Barry Guy ist der Inbegriff eines Klangarchitekten

Der britische Jazzbassist Barry Guy hat Oberstammheim zu seiner Wahlheimat gemacht. Hier erklärt er dem Besucher, wie seine CD «Oort-Entropy» entstanden ist.

Beherzt greift er nach einem Rebstock und linst in die Kamera des Fotografen. «My vineyard», verkündet Barry Guy keck - was nicht stimmt, aber gut sein könnte. Hoch über Oberstammheim hat sich der renommierte Bassist und Komponist ein Haus samt Umschwung gekauft. Seine Liebe zur Schweiz ist so alt wie vielfältig. Im Zentrum steht Maya Homburger, die Zürcher Violinistin, mit der Barry Guy seit gut 15 Jahren Arbeit und Leben teilt. Bis letztes Jahr lebte das Paar in Irland, der Umzug in die Schweiz geht weniger auf Homburgers Heimweh zurück als auf Guys Pragmatismus. Für das international agierende Paar ist Oberstammheim der Nabel der Welt. «München, Milano, Wien, Paris - alles ist so nah hier», sagt Guy und rattert auswendig alle S-Bahn-Verbindungen nach Kloten und Zürich HB herunter.

Organisch-schillernde Musik
Nicht nur die zentrale Lage der Schweiz behagt dem Briten, auch die Präzision und Verlässlichkeit der hiesigen Menschen. Denn so frei sein musikalischer Geist auch schweben mag, beim Handwerk ist Guy Pedant. Im riesigen Kelleratelier des Stammheimer Hauses ist das kreative Chaos geregelt und organisiert wie in einem Architekturbüro. In hohen Gläsern fächern sich scharf gespitzte Bleistifte und bunte Tuschefüller auf, in den Schubladen fahrbarer Sideboards lagern Papierbögen und Pläne. Wer denkt an Musik in einer solchen Umgebung, an freie, improvisierte Musik zumal? Der Hausherr natürlich, der sofort zwei, drei seiner neuesten Aufnahmen vorspielt - eine aus Barcelona mit dem Pianisten Augustí Fernandéz, die andere aus München mit dem Munich Chamber Orchestra. Wuchtig füllt sich der lichtdurchflutete Raum mit der organisch-schillernden Musik von Barry Guy.
Wuchtig klingt auch «Oort-Entropy», eine dreiteilige Suite, die Guy für sein New Orchestra geschrieben, am letztjährigen Taktlos-Festival in Zürich uraufgeführt und nun beim Zürcher Label Intakt herausgegeben hat. Ein Schlüsselwerk für Guys Denk- und Arbeitsweise. Der Titel verweist auf die «Oort-Cloud», eine chaotisch kreisende Wolke von Eisklumpen jenseits des Planeten Pluto, die der Astronom Jan Hendrik Oort (1900-1992) entdeckt haben will, deren Existenz aber bis heute nicht bewiesen ist. Unter «Entropy» ist die Gleichzeitigkeit von Ordnung und Chaos zu verstehen. In «Oort-Entropy» werden die zehn Orchestermitglieder gleichsam zu oortschen Eisklumpen, zu Individualisten, die den Tanz zwischen Ordnung (Komposition) und Chaos (Improvisation) wagen sollen.
Dieser Dualität, die zudem von stilistischer Pluralität genährt ist, verleiht Guy seine besondere Prägung, indem er einen Trick anwendet. «Ich schreibe fast nur für Musiker, die ich sehr gut kenne», sagt er. So hat er das Barry Guy New Orchestra wie auch dessen opulenteren Vorgänger, das London Jazz Composers Orchestra, mit langjährigen Partnern bestückt. «So kann ich meinen Musikern auf den Leib schreiben wie ein Dramatiker "seinen Schauspielern», erklärt Guy, «womit das Orchester zum pulsierenden Organismus verschiedener Stil- und Spielarten wird.»
Wenn Guy für fremde Ensembles schreibt, lässt er sich detaillierte Informationen zukommen, aus denen er Organigramme und Funktionsschemata zeichnet, die als Basis für seine Partituren dienen. Die «Pläne» in den Sideboards im Stammheimer Atelier sind nichts anderes als solche Partituren, deren Erscheinungsform eher abstrakten Gemälden gleichen als strengem Notenwerk. Guy langt nach drei besonders bunten Exemplaren - Stücken für weltbekannte Ensembles wie das Rova Saxophone Quartet, das Hilliard Ensemble und das Kronos Quartet - und erklärt, wie sie entstanden sind und funktionieren.
Hat er die Funktionsschemata der Ensembles einmal entschlüsselt, entwirft Guy seine musikalischen Ideen, indem er sie visualisiert und zu dreidimensionalen Gebäuden zeichnet. Pläne und Zeichnungen wachsen zur Partitur, in der auch Notenblöcke vorkommen, vor allem aber Symbole und visualisierte Anweisungen zu Aufbau, Entwicklung und Dynamik des Stückes: für geschulte Musiker exakte Anweisungen, was, wie und wann sie zu spielen und zu improvisieren haben. In Barry Guys Atelier wird klar: Dieser Mann ist die Verkörperung eines Klischees - Barry Guy ist ein Klangarchitekt.

Aus dem Londoner Arbeiterviertel
Technik und Wissenschaft hätten ihn stets interessiert, sagt er, weshalb er weder Fussballer noch Fabrikarbeiter geworden sei - die üblichen Laufbahnen im Londoner Arbeiterviertel, wo er 1947 geboren wurde. «Ich besuchte Abendschulen und jobbte in einem Architekturbüro.» Drei Jahre lang zeichnete er Pläne und entwickelte Konzepte, was ihm ausnehmend gut gefiel. Parallel dazu musizierte er, Dixieland zuerst, dann Swing, Blues, Bebop. Als er an die Guildhall School wechselte und seriöse Musik von Bach bis Coleman zu studieren begann, verliess er das Architekturbüro. Die Präzision des Zeichners und Entwerfers aber ist ihm geblieben.
Barry Guy musiziert und schreibt seit Jahrzehnten für die international erlesensten Musiker und Ensembles von barocker Kammermusik bis zu aktuellem Jazz. Auch in der Schweiz, wo er schon früh mit Irène Schweizer arbeitete. Heute sitzt der Bieler Bläser Hans Koch in seinem New Orchestra, er spielt oft mit den Cellisten-Brüdern Thomas und Patrik Demenga, und mit Lucas Niggli und Jacques Demierre hat er eben ein Trioalbum eingespielt. Kürzlich erschienen ist «Dakryon» mit barocker und Neuer Musik, auf dem sich das Duo Homburger/Guy vom Perkussionisten Pierre Favre begleiten lässt. In Guys Kopf stapeln sich Ideen und Projekte, die im Atelier aber zuerst die Projektierungs- und Entwicklungsphase durchlaufen müssen, bevor sie als kunstvolle Partitur vorliegen.
Frank von Niederhäusern © Tages-Anzeiger, Zürich, 26. Juli 2005

