With these extraordinary musicians, what a syncretism is here. What an amalgam of traditions and heritages.
Here are two bowmen. One is Kash Killion, an African-American cellist, bassist and virtuoso of the sarangi - a bowed northern Indian instrument - who has played not only with blues veterans like BB King but more usually with avant garde jazz geniuses from Sun Ra to Cecil Taylor, Julius Hemphill and Glen Spearman, as well as with many an Afro-Cuban salsa band.
The other is Stefano Pastor, born in Genoa, Italy, and trained as a classical violinist but who has now turned almost entirely to free expressions of jazz.
They combined in Pastor's home city in 2007 to record Bows, a sonic exploration of at least three continents.
The opener Obstinacy has a terse-stringed Pastor playing over Killion's grounding cello beat.
The Italian's searching, relentless quest for new patterns of notes precedes Killion's plucked undertow solo before Pastor returns, soaring and plunging simultaneously.
Shanti follows, and here the man born in Miles Davis's home town of Alton, Illinois, turns to his sarangi while Pastor's bow saws across his strings as the breath of his flugelhorn compound the resilient harmonies and dissonances.
The title track's stop-time passages, crescendos and growling cadences have the duo of bows at full pelt and achieving powerful union across musical epochs and geographies - a true jazz message.
The nearly 15 minutes of Ahimsa transport the listener's ears to an imagined India, full of sounds born in Europe and the Americas but without any Orientalist falsity, only sheer musical empathy and outreach.
Killion's sarangi has as much of the Mississippi as the Ganges.
It vibrates with intercontinentalism beside Pastor's comradely percussion, and his years of study with some of the great Indian masters like Ali Akbar Khan, Sultan Khan and Rhamish Mishra become fully evident.
The two Monk tunes on the album are despatched with rare invention and beauty. The rhythmic idiosyncrasies of Epistrophy are expressed with such zest, verve and authority that you forget that there are but two people performing and two bows creating such a complex sonic universe.
And the melody of Ruby My Dear has seldom sounded so tender as it does here, with Pastor's pure clarity and Killion's groundswell of plucked cello.
Monk's spirit is throbbing in full life.
Chris Searle Morning Star, 18 September 2012.
Italian violinist and multi-instrumentalist Stefano Pastor and Finnish violinist and
educator Ari Poutiainen in a jazz duo of warm and intensely evocative nuances
from several atmospheres. Squidco
Even for the SLAM Pastor Stephen signed another small masterpiece of improvisational violin.This time, along with Finnish colleague Ari Poutiainen thirty-nine, he is entirely homologous to that for standing artistic aesthetic approach.The two, who met with Anthony Barnett, an expert on jazz violin and author of the liner notes of the disc, met at the home of Pastor in October 2008 where they recorded about four hours of music, from which they were selected the ten songs that make up the CD, all short and medium length.
Between the two develops a fluid dialogue and congenial at all equal in a relationship, in which from time to time we exchange the role of voice and that of the first "shoulder" (but never banal, repetitive and accompanying dismissive).The rich timbre is guaranteed by the use of unorthodox instruments: violins are pinched, fondled, beaten, rubbed ...It is also sometimes added electronic interventions, due only to Pastor, inserting himself into the dominant structures and sometimes seem almost certain.
Materialize ten episodes so well characterized open for improvisation and absolute, hermetic and secretive as ever in some radical experiences (which have now given way to much creative approaches in a rather different, less fundamentalist).In this music the evolving narrative is always clear, melodic and rhythmic high quality, experimental research increasingly insistent and focused, but aims to express a dimension of communication, the atmosphere of well-defined hours of spirited punch, now a little 'disturbing now almost serene and at peace.The forty-minute CDs with great expressive synthesis contain the essence of the encounter between two human and musical performers of the leading violin improvisation.
ORIGINAL ITALIAN Ancora per la SLAM Stefano Pastor firma un altro piccolo capolavoro di improvvisazione violinistica. Questa volta assieme al collega finlandese trentanovenne Ari Poutiainen, a lui del tutto omologo sia per levatura artistica che per approccio estetico. I due, conosciutisi grazie a Anthony Barnett, esperto del violino jazz ed autore delle note di copertina del disco, si sono incontrati nell'ottobre 2008 a casa di Pastor dove hanno registrato circa quattro ore di musica, dalle quali sono stati selezionati i dieci brani che compongono il CD, tutti di lunghezza breve o media.
