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Mise en Abîme Out Today
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The Steve Lehman Octet's Followup to 2009's Travail, Transformation and Flow
Mise en Abîme is the highly-anticipated follow-up to 2009’s Travail, Transformation and Flow, by the Steve Lehman Octet.
Described as a “breathtaking accomplishment” by The New York Times,
Travail was widely hailed as a groundbreaking synthesis of spectral
harmony and jazz improvisation. On Mise en Abîme, Lehman continues to
build on his work with spectral harmony – expanding the harmonic palette
by incorporating live electronics and a custom-built vibraphone – while
at the same time reinforcing his connection to the jazz tradition with
three radically re-imagined Bud Powell compositions. The result is an
album that solidifies Lehman’s status as a visionary composer with
powerful new ideas about the future of harmony, rhythm, compositional
form, and electro-acoustic improvisation in jazz.
The hallmark of spectral music is the shimmering, otherworldly
sonorities that are created through the precise juxtaposition of
individual instrumental voices. The most prominent overtones of a given
sound source provide the framework for microtonal harmonies that are
organized according to frequency relationships, rather than the
intervals of a musical scale. Lehman studied under Tristan Murail – the
foremost proponent of the spectral aesthetic – while earning his
doctorate in music composition at Columbia University. Using spectral
techniques, Lehman conjures novel and unexpected sounds that often evoke
the iridescent sheen of electronic music. Most improvised music that
employs microtonal harmonies is static and anchored by an unchanging
drone or scale. But Lehman is unique in that he composes microtonal
music with a great deal of harmonic movement, where a chord based on a
harmonic
spectrum can easily modulate to another tonal center. When used as a
platform for improvisation, the result can be thought of as a kind of
"spectral chord changes" for the soloist to negotiate and transform.
“Steve's use of spectral techniques in jazz-inspired music is quite
unprecedented,” says Tristan Murail. Such fusion “can sound clumsy or
strained, but Steve's music sounds very natural, very special, very
personal.”
Lehman has continued to grow as a composer/performer since the release
of Travail in 2009. He is a recipient of the prestigious 2014 Doris Duke
Artist Award – an unrestricted $275,000 fellowship – and has undertaken
extensive research on rhythm cognition at Columbia and worked on
interactive electronics as a research fellow at IRCAM, the world
renowned electro-acoustic research center in Paris, France. Looking to
expand the harmonic possibilities of his music for Mise en Abîme, Lehman
had a vibraphone custom-built with alternate tunings: “I knew it would
force me into some new areas compositionally. And since this music
involves so much microtonal harmony, you gain a great deal of fluidity
when the main chordal instrument can actually execute those sonorities.”
According to pianist/composer Vijay Iyer, a frequent Lehman
collaborator, “Steve occupies a pivotal position
at the intersection of a few different music communities: those bearing
the labels ‘jazz,’ ‘new music’ and ‘electronic music.’ He approaches
this significant responsibility with care, humility and generosity. His
music is simultaneously engaging and challenging, offering listeners
abundant joy and unsettling mystery. His octet is one of the most
innovative, virtuosic and thrilling working bands around today. This
music is the future!”
The octet is the same powerhouse ensemble featured on Travail: Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Drew Gress on bass, Tyshawn Sorey on drums, Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet, Jose Davila on tuba, Tim Albright on trombone, and Chris Dingman
on vibraphone. It, too, has made a giant leap forward in the last five
years: extensive touring has honed the band into a streamlined machine,
one that is uniquely equipped to tackle this complex music and connect
with audiences around the world. Lehman had the luxury of performing
this music throughout the East Coast, including a five-night run at The
Stone in New York City, just prior to entering the recording studio. As a
result, the band buzzes with a visceral energy throughout Mise en
Abîme, negotiating the album’s unique challenges with aplomb.
Lehman’s compositions combine his theoretical leanings with physical
excitement. In “Segregated and Sequential,” microtonal harmonies
splinter apart with stroboscopic effect, while the music speeds up,
slows down, and stands still, all at once. “13 Colors” presents two sets
of spectral chord changes for Lehman’s razor-sharp alto solo, before
culminating in a cascading ensemble harmony. On “Chimera/Luchini” Lehman
combines instrumental timbres with shadowy electronic underpinnings,
creating a one-of-a-kind soundscape for Chris Dingman’s vibraphone solo
before morphing into “Luchini” by the hip-hop duo Camp Lo. “Codes” is a
futurist tribute to the great Cameroonian drummer, Brice Wassy. And
“Beyond All Limits” is a rough and tumble ensemble showcase that’s
thrown into relief by electronic
textures that expand in real-time to conform to the rhythmic and
harmonic structure of the piece.
The album is also an homage to Bud Powell and his legacy as a
cutting-edge composer and conceptualist. Lehman reconstructs three
Powell compositions, taking their basic harmonic framework and recasting
them into a spectral domain. “Jackie McLean was one of my most
significant mentors, and Bud was one of Jackie’s mentors. And like me,
Bud was someone who grew up in New York, spent a lot of time in France,
and felt a connection to the French classical tradition. For him it was
Frédéric Chopin. For me it’s Tristan Murail and Gérard Grisey. It’s a
thread of continuity that I felt was important to explore.”
Balancing cutting-edge compositional techniques with a deeply-rooted
understanding of jazz’s historical lineage, Lehman takes another major
step forward with Mise en Abîme: “The title is really about being
committed to the challenge of discovery and surprise in music, while
also embracing your core identity as an artist and kind of accepting
that you’re really just rediscovering yourself over and over again. It’s
a kind of creative vortex that helps to keep everything in balance.”
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Early Praise for Mise en Abîme
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"5 Stars! [A] genuine inter-genre pioneer...required listening for the next generation" - Downbeat Magazine
"5 Stars! [M]athematically measured and as raucous as a New York street" - The Guardian (UK)
"shimmering and stunning" - The BBC (UK)
"ultramodern...a state-of-the-art musical thinker" - The New York Times
"astonishingly musical...almost frighteningly complex and sublimely rewarding" - The Brooklyn Rail
"something truly new...an exceptional, complex but highly accessible work of art" - All About Jazz
"music that is fascinating and cerebral, but also appeals to the physical body" - Klasse Kampen (Norway)
"stunning...racing beyond jazz's frontier and daring anyone to catch up" - Something Else Reviews
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