In 2014 British prolific, electronic composer Scanner (aka Robin Rimbaud) was invited to a residency at the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In March 2014 during this residency, Scanner and American sax player-sound artist-composer Neil Leonard (also a professor and the artistic director of the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute) recorded The Berklee Sessions, live, in one day, with no rehearsals, letting the musicians find their ways into the unknown with each piece.
Scanner composed the seven pieces but all were extensively improvised by slide guitarist David Tronzo (who recorded with John Lurie and The Lounge Lizards and Wayne Horvitz and The Presiden, and an associate professor at Berklee College of Music), bassist Mike Rivard (of Club d’Elf) and Orchestra Morphine) and drummer Dean Johnston (of Club d’Elf). It took Scanner a decade to mix these pieces and release the album on his new label, Alltagsmusik (everyday music in German).
The elegant and stimulating outcome is jazz spiced with an electronic spirit and propelled into a fresh, dynamic territory. Most of the time the uplifting-driving dance-like pulses push the ethereal themes and the suggestive, sampled voices forward but the sparse, dreamy ballads «Everything over the Sun» and «Nothing Under the Sun» are the most moving and seductive pieces here. There is enough room for individual solos and collective improvisation. It is a joyful treat for the body and the soul.
The cover artwork is by British designer Madhew Shaw following up his modular designs for Scanner solo releases, now with a unique graphic language that translates the titles into code. The Bandcamp version adds a bonus piece, a remix of the opening piece «Time Code» by American electronic musician-sound designer Richard Devine in collaboration with Leonard, recorded live in Boston in 2014.
Eyal Hareuveni
Robin Rimbaud (electronics, shortwave radio, keyboards), Neil Leonard (soprano saxophone, alto saxophones, bass clarinet, live electronics), David Tronzo (electric (slide) guitar), Mike Rivard (bass) Dean Johnston (drums)
