GERMANY: Ingrid Laubrock: Serpentines(Naxos of America 2016)
After relocating to Brooklyn in 2008 Ingrid Laubrock soon became a
creative epicenter in the New York jazz scene, and is now one of the
most significant voices in contemporary jazz. The new album Serpentines
fits in Laubrocks musical cosmos, in which improvisational furore and
compositional rigor, calculation and freedom, are intermingled. Laubrock
grounded this formation with the unusual line-up having been given a
carte blanche for the 2015 Vision Festival. Florian Keller writes in the
liner notes: If we take the titles suggestion and use snake paths as
graphs for the movement of this music, various distinctive
characteristics can be determined. Via the crafty compositional and
improvisational about-turns, the music spirals upwards, peaking in airy
flights. Changes of direction, and rhythmic, melodic turning points
drive the music on, and release dramatic potential.