The Sevens is Tim Berne's most explicitly "compositional" statement in some time. The album's core, a pair of through-composed movements performed by the ARTE saxophone quartet, could serve as an apotheosis of Berne's chamber writing. Repulsion features four melodies (or is it one melody in four voices?), variously in dialogue or in chorus. Moving through a range of tonal colors, the piece reflects both Berne's fondness for friction and his less-celebrated sensitivity. In fact, certain sections sound almost wistful, as Berne cloaks his dissonances in subtle shadows.
In Quicksand, the centerpiece of the album, the ARTE Quartett is joined by Berne and Marc Ducret, both of whom provide improvised commentary above and around what's on the page. Here, in one piece, is a fulfillment of the yin-yang ethos inherent in Berne's work, the tensile balance between composition and improvisation.
On The Sevens, the process of interpretation assumes several different shapes. First, there's the conventional notion of improvisation on a theme. Then there's the subtler way in which Ducret personalizes the solo miniatures Sequel Why and Sequel Ex-two fairly divergent takes of the same hauntingly pretty song. Finally, there's the more radical manner of interpretation seen in Reversion and Tonguefarmer-both of which are the product of studio manipulation at the hands of guitarist/programmer David Torn. This last procedure, a collaborative effort, stretches the bounds of "composition" in clearly contemporary ways. Reversion, the first of these pieces, is essentially a remix of Repulsion, with significant modifications. Tonguefarmer, the second of Torn's remixes, is essentially a palimpsest consisting of successive layers of exposition.
For Berne, The Sevens, with its various interpretive assignations, was "probably the hardest one to make, of records I've made, in a long time." For an artist steeped in self-jurisdiction, surrendering even a portion of the product can be a terrifying prospect. Which is exactly why he did it. "Whatever the thing is that I'm least secure with, I tend to want to expose that and face it, in a way." Accordingly, The Sevens ultimately resembles neither his eighties albums nor the live recordings of the nineties-instead defining a new Tim Berne paradigm, an uncertain but surprisingly smooth continuum expressing what the composer calls "unity through contrast."
After a period of silence, Tim Berne is back with a flurry of recorded activity. The composer/saxophonist released sessions in a binge manner from the mid-1980s through the mid-90s, first Columbia, then later JMT. He went on to start his own label Screwgun to document his activities and release long out-of-print music by himself and his mentor Julius Hemphill.
But then he needed these numerous discs to document his varied bands and associations from Bloodcount (with Chris Speed, Michael Formanek, and Jim Black), and Miniature (Herb Robertson and Joey Baron) to varying bands with David Sanborn, John Zorn, Marc Ducret, Tom Rainey, and the Italian band Enton Eller.
After this brief silence comes a flood of significant recordings including: The Shell Game (Thirsty Ear) with drummer Tom Rainey and Craig Taborn on electronics/keyboards, Open, Coma (Screwgun) recorded with the 13-piece Copenhagen Art Ensemble, Science Friction (Screwgun) with Taborn, Ducret and Rainey. These sessions of late find Berne adding electronics to his compositions from keyboards to digital effects.
The Sevens explains Tim Berne's vision of the history of music, from composed to improvised to re-mixed. Although all the compositions on this disc are by Berne, he only plays his alto saxophone on one track, "Quicksand." It is the centerpiece of this recording. The twenty-five minute, twenty-second track has Berne and guitarist Marc Ducret improvising over and around the chamber saxophone quartet's playing. But then, I am getting ahead of myself.
The disc opens with the ARTE saxophone quartet playing Berne's composition "Repulsion," (think chamber music) a four melody dialogue. He then has sound engineer (think DJ) remix "Repulsion" into "Reversion," chock full of studio effects. The stuff DJ's do. Finally, Berne and Ducret revisit "Repulsion" on "Quicksand" with the ARTE Quartet, playing along and improvising throughout the chamber quartet's playing. He has thus spanned the (abbreviated as it may be) history of music from composed to improvised to the modern re-mix.
Berne even repeats these experiments on a smaller scale with Ducret's solo guitar on "Sequel Why," which was recorded a second time as "Sequel Ex." Both tracks are followed up with David Torn's sonic redistribution (Berne's terminology, not mine) of the Ducret improvisation of the Berne composition. It all makes perfect sense. - Mark Corroto
Tracks
1. Repulsion (Tim Berne)
2. Sequel Why (Tim Berne)
3. Reversion Tim Berne/David Torn)
4. Quicksand (Tim Berne)
5. Tonguefarmer (Tim Berne/Marc Ducret/David Torn)
6. Sequel EX (Tim Berne)
MARC DUCRET acoustic guitar (tracks: 2, 4, 5, 6)
SASCHA ARMBRUSTER alto saxophone (tracks: 1, 2, 3)
BEAT KAPPELER baritone saxophone (tracks: 1, 2, 3)
DAVID TORN electric guitar, effects, loops (tracks: 3, 5)
BEAT HOFSTETTER soprano saxophones (tracks: 1, 2, 3)
TIM BERNE alto saxophone (track 3)
Recorded December 18-19, 2001 at DRS 2 Radio Studio, Zürich, Switzerland
Beat Hofstetter, Sascha Srmbruster, Andrea Formenti and Beat Kappeler together are the ARTE Quartet.
New World Records - 80586-2