Tunisian violinist Yasmine Azaiez is a woman of many talents. She is a classically-trained musician, a resourceful improviser of Middle-Eastern music and she is well-versed in the aesthetics and extended techniques of innovative improvisers as pianists Cecil Taylor and Agustí Fernández (with whom she recorded two albums. Fernández releases «Everyday Things» on his own label), sax player Evan Parker and guitarist Joe Morris (who has played with her while she was studying at the New England Conservatory, recorded with her and Fernández the album «Ultra» for the Polish Fundacja Sluchaj label and contributed the insightful, loving liner notes for this album). Check her soundcloud page and you will find her covering songs of Nirvana and Maroon 5. She likes to mix Tunisian and Malian music as a statement against racism in Tunisia. She was also an actress and a model and now runs a violin school for kids and a dog rescue organization in Tunis.
Azaiez declared on her debut, self-released album, «The ‘Jazz’ Album» (2014) that she is «dark, glamorous, curious, and quirky. And that’s exactly how I intend my music to be». By now, you already understand that Azaiez has a style of her own, and not only because the cover of «Everyday Things» implies so. Her musical voice is strong, independent and complex one, and she is ready and determined to manifest her aesthetics as a daring yet soulful improviser and a violinist who seeks to transform her instrument while she explores new, exciting sonic frontiers on «Everyday Things».
Her highly imaginative improvisations were recorded over two days in May 2018 in Barcelona. The virtuoso playing is an obvious factor, but Azaiez always aim further and deeper. She investigates the timbral qualities of the violin and often sounds as conducting a chaotic entanglement of few stringed instruments, moves freely and organically between between enigmatic silences and hypnotic and evocative dramas, between what may be part of a larger, composed segments and instant, spontaneous events and between ancient traditions, contemporary ideas and faraway places. There is no boundary that can stop the fearless Azaiez in her journeies. She is in total control of the violin and an impressive array of extended bowing techniques and the course of her improvisations.
Each of the eleven pieces suggests a distinct sonic universe of its own. «Step through the door and begin» sounds as excavating distorted, resonant sounds from Middle-Eastern modes. «A Bear with Evan» imagines a friendly chat with the master, evan Parker, about circular breathing techniques. «Bed time» offers some disorienting, nightmarish images as Azaiez dives deeper and deeper into overtones and non-voiced sounds. «Morning» is a nuanced drone and «Reflection – My things» captures best her uncompromising, restless personality. The overtones of «Mixed State» surprise with their emotional lyricism; «Sundays» structures a playful drama and the last, urgent but gentle title-piece is a beautiful conclusion of this great album.
Eyal Hareuveni
Yasmine Azaiez (vio)