Der mitreissende, unter die Haut fahrende Orchester-Event mit Barry Guy's New Orchestra war neben dem Frank Gratkovvski Quartet das grosse Highlight des Taktlos 2004. Ein derartiges Ereignis musste natürlich anschliessend unter Studiobedingungen festgehalten und aufgenommen werden (in den Studios des SWR Baden-Baden). Die harten orchestralen Schläge, die brodelnden Energie- und Intensitätsvvellen, die spannenden Wechsel zwischen Komposition, Struktur und freier Form, die von Barry Guy immer wieder angeregte kollektive Empathie, vor allem aber auch die vielen expressiven bis exzentrischen Solo Flights und Duo-Sequenzen, bei denen immer wieder Bassklarinettist Hans Koch, aber auch Evan Parker, der spanische Pianist Agusti Fernandez und Barry Guy himself das Geschehen dramatisierten und energetisch aufluden, machen diese dreiteilige Komposition zu einem "zukunftsvveisenden Meisterwerk", zu einer Musik "zwischen Ordnung und Chaos, Sensibilität und Kraft, Poesie und Dissonanz".
Johannes Anders. Jazz'n'More, Juli/August 2005

BARRY GUY NEW ORCHESTRA: OORT-ENTROPY (Intakt)
Die Reduktion von Guys Ensemble auf 10 Köpfe zeigt immer größere Wirkung: vor allem die gesponnenen feinen Linien, die sich aus den Tutti-Knäuel wieder herauswinden, wirken herrlich in ihrer Dynamik und Transparenz. Auch mittels Re-Interpretationen von Guys Trio-Kompositionen webt dieses großartige Orchester unglaublich faszinierende Strukturen, in denen Künstlichkeit und Natürlichkeit ein Material wird. Ungemein sanft wie stark.
HONKER. Terz. 30.06.2005

New Orchestra nennt Barry Guy sein neu formiertes Ensemble aus Improvisatoren und Free Jazzern. Es scheint, als ob er sein in den späten 60igern gegründetes London Jazz Composers Orchestra wieder aufleben lassen würde, denn damals war die Zeit noch nicht reif für experimentelle, frei improvisierte Musik mit einem großen Ensemble. Das Publikum fehlte, und nach einigen Jahren wurde das Projekt abgebrochen. Barry Guy und seinem New Orchestra ist zu wünschen, dass die Zeit nun reif ist für seine Big-Band-musikalischen Überlegungen und dass er ein breites Publikum findet. Wird zwar nicht passieren, aber man darf doch noch wünschen!
Frisch, innovativ, unkompliziert und spontan kommen die Töne, die Stücke nehmen unerwartete Wendungen, und die Musiker nützen ihre Freiheiten, ohne sich in elendslangen Selbstdarstellungsversuchen zu verlieren. Von den Musikern seien noch explizit Hans Koch an der Bassklarinette, Mats Gustafsson am Baritonsaxofon und Johannes Bauer an der Posaune erwähnt, sie setzen absolut berührende Highlights mit ihren Soli.
akro, Concerto, Österreich, August/September 2005

S’adonnant avec ténacité au mélange des genres (jazz, musique improvisée, contemporain), restait au contrebassiste Barry Guy à régler la question du nombre. Chose faite, sur Oort-entropy, dernier album en date, pour lequel il aura dû conduire neuf musiciens au sein d’un New Orchestra idéal.
Sur un traité de décomposition oscillant sans cesse entre l’unisson d’intervenants choisis et l’amalgame de décisions individuelles en réaction, l’auditeur n’a d’autre choix que de dresser la liste des atouts remarquables - options irréprochables du batteur Paul Lytton, couleurs fauves que le tromboniste Johannes Bauer distille à l’ensemble. Volée d’attaques incandescentes, Part I connaît aussi quelques pauses, convalescences prescrites par Guy et AgustÍ Fernández, pianiste imposant un romantisme inédit.
Les notes inextricables du duo Parker / Guy inaugurent ensuite Part II, pièce envahie par des nappes harmoniques sur lesquelles se greffent des souffles en transit, la flamboyance du trompettiste Herb Robertson, ou encore, l’étrange musique d’un monde de métal (coulissant, grinçant, résonant). Un hurlement de Mats Gustafsson règlera le compte des indécisions, ouvrant la voie au chaos instrumental, mené jusqu’aux flammes par la batterie de Raymond Strid.
Si Part I déployait en filigrane l’influence de Berio, Part III joue plus volontiers des tensions dramatiques d’opéras plus anciens. Majestueux, Evan Parker déroule des phrases derrière lesquelles tout le monde attend, fulgurances aigues sur énergie qui ne faillit pas. Dévalant en compagnie de Fernández les partitions en pente, le soprano mène une danse implacable, malheureusement mise à mal par l’intervention de Strid, qui vient grossièrement perturber l’évolution de la trame, jusqu’à la rendre trouble.
Si cette erreur de dosage n’avait été, Guy se serait montré irréprochable dans la conduite d’un microcosme en désagrégation, mis en reliefs par une palette irréprochable de musiciens en furie. Abrasif à la limite du délictueux et production léchée, il faudra aussi voir en Oort-entropy une référence indispensable à qui veut s’essayer à la cosmogonie des conflits de Barry Guy.
Chroniqué par Grisli, France, August 2005, www.infratunes.com

