2nd October 2015: Big News: Michael Janisch’s solo double disc ‘Paradigm Shift’ released today!
Click here for a CD or digital albums (ALAC, FLAC MP3s and more)
“A highlight of Janisch’s eventful career to date… the centerpiece of the album is the lengthy suite of the title track, which gives full vent to Janisch’s ability as a writer who creates from the stance of a bold improviser, so much so that the music feels entirely ‘lived in’ and visceral…”
4 Stars, Jazzwise Magazine
“The music was surging, searching, with marvellous honking, free-flowing soprano saxophone from Jason Yarde, and hugely descriptive, not least on Janisch’s almost filmic, carousal-inspired Mike’s Mosey.”
4 Stars, Herald Scotland
For all tour news and press highlights (including feature in Jazzwise Magazine) so far click: here or visit www.michaeljanisch.com
Some four years in gestation, the ambitious new double-disc project Paradigm Shift from London-based US bassist, composer and producer Michael Janisch sees the Whirlwind Recordings founder enter the spotlight with his multi-level approach to composition and performance. Janisch continues to garner enthusiastic press for his mastery of both double and electric bass, having released his solo album, Purpose Built in 2010 and co-led three further recordings to date – The TransAtlantic Collective’s Traveling Song with Patrick Cornelius; the live quintet album Banned in London with pianist Aruán Ortiz; and First Meeting with the iconic Lee Konitz. Increasingly growing in stature as a creative artist, with this expansive new album he strengthens his already budding reputation as one of the preeminent bassist/bandleaders of his generation working in contemporary, improvised music.
On Paradigm Shift Janisch has taken as its basis a live quintet recording across two nights at Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho (London), crafting and honing it into an absorbing 90-minute blend of live and post-processed electro-acoustic music. It’s a particularly creative compositional vision which strongly reflects the bassist’s personality, hewn from years of improvisational development and based on his own life-changing experiences, in particular the recent birth of his two daughters and sudden death of his older brother Joseph. The soundscapes he creates, moreover, evolve directly from his responses to issues such as globalization, corporate wealth/rule, racism and religious fanaticism, while uncompromisingly melding electronica, free improv, rock, punk and funk while retaining experimental and improvisational integrity throughout. And the conceptual and dialogical coalescence of all fourteen tracks here clearly comes from within, influenced by a vivid synaesthetic awareness – “It’s been much more organic on a compositional level to just allow these new experiences to guide the writing process” – hence the fascinating, modulating moods and styles.
Predominantly a quintet album with engaging solo and duo interludes and segues, Janisch could hardly have selected a more cohesive and eclectic personnel to realise his artistic intentions: versatile British saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist (including didgeridoo) Paul Booth; leading US trumpeter Jason Palmer (from Janisch’s 2010 solo debut, Purpose Built); free-spirited Argentinian piano/keyboard whizz Leonardo Genovese; and the sensitive precision of US drummer Colin Stranahan. Plus, the impulsive electronics of the London- based Alex Bonney feature on interludial tracks and post production effects (he performs with the band on tour to contribute these particularly effective manipulations).
Disc One houses Janisch’s Paradigm Shift Suite – a live thirty-minute expedition without boundaries which, following an effects-laden electric bass and didgeridoo intro, burst into an effusive, almost raga-like “Paradigm Shift Dance Party”, resounding to Jason Palmer’s high trumpet; and “Celestial Dictator” hits an infectious, multi-metered Hammond groove, prompting the hard-edged tenor of Paul Booth (his solo an album highlight in itself). Dissonant, screeching horns characterise the breathless rage of “Movement III’s Bailout”, eventually quelled by the relative flute-becalmed “Spring” and “Inner Sanctum”, whilst “Liza-Flo” reprises earlier themes with impudent percussion until the quietly confident, solo electric bass outro “Be Free” pictorializes Janisch’s ethos of entitlement to liberty.
Disc Two invites extended compositional contributions from the band, with Leonardo Genovese’s “Chacaraca” displaying South American hues; and “Mike’s Mosey” finds the bassist’s colleagues responding to his scampering free double bass improvisation in a cascade of moody electronic soundscapes and unpredictable twists and turns. Echoic, chordal bass in “The JJ I Knew” meditates through electronic color washes before hitting the fifteen-minute, playfully fast swing of Jason Palmer’s “Crash”. Leonardo Genovese’s “One-Eyed Calf” has to be one of the most extraordinarily unpredictable keyboard interludes out there, leading to Paul Booth’s epic “Awakening” which closes the set anthemically amidst a raft of deft soloing.
Janisch has become one of the foremost and genuine bassist-bandleaders of his generation, and it’s testament to the invention of this strong sextet that the essence of this uncompromising double album was captured over just two straight nights of live performance. The combined interaction of these musically strong personalities paired with the creative post-production electronics surely provides the catalytic spark for infinite live and recorded freedom to follow – both musically and intellectually, the Paradigm Shift starts here.