generation; his manner is extremely dynamic and even jerky – at one moment, his guitar moans and bursts with cascades of sounds, and at another it jingles-taps-rustles, while a special treatment of the instrument fills the music with unusual timbres.
If you think that this is something regular, rhythmic and lively, you are wrong. Isbin belongs to the cohort of spontaneous improvisators – the closest to his style are Derek Bailey and John Russell from England. However, the Belgian jazzman does not follow their style – the total destruction of harmony and melody, and the ecstasy from guitar sounds and tones as they are – you will always find a line to follow in his music. Yet, this line is rather uneven and slips away at every turn: the musician is jumping from one theme to another all the time, from one trick to the following. On the other hand, all of his compositions rest upon a combination of distinct, fixed tricks and tunes, so any kind of chaos is ruled out.
We are facing an interesting phenomenon: where music clings to some internal structure within spontaneous improvisation, we see that external effects, such as a play of timbres and unusual sounding, acquire clear meaning and are perceived as something well-organized. I have to admit that while listening to Isbin, it is hardly possible to find some kind of delay, pure admiration for sound: he tries to fill every piece of music with clear meaning and manages to succeed. The album is listened to in one go and with no lack of interest. It can be recommended to all lovers of free improvisation, as well as to those who are just curious: every unorthodox listener will definitely find something for himself in there.