For the last four decades, British bassist Barry Guy has continually charted a personal path in advanced improvisational settings. His endeavors range from free contexts to arranged ensembles; from solo work to orchestra; from long-term groups to ad hoc meetings; from Baroque music to electro-acoustic experiments. Through it all, his balance of formal structures and dynamic improvisation is always at play. These two recent releases are further proof of his mastery.
After decades working with the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, the challenges of assembling such a large ensemble on any consistent basis led to thoughts of forming a mid-size group. Formed four years ago, the synthesis of the Barry Guy New Orchestra came from Guy’s working trios: the longstanding Evan Parker trio with Paul Lytton, the more recent trio with Mats Gustafsson and Raymond Strid, and a trio with Marilyn Crispell and Lytton. Filling out the group are bass clarinetist Hans Koch, trombonist Johannes Bauer, trumpet player Herb Robertson, and tuba player Per Åke Holmlander. Agustí Fernández recently replaced Crispell, a musician recommended by his predecessor and someone many in the group had worked with. As one might expect, it is Guy’s compositional form that shapes the three-part piece. The basis for Oort-Entropy are themes originally written for the trio with Crispell and Lytton. Starting each section of the piece with a bass/reed duet, the ensemble takes off , bustling through full-on collective playing, settling into smaller sub-groupings, or opening up for solo statements. But there is never the sense of bravado that too often overcomes the Brötzmann Tentet these days, nor is there a feeling that this is simply a scaled back version of the LJCO. Guy knows how to make the most of the musicians, massing the entire group, piling skirling reeds over low end brass, or hocketing lines back and forth over cascading piano. Fernández does a noble job filling Crispell’s seat, bringing a more percussive attack while playing down the melodic cells of the music. With a group like this, one expects strong solos all around, and of course no one disappoints. This is particularly true in the final section with the ensemble punching out clarion rising phrases against Parker’s cycling lines surfing the waves of the paired drummers and then releasing to a section of low brass against piano flurries. While not quite as strong as Inscape-Tableaux, their resplendent premier disk, this is still well worth searching out.
Mixing Baroque composition and contemporary improvisation on a single CD could easily end up as a contrived, overly-precious disaster. This is, of course, unless the musicians at the helm are Barry Guy and Maya Homburger. Guy is one of the rare musicians who is equally comfortable in both worlds having balanced four decades of improvisation with professional performances of Baroque music including a stint in Christopher Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music. As a preeminent performer on Baroque violin, Homburger brings a deep-seated understanding of that vocabulary into the world of improvisation. For several of the pieces, percussionist Pierre Favre is added to expand the sonic palette. Guy’s compositional sense comes through even in this intimate setting. The program mixes pieces by 17th century composers H.I.F. Biber and Dario Castello with improvisational forms by Guy with an introductory improvisation based on the Roman Catholic hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus.” Biber’s “Passacaglia” for solo violin and his “Crusifixion, Mystery Sonata X” along with Castello’s “Sonata Seconda”, both for violin and bass, are performed with a stately grace. The two players invest the pieces with a natural freedom that resonates with Guy’s pieces. On “Inachis,” Homburger plays composed parts against Guy’s improvisations, and here the structural abstractions of Guy’s form bristle with spiraling momentum. The 19 minute title piece adds pre-recorded electronics as well as Favre’s percussion. Here, Guy’s orchestration intermixes soaring composed themes, interludes of free bass and percussion interplay and lush taped soundscapes to create a piece full of knotty layers and evolving juxtapositions. “Peace Piece” pairs Guy with Favre, starting out with an extended extrapolation of the theme by Guy and then slowly weaving in percussion colorations. At 75 minutes long, this is a demanding listen, but the individual components show Guy’s breadth in creating forms for collective collaboration.
Michael Rosenstein, SIGNAL to NOISE , USA, August 2005

As one of free improv’s most accomplished composer/bandleaders as well as a major improvising double bassist, Barry Guy continues to extend his musical range. Having slimmed down his main compositional tool, the 17-piece London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO) to the more compact ten-piece all-star Barry Guy New Orchestra (BGO), Oort-Entropy (Intakt) shows how the group reconstitutes specific sounds. The idea is to expand musical elements initially conceived for Guy’s trio with American pianist Marilyn Crispell and British drummer Paul Lytton.
Dakryon (Maya), on the other hand, explores an even more diminutive facet of his art. A member of an Early Music ensemble early in his career, Guy extends those concepts on several tracks of the CD. Using themes written by composers H.I.F. Biber and Dario Castello in the 17th century, these performances are in part baroque showcases for Guy’s wife, Swiss violinist May Homburger. Filling out the nearly 75-minute CD are contemporary Guy compositions eliciting the skills of the husband-and-wife duo plus Swiss drummer Pierre Favre.
Favre, another first generation free player, recorded as guest with the LJCO in 1995—as did Crispell. On Dakryon, he contributes a short concluding percussion solo and appears on one track with just Guy. However, the most noteworthy trio outing is the 19-minute title track that appends pre-recorded sounds to improvisations.
Beginning with bass plucks, swells and drum rumbles, “Dakryon” expands into swirling interface from Homburger, harder and stronger pizzicato pulls from Guy, and rattling and extruded accents from Favre. With pre-recorded chiming accents ornamented with percussion and a near Middle-Eastern interlude of bowed and vibrated double bass notes, the fiddler then contemplatively sounds the melody as gong-like signals multiply. Eventually faint drum thumps help bring the ethereal extensions to a logical conclusion.
Favre’s multi-timbral drum kit augmentations allow him to rattle bells, shake cymbals, and bounce snares behind Guy’s measured, almost lute-like bass work on “Peace Piece”. Impressionistic, Favre’s sympathetic mallet work frames the bassist’s chromatic plucks so that each note echo is like a thrust with a finely honed dagger—incisive, but with no jagged edges.
Much of the CD’s remaining time is taken up by Homburger or Homburger and Guy performing works by two 17th century composers, Bohemian H. I. F. Biber (1644-1704) and Venetian Dario Castello(? - 1658). Biber, whose work was also recorded by the two on Ceremony (ECM), is best-known for his so-called Mystery Sonatas from about 1676, five of which are handled here.
Those compositions, plus other baroque inventions by Castello, take advantage of the violinist’s exquisite tone and phrasing. Legato mostly, staccato and spiccato sometimes, Homburger does more than replicate the proper harmonies. Taking advantage of the composers’ demand for re-tuning, she brings a semi-mystical emotionalism to the pieces. True to 17th century bassocontinuo, Guy interweaves distinctive harmonies, both arco and pizzicato, which reflect his contemporary mindset as well as appropriate baroque techniques.
Moving from the 17th to the 21st century, Oort-Entropy shows how the bassist gives all his soloists and ensemble scope to spontaneously expand past customary boundaries. This is where a cross-section of experiences and cultures comes into play, since nearly every improviser is a veteran from a different country.
Parker and Lytton’s long-time trio-mate, Londoner Evan Parker is featured on tenor and soprano saxophones. The other reeds are Swiss bass clarinetist Hans Koch, who collaborates with numerous other free improvisers, and Swedish tenor and baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, who is part of the GUSH trio with percussionist Raymond Strid, also featured here. Gustafsson and Swedish tubaist Per Åke Holmlander are part of Peter Brötzmann’s Tentet. German trombonist Johannes Bauer has played with everyone from Brötzmann to Australian violinist Jon Rose, while American trumpeter/flugelhornist Herb Robertson is now a member of drummer Gerry Hemingway’s quartet. Taking over BGO’s all-important piano chair from Crispell is Catalan Augustí Fernández, who has recorded with players as different in concept as reedist Parker and American bassist William Parker.
All-stars are all right for a jam session, but it’s Guy’s framework that gives the ten a structure within to operate. Especially when the pianist is most energetic, the performance relates to some of Cecil Taylor’s efforts with big bands. Other large groups brought to mind are Count Basie’s New Testament band—for the riffing saxes—Stan Kenton’s most jazz-like ensembles—for the flaunted brass passages—and most definitely Charles Mingus’ The Black and the Sinner Lady band, in the way the bass-lead ensemble leaps from dissonance to relaxation.
Nonetheless there are also plenty of surprises on tap as the three-part suite uncoils. True, Parker shows off his near-patented circular breathing, but there’s a point in “Part II”, where his introduction is positively Lesterian—as in Lester Young. Fernández may strum arpeggios and chord edgy tremolos, but he’s also capable of an andante fantasia, constant cadenzas and clinking single-notes.
Besides braying triplets, Robertson adds half-valve, hunting horn sonics that meld with penetrating tuba pedal tones. The penultimate minutes of “Part III” feature Lytton and Strid eschewing their previous roles as colorists for a wholesale double drum volley, alive with paradiddles, rebounds, and ruffs, as the horns blast vamps around them. Do you think they individually owned the famous Rich vs. Roach LP?
Koch’s individualistic slurs and snorts give the exposition many of its colors, suspended on top of buzzing notes and stop time emphasis from the brass. Meanwhile altissimo blusters or contrapuntal bass tones from the tuba depict the tincture of the final section.
All and all though, among the polyphonic interludes, Bauer emerges as the most consistently invigorating soloist. Like many post-Roswell Rudd stylists, he has one foot in the early gutbucket tradition and the other in postmodern new music. Balanced solidly by Guy’s architecturally-solid tonal centers that allow each instrument to be heard, he ascends with a series of buzzing and barking textures to a legato chromatic solo, then just as briskly drips burred notes one at a time as he descends the scale.
Depending on whether you want your Guy in a miniature setting or piloting a large, integrated ensemble, either CD—or both—can satisfy.
Ken Waxman, ONE FINAL NOTE, UnAMERICAN ACTIVITIES #62, 19 September 2005

