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Attempts to combine electronic artists with jazz artists in a recording or performance setting can often be clumsy and ineffective, often leaving the two camps in separate worlds while sharing the same space. Patrick Gleeson’s work with Herbie Hancock was successful, but they were the exception. Since the early 90s or even earlier, many contemporary acid jazz and nu jazz artists have made extensive use of electronics to good effect, but any attempt to fuse an electronic performer with a live band usually ends up with nothing more than some gratuitous scratching and repetitive sample bites that don’t really do a lot for the spirit of live improvisation.
In 2023, sound artist BlankFor.ms (Tyler Gilmore) set out with a new project in which he manipulated the live performances of pianist Jason Moran and drummer Marcus Gilmore and the result is one of the more successful mergers of live electronic artist and jazz artist to date, and it is all presented on Tyler’s album, “Refract”. In this performance, Marcus and Moran improvise while Tyler loops there efforts on the fly and in general morphs and bends what they play into new shapes. Their interplay is absolutely seamless, it is really hard to tell what is being played and what has already been played and is undergoing treatments, it’s a truly captivating performance and a real breakthrough in the world of improvisation. It doesn’t hurt that such creative and eclectic musicians such as Jason and Marcus are involved, Moran in particular is probably one of the most versatile and creative pianists happening today.
The music is very varied, moving from intense atonality to drifting ambience and many points in between. Some highlights include “Inward Curve”, on which Tyler takes Marcus’ busy drum work and turns it inside out while Moran takes flight on a solo. “Tape Loop A” also takes drumnbass type beats and scrambles them up. “Release”, features Moran’s piano work while Tyler grabs bits and pieces and loops them. This sort of busy activity is the highlight of the album, but there is also a fair amount of ambient tracks as well. The ambient tracks can be effective, but this sort of thing has been done before as some of this sounds like it could be on the next Roger Eno album. Unfortunately, for the last third of the album Marcus is barely present which is a shame. If these three do another project together, it would be nice to hear more of the scrambled beats and intense piano work outs.