Imminence is a set of mostly free improvised music of American, Massachusetts-based pianist-poet-label head Eliot Cardinaux, known for his ongoing associations with Danish musicians, and drummer-percussionist-educator Gary Fieldman, of the Circadian Rhythm Kings, a quintet that blurs the distinction between jazz, classical and funk idioms, and is ruled by chaos theory. The album was recorded at Northfire Studio in Cardinaux; hometown, Amherst, in November 2023, and released through Cardinaux’s label, The Bodily Press, where he also publishes poetry chapbooks.
Fieldman recorded before with Cardinaux the albums Deleted Scene (with sax player Caleb Schmale) and the duo Pavane (The Bodily Press, 2021 and 2022). Fieldman plays pitched and indefinite pitched percussion instruments, some are sugar packets and wooden egg shakers, and he adds a subtle yet vivid dramatic presence to Cardinaux’s lyrical, impressionist piano playing and his unassuming delivery of experimental poetic spoken word. His solo piece «Teo» is dedicated to the master drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses.
Imminence offers 16 short introspective pieces. Cardinaux’s poetry addresses the inspiring power of music and in «Threnody for the Splitting World» he recites: «We wake to hear / in music // We are not / simply of this Earth // That the daylight yearns / the shards of night we cement / together // Into the seed to sow…». Again, he corresponds with the seminal work of the great poet Paul Celan, and in «Seam» he recites: «Threshold to threshold / you grapple & cross it. / Bars on the night sky. / A skeleton whose words you use / to fill the night with hydrogen / collapses. Bars on the night sky…». Fieldman injects a playful pulse to the «Notes from Bird Lake» contrasting Cardinaux’s existential musings: «When you were falling / noise over mind // What / of these misheard arrows / of light in the dark / of the mind, this / placelessness // To whom do I refer // No one / can force me to talk // Trees, too / have the right to remain / silent // That one / standing alone in a field, / a criminal…». Thoughtful and full of imaginative percussive touches.
Eyal Hareuveni
Eliot Cardinaux (piano, spoken word), Gary Fieldman (glockenspiel, various-sized bells, zither, water-filled mason, drums, cymbals, sugar packets, wooden egg shakers, maracas, rocks, scrap metal tubing, finger cymbals, metal garden tool, small metal necklace beads)