The Oort cloud, as I found out when guitarist Jean-Sébastien Mariage chose the word as the title of a track on a record we released together, is "an immense spherical cloud surrounding the planetary system and extending approximately 3 light years, about 30 trillion kilometres from the Sun. This vast distance is considered the edge of the Sun's orb of physical, gravitational, or dynamical influence." Entropy, as anyone who's read Thomas Pynchon will know, is "a measure of the unavailable energy in a closed thermodynamic system that is also usually considered to be a measure of the system's disorder and that is a property of the system's state and is related to it in such a manner that a reversible change in heat in the system produces a change in the measure which varies directly with the heat change and inversely with the absolute temperature at which the change takes place; broadly: the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system." (Whew.) Which means, I guess, that this latest offering from the ever prolific (especially on Intakt) Barry Guy has something to do with cosmic chaos or particle physics, whereas from where I'm sitting it's a tight, sweaty set of three extended compositions played with exemplary verve by a crack squad of improvisers: Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Hans Koch, Johannes Bauer, Herb Robertson, Per Ake Holmlander, Agusti Fernandez, Paul Lytton, Raymond Strid and Guy himself. Pianist Fernandez is particularly impressive, and for sheer force often gives the seasoned hardcore blowers a run for their money. It's a canvas of broad brush strokes and raw primary colours, a kind of aural de Kooning, very much in the tradition of the Globe Unity Orchestra, as well as Cecil Taylor's Orchestra of two Continents and more recent outfits such as Masashi Harada's Condanction Ensemble and the Brötzmann Tentet, but Guy's fondness for thorny serialism shows through just as strongly in the pitch-sensitive arrangements, and the cascading scales and stuttering tremolos of Part I also point in the direction of Ligeti, Lutoslawski and Xenakis. Whatever bag you choose to put it in, though, it'll burn a hole through. There are moments of tenderness – the end of Part I and wistful opening of Part II – but the music is at its most impressive when Guy and his spacemen pump up the volume to deliver a cosmic blast powerful enough to be felt 30 trillion kilometres away.
DAN WARBURTON, Paris Transatlantic Magazine, OCTOBER 2005

LES DISQUES CHOCS DU MOIS

Depuis l'album inaugural "Inscape-Tableaux" en 2000, le New Orchestra s'est nourri de ses performances scéniques pour signer un second opus tout aussi visionnaire. L'ensemble était conçu à l'origine comme la réunion de plusieurs trios du contrebassiste, notamment celui avec Marylin Crispell. Celle-ci est aujourd'hui remplacée par Agusti Fernandez (sur la recommandation de la pianiste). Inspiré notamment par Xenakis, Barry Guy lui emprunte le concept d'Entropy: "degré d'ordre et de désordre définissable dans un groupe d'éléments". Le New Orchestra est sans doute le seul orchestre contemporain à conjuguer avec une telle luminosité fenêtres libres d'improvisation et structure d'ensemble. Toujours au cœur du dispositif, le piano apaise, régénère l'élan collectif. La souplesse du tentette permettant de privilégier les échappées solistes et les petits ensembles. Dans un parti pris à la fois lyrique et abrupt, Barry Guy sculpte la matière sonore avec une rare intuition formelle. Un foisonnement luxuriant mais instigué et contrôlé de main de maître. Que ce soit dans l'improvisation libre, jouant sur la densité des textures, ou dans des espaces minimalistes tendant vers un onirisme recueilli. De la fulgurance du baryton enchâssée par les cuivres, à l'ivresse d'un soprano pris dans le flux du piano, Barry Guy offre à ses musiciens des correspondances d'une rare tension. Sidérant de bout en bout, mais surtout d'une souveraine élégance.
Thierry Lepin, Jazzman, Paris, Octobre 2005