Fra i due si sviluppa un dialogo fluido e congeniale in un rapporto del tutto paritario, in cui di volta in volta ci si scambia il ruolo di prima voce e quello di "spalla" (mai però di banale, ripetitivo e rinunciatario accompagnamento). La ricchezza timbrica è garantita dall'uso eterodosso degli strumenti: i violini vengono pizzicati, accarezzati, percossi, sfregati... Inoltre si aggiungono talvolta gli interventi elettronici, dovuti solo a Pastor, che si inseriscono nelle strutture dominanti e a volte sembrano quasi determinarle.
Si materializzano così dieci episodi ben caratterizzati di improvvisazione aperta e assoluta, mai ermetica e reticente come in certe esperienze radicali (che oggi hanno decisamente ceduto il campo ad approcci creativi di segno diverso, meno integralisti). In questa musica l'evoluzione narrativa è sempre evidente, la qualità melodica e ritmica elevata, la ricerca sperimentale sempre insistita e concentrata, ma finalizzata ad una dimensione comunicativa esplicita, le atmosfere ben definite: ora di animosa incisività, ora un po' inquietanti, ora quasi serene e pacificate. I quaranta minuti del CD racchiudono con grande sintesi espressiva l'essenza dell'incontro umano e musicale fra due interpreti di spicco dell'attuale improvvisazione violinistica.
Di Libero Farnè http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=
STEFANO PASTOR/ARI POUTIAINEN - North South Dial (Slam 530; UK) Stefano Pastor on violin and minimal synth and Ari Poutiainen on violin. I've heard Italian-born violin master on numerous occasions from his half dozen duo & trio discs on the Slam label plus he has played here at DMG on a couple of occasions. I wasn't familiar with the other violinist, Ari Poutiainen, but it turns out that he has published his doctoral dissertation on 'A Fingering Strategy for Jazz Violin Improvisation'. Mr. Pastor has a completely distinctive tone and approach to the violin and has been known to use guitar strings on his instrument. Violin duos are certainly a rarity and this one sounds unlike anything I've heard, since both men have their own distinctive sound. On "Simmering Telluric Current", one violin sounds harsh, brittle and intense while the other creates a slightly less twisted drone. For "Cosmic Steam", it sounds as if both spirits are dancing around a flame, bending their notes around a disturbing melody that is hard to not be fascinated by. Sometimes two different ideas are explored simultaneously so that we hear strange harmonies. From time to time, Stefano adds bits of synth swirls to good effect, like a shadow or shade that add some dark depth. This duo is most often intense and powerful in their explorations. This is not music for the timid. An amazing adventure through old and new terrain. Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music GalleryJuly 2011
Involuntarily bastardizing the breed of purported virtuosos who display tendon-straining exercises to peacock in front of an audience, violinists Pastor and Poutiainen recorded a one-off session lasting approximately four hours on October 8, 2008 in Genoa – their first summit – from which this 40-minute CD was distilled. The musicians had prepared advance drafts to channel the bowed energies through, so don't be surprised in finding out that the results of this gathering of akin minds sound very much like structured improvisation. Both tending to a high degree of tone hoarseness (the Italian notoriously utilizes electric guitar strings for his instrument) they found several meeting points, including those where close intervals and extensively dragged pitches exalt the textural grain, giving birth to long arcs of serious dissonance informed by a minimalistic hillbilly-ness in some of the components. Pastor expands the palette via a synthesizer operated with a pedal, thus adding a smidgen of intangibility to certain sections ("Floating Under The Icecap" and especially "Mineraloids From Nowhere" being excellent examples). It's not just about stretched notes and puzzling resonances, though: the pair knows how to draw lines more consistently linked with intoxicatingly convoluted materials (check "Breathing Vault" and the conclusive "Chasing The Atmophile Elements"). Still, they manage to avoid any unnecessary swelling by leaving the rough qualities of the sounds emerge and dominate the environment with confidence and musicality to spare.
Massimo Ricci on February 1, 2012. http://touchingextremes.wordpress.com/
STEFANO PASTOR & ARI POUTIAINEN / North South Dial (Slam Productions)
Collaboration entre deux violonistes improvisateurs. Pastor adopte ici un style très textural (cordes frottées, presque en mode drone) et Poutiainen, un style plus lyrique, voire mélodique. Une rencontre inédite (c'était la première fois qu'ils étaient en présence l'un de l'autre), deux univers très différents qui font place l'un à l'autre. Intéressant.
