The ECM label (and its New Series imprint) introduced the music of the Greco-Armenian mystic and philosopher Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1866-1949) (and of his student and close collaborator, Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann) to jazz audiences with albums of pianists Keith Jarrett (Sacred Hymns, 1980), Vassilis Tsabropoulos (with cellist Anja Lechner, Chants, Hymns, and Dances, 2004), and François Couturier(again, with Lechner, Moderato Cantabile, 2014).
New Zealand, Auckland-based alto sax player Hayden Chisholm, and Austrian, Cologne-based pianist Philip Zoubek have collaborated before in the trio Slowfox (with double bass player Sebastian Gramss). They offer an irreverent but imaginative perspective on Gurdjieff’s music. Apparently, Chisholm had a book containing many markings and notes collected from «a bespectacled man’s scribbles on a night in Central Asia». He and Zoubek explored these repetitive dances, chants, and hymns for over a decade, turning them inside out in their many improvisations. These timeless melodies etched themselves into their shared musical memory, so when they play them now, these motifs and phrases emerge as new and fantastic forms.
As If the Stormy Years Had Passed was recorded at The Loft in Cologne in July 2021 and features sixteen intimate, poetic, and concise interpretations of the themes of Gurdjieff and De Hartmann. Chisholm adds the Māori small flute, kōauau, to his alto sax, while Zoubek focuses on the prepared piano, and as Chisholm mentions in his amusing liner notes, this «magic box of tools» can «turn a singular piano string into a vibrating rainbow». They make the oriental melodies (and the pieces’ titles refer to the Russian spiritual sect, the Molokans, and Tibetan, Persian, Greek, Kurd, Hindu, and Sufi melodies and dances) their own, while still reflecting their qualities, delicacies, and often transcendental spirit, and as Chisholm concludes, «Reimagining has no beginning and no end».
Chisholm and Zoubek sound as if mediating on Gurdjieff and De Hartmann’s fragmented melodies in their own special way. They do not follow the mysterious, austere, and repetitive progressions, opting instead for new, nostalgia-free yet timeless, labyrinthine sonic architectures that suggest richer harmonic structures and allow these themes to blossom in unpredictable ways. Chisholm and Zoubek’s explanatory journey into the mythical musical journeys of Gurdjieff allows the music to sound fresh, vivid, and beautiful. Just like Chisholm describes his own art: «I carry a prism in my Saxophone case».
Eyal Hareuveni
Hayden Chisholm (alto saxophone, kōauau), Philip Zoubek (prepared piano)