As a general rule of thumb, the bigger the band, the larger the role of logistics and finances in dictating its survival. In response to just such variables, the London Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, one of the most venerable and prolific among large-scale European improvising outfits, underwent a necessary and indefinite hiatus back in 1998. Two years later a pruned down and reconfigured version resurfaced under the mantle of the Barry Guy New Orchestra. Ten pieces might seem a bit slim when it comes to justifying an “orchestra” assignation, but when the players are as redoubtable and renowned as those selected by Guy, the appellation becomes more apropos.
Inscape Tableaux, the streamlined offshoot’s debut, placed as one of the finest releases of 2001. On this, its second album for Intakt, the band relies on a slightly different roster while drawing on Guy’s work in other projects over the past several years, most notably his trio with pianist Marilyn Crispell and percussionist Paul Lytton. Here Lytton still shares the drums duties with Strid, though Crispell is replaced by the more than capable Spaniard Agusti Fernandez at the keys.
Several thematic elements from the trio’s Ithaca album thread through the disc’s three expansive tracks. Guy constructs each section with dynamic schemes and structures in mind, regularly parsing the band into various subdivisions of duo, trio and larger to get the job done. Grand skyward sweeps fluctuate with detailed ground-scale gestures to create a whole that refuses to view the orchestra as a single monolithic body.
Each of the three sections opens with a solo reed seguing into duet with Guy. Hans Koch’s mercurial bass clarinet annexes the first tandem slot, crafting an improvisation that wends and weaves against prickly and morphing counterpoint from a revolving component cast of colleagues. Parker’s cool-toned tenor engages Guy’s fibrillating strings in the opening minutes of the second track, the pair echoing their various past meetings in miniature. Gustafsson augers the honor of facing off with the leader in the final track with his bastard fluteophone, but it’s Parker’s soprano that eats up the most minutes in the lead, riding out the cascade of wildly riffing horns on the tenacity of a single circulating breath.
Betwixt these markers exists plenty of space for virtually every conceivable assembly of players. Holmlander’s stout tuba in concert with Robertson’s demiurgic trumpet; the horns en mass tracing a harmonized motif that almost sounds akin to an orchestral Oliver Nelson chart: these are but a few of the highlights. Together they constitute an aural abstract that effectively encapsulates the cosmic connotations and of the phenomena named in the disc’s title—a mutable comet-generating cloud of space debris stretching over light years of distance—while at several junctures erring a shade too liberally on the side of the overly gelid and clinical.
Derek Taylor, All About Jazz, October 2005

Une composition en 3 parties du contrebassiste légendaire qui donne à ses musiciens la possibilité de s'exprimer dans le lyrisme, la discorde, la tendresse ou la fureur. C'est-à-dire l'univers qu'a toujours su proposer et interpréter l'auteur. L'explication du titre est indiquée dans la pochette. Elle nécessite un effort intellectuel. Vous me direz la musique aussi. Pour amateur convaincu.
Jazz Notes, France, Octobre 2005

Barry Guy: Struktur und Chaos
Der britische Kontrabassist und Komponist Barry Guy, der seit kurzem in der Schweiz wohnt und arbeitet, liebt scharfe, scheinbar unvereinbare Konstraste. Er spielt Free Jazz und Barockmusik, seine Kompositionen bewegen sich zwischen wildem Chaos und strenger Struktur, zwischen aufgeregten, dichten Passagen und besinnlich-romantischer Lyrik. Für sein hochkarätig besetztes London Jazz Composers Orchestra hat er ein raffiniertes, hybrides Notationssystem entwickelt, das seinen musikalischen Aspirationen gerecht wird. Auch die Partituren, die er für sein jüngeres und kleineres New Orchestra geschrieben hat, vereinen streng ausnotierte Passagen mit grafischen Elementen und reinen Spielanweisungen. So entstand auch die ausserordentlich spannende Komposition «Oort-Entropy», die 2004 in der Roten Fabrik uraufgeführt wurde und nun in Form einer Studioaufnahme auf CD verfügbar ist. Neben den inspirierenden Ensemble-Stimuli enthält das dreiteilige, fast einstündige Meisterwerk, das ganz typisch für Guys Schaffen ist, spannende, frei improvisierte Monologe, Dialoge und Trios für die ausnahmslos profilierten Solisten. Beim wiederholten Hören fallen unzählige Nuancen auf, die im Konzert untergehen. Neben bekannten Improvisatoren wie dem Bassklarinettisten Hans Koch, den Saxophonisten Evan Parker und Mats Gustafsson und dem Posaunenvirtuosen Johannes Bauer wirkt der phänomenale spanische Pianist Agusti Fernandez mit.
Nick Liebmann, Neue Züricher Zeitung, 13. Sept. 2005

Much of the pleasure of bassist/composer Barry Guy's writing for the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, the ensemble which he led from the early 1970s to 1998, was in hearing him create structures out of the juxtaposition of disparate musical personalities, from the austere Radi Malfatti to the fiery Trevor Watts. Guy's new band, the Barry Guy New Orchestra, is smaller (ten pieces as opposed to the LJCO's seventeen) and less stylistically various: jazz is a much smaller element of the band's sound. Each of Oort-Entropy's three sections begins as an improvisation between Guy and another player (in turn, Hans Koch, Evan Parker, and Mats Gustafsson), which grows into a more-or-less continuous improvisation by various subsets of the orchestra. Guy's trademark stately, full-voiced chorales make their appearance, but more usually the full band punctuates proceedings quite sparingly-giving the ongoing improvisation a push, then standing back to see what happens. New face Agusti Fernandez, replacing the BGNO's previous pianist Marilyn Crispell, contributes some of the intensest moments, and also brings parts I and 11 to a rest with a matching pair of soft, suspended codas. The race-to-the-finish ending of part III is a slight disappointment; instead, Oort-Entropy's most satisfying episode is part 11, a piece of music almost perfectly balanced between refined, long-drawnout melancholy and improvised frenzy.
NATE DORWARD, Coda, Canadas Jazz Magazine, Sept/October 2005