Collaboration between two improvising violinists. Pastor goes for a highly textural approach (screeching strings, almost drone-like), while Poutiainen plays more lyrically and doesn't shy away from melodies. A first meeting (they had never been physically in the same room before), two very differnt soundworlds that make room for one another. Interesting.
François Couture http://blog.monsieurdelire.com/2011/07/2011-07-28-mathias-pontevia.html
O formato de duo de violinos é muitíssimo invulgar no campo
do jazz e da música criativa neste originada ou intersectada.
Em disco, só me lembro do de Carlos "Zíngaro"
e Dominique Pifarely num dos CDs de uma caixa editada
pela In Situ. Não certamente por acaso, dado o tipo de
investimento suposto pelo encontro documentado em
"North South Dial", o italiano Stefano Pastor e o finlandês
Ari Poutiainen não se limitam a "praticar" o violino;
também o pensam. O primeiro publicou o ensaio
"Violinjazz" em 2008, o outro fez o doutoramento com a
tese "Stringprovisation: A Fingering Strategy for Jazz Violin
Improvisation", em 2009.
Pensar o violino tem todas as implicações que aqui encontramos,
designadamente o ir mais além das metodologias
caucionadas pelo academismo. A esse nível, é um bom disco,
esclarecedor quanto ao estado presente do violino jazz, parecendo
que faz uma síntese dos procedimentos universais.
Tem dois senões, de qualquer modo: um é a tendência para
a exibição tecnicista, infelizmente própria tanto do jazz
como da matriz clássica de onde estes músicos provêm,
e o outro é o tipo de amplificação escolhido por Pastor.
Este utiliza um violino eléctrico, escolhendo uma abordagem
que não dista muito das de Sugar Cane Harris e Jean-
Luc Ponty entre as décadas de 1960 e 70. O problema não
está tanto nessa particularidade, tão legítima quanto todas
as demais, mas na desadequação que se verifica desta
sonoridade conotada com a fusão relativamente às situações
exploradas, inseríveis num âmbito "vanguardista" e de
pesquisa que nada tem que ver com as molduras jazz-rock.
Em contraste com o belíssimo som de Poutiainen, Pastor
é invariavelmente estridente, e os agudos que retira do
instrumento chegam a ser incomodativos.
Curiosamente, a sua gestão dos sinais do sintetizador é mais
criteriosa.Podia ser algo de intencional, mas não é esse o foco
da música que nos é dada a ouvir. Simplesmente, deixou-se
enredar pelos dilemas da amplificação do violino, os mesmos
que, por exemplo, afectam Jessica Pavone. Sendo que esta
é bem menos interessante do que Stefano Pastor. Projectar
o violino na era da electricidade e da alta-fidelidade não tem
sido fácil, e se uns o conseguem da melhor forma, outros
não. É o caso. Lembrou o infelizmente já desaparecido LeRoy
Jenkins que, num contexto musical em que há a presença de
instrumentos como a bateria e a guitarra, o violino e seus variantes
tinham inevitavelmente de se adaptar. «Uso o violino
eléctrico em grupos mais amplificados, como o meu projecto
Sting. No Revolutionary Ensemble utilizava um violino acústico
com "pickup", mas em contextos mais "barulhentos"
sirvo-me de um "solid body". É claro que continuo a preferir
um bom Stradivarius, mesmo que este não tenha qualquer
hipótese face aos decibéis actualmente praticados», comentou
numa entrevista aquele que terá sido o mais inovador
violinista do século XX.
Se o violino eléctrico tem claras vantagens, é igualmente
evidente que não serve todos os propósitos. Mais recentemente,
Mat Maneri afirmou algo de muito semelhante
a Jenkins: «Gosto muito de violinos eléctricos, o que escandaliza
os violinistas clássicos. Há coisas que me permitem
fazer que estão para além das possibilidades dos convencionais.
Logo para começar, não estão limitados às quatro
cordas; podem ter cinco ou seis, pelo que já está ao meu alcance
utilizar sons baixos. Sempre aspirei a tocar notas mais
graves, e o violino, bem como a viola, frustravam-me por não
mo permitirem. A versão eléctrica já me deixa fazê-lo, mas
há o reverso da medalha: é um instrumento sem dimensão
acústica, sem corpo. Desliga-se da corrente e nada fica.
Rui Eduardo Paes Jazz.pt #39 Nov 2011
