Arborescence is the word for the way something grows, seeking and
adaptive, like a tree its roots and branches moving under and around
things wherever they need to go toward water, toward the sun.
Prize-winning young American pianist Aaron Parks titled his ECM debut
Arborescence because the albums music is the fruit of a session of solo
studio improvisation in which little was predetermined; the pieces
developed in the moment like living things, in the artists words. The
music felt as if it were coming into being and going where it had to go,
in that sort of arboreal way. Its possible to hear fleeting echoes in
this music of Arvo Part and Paul Bley, Erik Satie and Kenny Wheeler; but
Arborescence is ultimately something deeply individual and intimate,
recorded with the lights down low in the warm, clear acoustics of
Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. Listen close and one can
hear Parks whispering part of a melody along with the piano, as if he
were playing at home alone, for himself. This is contemplative
instrumental poetry that often felt less like conscious intention, he
says, and more like something half-dreamed, half-remembered. http://aaronparks.com