The London Jazz Composers Orchestra was Barry Guy's earlier vehicle to realise his challenging compositions for a large group of improvising musicians. His New Orchestra is a predictably worthy sequel – Guy directing and playing double bass with nine top flight collaborators. Oort-Entropy is a three-part work, conceptually sophisticated, structurally astute, performed with commitment and sensitivity. The line-up includes old allies – saxophonist Evan Parker and percussionist Paul Lytton – and less familiar figures such as pianist Agusti Fernandez and Per Ake Holmlander on tuba. Ensemble swirls and rapid fire trilling disperse into knotty, compacted solos, sonic images of cohesion contesting with centrifugal action. Expressive spontaneity is second nature for instrumentalists such as saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and trombonist Johannes Bauer. A major strength of Guy's writing for these players is that it steers them into emotional registers and mood frames they might otherwise shun, thus expanding their expressiveness.
Julian Cowley, The Wire, November 2005

* * * * 1/2

Barry Guy's compositions for his New Orchestra extend many of the threads woven through his nearly 30 years directing the London Composers Orchestra. The most intriguing aspect of Guy's writing for the 10-piece orchestra is how large he makes it sound. It is partly due to Guy's emphasis on lower-pitched homs and his three often furious percussionists. But, it's also a matter of how Guy entwines improvised and notated materials to create the ongoing semblance of a larger ensemble no small feat given how fast Guy can change gears. Guy's cohorts are essential in fleshing out his designs, whether the task at hand is an unscripted space or a spht-second opening in an otherwise scored passage. The contributions of Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson and Guy himself jusfify their respective marquee statuses; but, lessheralded players like Johannes Bauer, Hans Koch and Herb Robertson, both as improvisers and ensemble players, also provide many necessary sinews for Guy's structures to stretch and flex.
Bill Shoemaker, Downbeat, USA, November 2005

If it's jazz we are talking about, then the relationship between the individual and the ensemble - and also the related issue of the relationship between composition and improvisation - has a story as long as jazz itself. How far back one is willing to go could be just a practical matter: Duke Ellington? Count Basie? Fletcher Henderson? Then we have the well-known Ellingtonian dictum which says that to really write for musicians one has first to watch them playing poker. On paper, this is all familiar stuff; only on paper, though, as the interpretations of Scott Joplin and Jerry Roll Morton recorded by the trio Air for their album Air Lore (1979) made immediately apparent.
Ornette Coleman catching a flight to New York is often considered as the moment after which avant-garde jazz can never become part of the mainstream anymore. But we could also go back in time, to an orchestral line-up which could play both "the tradition" and the "avant-garde", and do both extremely well: Sun Ra's Arkestra; here, the vast re-release program by Evidence makes things very easy for the buyer - my personal suggestion as first step being The Magic City (1965). We could also discuss at length about Charles Mingus and his writing for medium-sized ensembles - it goes without saying that newcomers should start with The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (a work which once one would have assumed to be "common knowledge", but since it was recorded back in 1963...).
Money factors are obviously to be taken into consideration - hence, only oral history when it comes to the highly celebrated Muhal Richard Abrams Experimental Band, and only late - and occasional - orchestral experiences for Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. The prevailing atmosphere in the "free jazz" days was not exactly conductive to a serious study of the written form, hence the highly suspicious viewing of the (American) Jazz Composer's Orchestra led by Michael Mantler, who in Communications (1968) wrote complex frameworks for Cecil Taylor's piano. The same attitude was reserved for people such as Anthony Braxton, whose (quite large, and extremely diverse) discography is maybe today the one presenting the largest number of works for ensemble - an area that Braxton himself had defined as Creative Orchestra Music.
The situation is quite complex in Europe, where original and interesting discographies were annihilated by the usual lack of interest. Chris McGregor's Brotherhood Of Breath are not mentioned very often (but why?); the surviving catalogue being quite slim, all that's available can be purchased with no risk. The German line-up called Globe Unity Orchestra, led by Alexander von Schlippenbach, on the albums titled Improvisations (1977) and Compositions (1979) had portrayed an interesting dichotomy; the same is true here: get whatever is available. Still somewhat active, somehow, is the Dutch Instant Composers Pool Orchestra led by Misha Mengelberg, an ensemble that for this writer is the perfect combination of (relative) accessibility of form and (relative) inscrutability of intent.
Released in 1972, and fortunately available on CD, Ode is the ambitious first chapter by the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra led by Barry Guy. An excellent bass player who's perfectly at ease in many situations, be it solo or orchestra, a musician who's highly fluent in many disparate idioms - from jazz to classical music, including baroque music and contemporary classical - Guy's goal was to create a compositional framework which could be of benefit to the players while at the same time profiting from the considerable skills they had gained during their improvisational practice. The most recent phase started with Polyhymnia (1987), which together with the Braxton pieces recorded one year later is featured on the CD called Zurich Concerts. The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra catalogue is not too large (it goes without saying that the difficulties for such a large and original line-up are not few), but it's of a very high quality, and not at all difficult to get. Selecting an album as their "best" is obviously not easy, but I have a personal weakness for Portraits (1994), where a highly developed structural organization and excellent contributions from the players go hand-in-hand with a certain accessibility for the listener.
I'm sorry to admit it, but it's true that somewhere along the line I started taking the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra (and its existence) for granted. I preferred to concentrate on Barry Guy's trios, first of all the one featuring pianist Marilyn Crispell and percussionist Paul Lytton; so far, this trio has released two albums: Odyssey (2002) and Ithaca (2004), both excellent. So I totally missed the news, four years ago, about the release of Inscape-Tableaux, the first recorded chapter by the Barry Guy New Orchestra. This new orchestra presented a reduced line-up (ten members, for obvious financial reasons) which featured some new faces, many of whom had already played with Guy: while Evan Parker and Paul Lytton where still here, there were also Swedish Mats Gustafsson and Raymond Strid, and Marilyn Crispell. It goes without saying that having one trombone where there had been three provides for big compositional challenges, and the same goes for having quite different personalities to blend.
Oort-Entropy features the same line-up from the previous CD, with one important exception: Agustí Fernández (whom I had already appreciated with Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble) replaces Crispell on piano (she's now quite reluctant to travel, it seems). In his fine liner notes, Greg Buium alerts us to the fact that on the long composition in three parts which is featured on the CD some themes which had appeared on Ithaca appear again. To start from my conclusion, I'd say that on the new CD Guy largely succeeds in creating a new entity that doesn't make one too nostalgic for the previous ensemble; but I'd also say that Oort-Entropy doesn't seem to attain the peaks reached by the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra.
It goes without saying that the instrumental voices have a lot of personality. Parker is as good as expected, and I also liked Fernández, who on piano is now lyrical, now highly percussive; Hans Koch, on bass clarinet; Johannes Bauer - I hadn't listened to him in a long time - on trombone; also nice trumpet and fluegelhorn by Herb Robertson, and tuba by Per Åke Holmlander; percussions (Lytton and Strid) are as good as expected. The first part is quite agitated, with a nice splice, almost Ellington-like, at 8' 32"; there's a nice episode for trombone and piano starting from 11' 25"; and a fantastic moment - "whispered, with harmonics" - for piano and double bass at 15' 32". I liked the second part - more meditative in tone - the best; it's all good with a very nice ending - again, double bass harmonics, played with arco. The third part presents Evan Parker on soprano in his usual fine circular breathing mode, and a nice piano arpeggio, along with tuba, bass clarinet, and percussion at about 8'.
Beppe Colli© Beppe Colli 2005, CloudsandClocks.net, Nov. 2, 2005

Se parliamo di jazz, il rapporto tra singolo e ensemble - unitamente a quello a esso correlato concernente la relazione tra composizione e improvvisazione - ha una storia lunga quanto quella del jazz stesso. Quanto indietro si vuole andare può anche essere una mera questione di comodità argomentativa: Duke Ellington? Count Basie? Fletcher Henderson? Fin troppo facile, poi, ricordare il famoso detto ellingtoniano secondo il quale per cucire la parte giusta per un musicista bisogna prima vederlo giocare a poker. In teoria, fin qui siamo nell'ambito del già largamente storicizzato e acquisito; solo in teoria, però, come l'ascolto delle interpretazioni di Scott Joplin e Jerry Roll Morton fatte dal trio degli Air sull'album Air Lore (1979) aveva reso evidente.
Ornette Coleman che prende l'aereo per New York è l'episodio convenzionalmente indicato quale momento a partire dal quale il jazz d'avanguardia non verrà mai più assimilato nel mainstream. Ma anche qui non è difficile operare dei distinguo e retrodatare tutto, a partire da una formazione orchestrale con un piede nella tradizione e uno nell'avanguardia che faceva benissimo tutt'e due: l'Arkestra di Sun Ra; qui il vastissimo programma di ristampe operato dalla Evidence consente di avere il solo imbarazzo della scelta, da parte nostra diremmo The Magic City (1965) introduzione perfetta. Anche sulle forme di Charles Mingus per ensemble medio-ampio si potrebbe discutere a lungo - e qui il riferimento obbligato (e che qualcuno potrebbe definire fin troppo scontato: ma quanto è realistico dare oggi per scontata la conoscenza di un album pubblicato nell'ormai lontano 1963?) è senz'altro il lavoro che ha per titolo The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady.
Quello economico è ovviamente da sempre uno dei fattori principali che sconsigliano di intraprendere strade logisticamente troppo accidentate. Testimonianze orali, quindi, per la celebratissima Experimental Band di Muhal Richard Abrams, ed esperienze tardive - e per più versi episodiche - per Ornette Coleman e Cecil Taylor. L'atmosfera prevalente in periodo free sembra inoltre sconsigliare un approfondimento delle tematiche compositive, ed è con non poco sospetto che viene vista l'esperienza della Jazz Composer's Orchestra di Michael Mantler, che in Communications (1968) organizza cornici orchestrali per il pianoforte di Taylor. In fondo è lo stesso sospetto nutrito per tanti anni nei confronti di un Anthony Braxton, musicista la cui (estesissima, e oltremodo eterogenea) discografia è forse oggi quella che offre il maggior numero di lavori per ampio organico: un campo che lo stesso Braxton ha definito come Creative Orchestra Music.
Quadro senza dubbio complesso anche in Europa, dove discografie originali e interessanti ma in verità mai troppo nutrite sono state ulteriormente falcidiate da un interesse per forza di cose molto ristretto. Stranamente non molto citata (ma perché?) la Brotherhood Of Breath di Chris McGregor: e qui, di quel poco che si trova si può prendere qualsiasi cosa. Capostipite europea, la tedesca Globe Unity Orchestra di Alexander von Schlippenbach, che in album come Improvisations (1977) e Compositions (1979) ha espresso un'interessante dualità; anche qui può valere la regola di prendere quel che si trova. Arriva (instabilmente) fino all'oggi il cammino dell'olandese Instant Composers Pool Orchestra guidata da Misha Mengelberg, formazione che per chi scrive costituisce il perfetto connubio tra (relativa) accessibilità delle forme e (relativa) imperscrutabilità degli intenti.
Pubblicato nel 1972, e fortunatamente ristampato in formato CD, Ode è l'ambizioso atto di nascita della London Jazz Composers' Orchestra guidata da Barry Guy. Eccellente contrabbassista perfettamente a proprio agio nei più disparati contesti strumentali, dal solo all'orchestra, musicista il cui retroterra spazia dal jazz alla musica classica - musica barocca e classica contemporanea incluse - Guy si prefigge di fornire una cornice compositiva di senso compiuto in grado di valorizzare i musicisti nelle loro individualità concrete, facendo quindi tesoro di quelle originali capacità individuali che scaturiscono dalla pratica improvvisativa. La fase più vicina a noi ha inizio con la composizione intitolata Polyhymnia (1987), che insieme ai contributi braxtoniani dell'anno successivo forma l'album intitolato Zurich Concerts. Seppur non nutritissimo (intuitive le difficoltà cui va incontro una formazione ampia e dal carattere stilisticamente tanto composito), il catalogo dell'Orchestra dice di un'ottima qualità e - sorprendentemente - di una non ardua reperibilità. Se è senz'altro difficile indicare un album quale "migliore", non abbiamo difficoltà a confessare la nostra predilezione per Portraits (1994), che a un'alta intelligenza di organizzazione strutturale e a un contributo dei solisti di altissima qualità unisce una piacevolezza d'ascolto davvero non comune.
Spiace doverlo ammettere, ma evidentemente a un certo punto dobbiamo aver data per scontata l'esistenza della London Jazz Composers' Orchestra, preferendo invece concentrare la nostra attenzione sull'attività di Barry Guy in gruppi dal piccolo organico, su tutti il trio comprendente la pianista Marilyn Crispell e il percussionista Paul Lytton; due gli album finora prodotti dal trio, ambedue splendidi: Odyssey (2002) e Ithaca (2004). Ci è quindi del tutto sfuggita, quattro anni fa, la notizia della pubblicazione di Inscape-Tableaux, esordio discografico della Barry Guy New Orchestra. La nuova formazione presentava un organico oltremodo ridotto (dieci elementi, leader incluso, per motivi facilmente immaginabili) e in buona parte rinnovato, anche se molti dei musicisti coinvolti non erano certamente nuovi a collaborazioni con Guy: non mancavano Evan Parker e Paul Lytton, ma c'erano anche gli svedesi Mats Gustafsson e Raymond Strid e il pianoforte della Crispell. Ovvie le difficoltà compositive insite nell'avere un trombone dove prima ce n'erano stati tre, non minori le sfide offerte dal dovere integrare un collettivo molto diverso.
Oort-Entropy presenta la stessa formazione dell'album precedente, con una sola, importante eccezione: Agustí Fernández (già apprezzato nell'Electro-Acoustic Ensemble di Evan Parker) siede al piano al posto della Crispell (ora, pare, assai restia a viaggiare). Le buone note di copertina di Greg Buium ci allertano sul fatto che la lunga composizione divisa in tre parti che occupa il CD recepisce temi già presenti su Ithaca. Per partire dalle conclusioni, diremmo che Guy è riuscito a creare un'entità perfettamente in grado di brillare di luce propria e di non far rimpiangere il più ampio ensemble che l'ha preceduta; diremmo anche che Oort-Entropy non ci è parso all'altezza delle vette raggiunte dalla precedente formazione.
Le voci strumentali non mancano, ovviamente, di personalità. Detto di Parker, ci hanno favorevolmente impressionato Fernández, ora lirico, ora percussivo; Hans Koch, al clarinetto basso; Johannes Bauer - che non ascoltavamo da un bel po' di tempo - al trombone; poi la tromba e il flicorno di Herb Robertson e la tuba di Per Åke Holmlander; ovviamente ottima la sezione percussiva (Lytton e Strid). La prima parte è decisamente concitata, con un bell'inserto calmo, quasi ellingtoniano, a 8' 32"; c'è un bell'episodio trombone/piano a partire da 11' 25"; e un bellissimo momento "sussurrato con armonici" per piano e contrabbasso a 15' 32". La seconda parte, più raccolta e meditativa, è a nostro avviso quella meglio riuscita, tutta da gustare fino alla chiusa con il contrabbasso suonato con l'archetto a produrre armonici. La terza parte si regge soprattutto sul classico soprano in respirazione circolare di Evan Parker, con bello stacco di piano arpeggiato, tuba, clarinetto basso e percussioni a circa 8'.
Beppe Colli© Beppe Colli 2005, CloudsandClocks.net, Nov. 2, 2005

Seminal free jazz bassist Barry Guy is responsible for manning some of the finest albums in this rather opaque genre. Aside from his longtime affiliations with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lytton—both of whom are featured here—the bassist is no stranger to leading exploratory ensembles.
Guy’s small orchestra equates to a multinational tentet. Sure, he’s a killer bassist, but more importantly, this release signifies an autonomous union of like-minded spirits where shape and form play a significant role in the artists’ numerous improvisational exercises.
The musicians come at you from just about every conceivable angle. Their music often stirs notions of an organized form of lawlessness as the soloists interact with fractured call and response techniques during pianist Agusti Fernandez’ merger of blitzing chord clusters and classical-type arpeggios. However, this outing is not anything even remotely akin to a boisterous free for all.
Parker, clarinetist Hans Koch, and others are apt to engage in complex unison lines amid stop-start phrasings. Furthermore, Guy’s vividly enacted compositions are also implanted within a shock therapy methodology. But the orchestra is equally adept at winding the momentum down a few notches, and at times like this, glimpses of Ellington come to mind. With mystical attributes, mind-blowing aural affects, and feverish soloing maneuvers, Oort-Entropy will most assuredly find itself on quite a few annual top ten lists as we close out 2005!
Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz, USA, Nov. 2005

A tous moments de l'histoire, la gestion dialectique de la coexistence pacifique entre écriture et improvisation, structure et spontanéité, a été la quête principale de nombreux leaders de grandes formations de jazz à la pointe de la recherche. A cet égard, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Charles Mingus, Sun Ra et bien d'autres ont apporté leurs solutions en leur temps. Après un travail de longue durée à la têtedu London Jazz Composers Orchestra (17 musiciens), Barry Guy a décidé de monter un orchestre plus compact et plus souple, un Il réservoir de comètes" qui puisse sonner successivement comme un big band, un orchestre de chambre et un vivier de solistes hors-pair. "Oort-Entropy" est le second album du Barry Guy New Orchestra (après "Inscape Tableaux", déjà pour Intakt) et semble encore plus audacieux et plus abouti que le précédent opus. Construit en trois parties (chacune débutant alternativement par un duo de contrebasse avec les anches : Koch, Parker, Gustafsson), il enchaîne avec une stupéfiante précision plans rapprochés et visions panoramiques, faisant alterner champ et contrechamp dans une succession de tutti stridents et de somptueux veloutés à l'aide d'une mécanique complexe de partitions graphiques, de direction-conduction - parfois piratée par une Il contre-conduction" gérée par un membre de l'orchestre - et de "doubles solos". Ce qui est véritablement nouveau dans cette écriture (qui pourra peut-être sembler trop hérissée à certains), c'est qu'elle est véritablement au service des solistes pour lesquels elle sert d'écrin. Un peu comme les univers d'Ellington ou de la West Coast, mais avec une présence très Il contemporaine".
GERARD ROUY, DISQUE D'ÉMOI, Jazzmagazine, Paris, 12/2005

CHOC DE L'ANNE 2005JAZZMAN, PARIS (12/2005)
S'il y avait un "avant", ce serait le sublime "Conquistador" de Cecil Taylor … Mais le tentette de Barry Guy livre là une séance studio d'une tension incandestente, constamment nuancée, d'une folle élégance. À côté de la révélation d'un pianiste (Agusti Fernandez), la fine fleur de l'improeuropéenne vien se plier à la rigeur débonnaire d'un leader charismatique. Un souffle d'une actualité brûlante.
JAZZMAN, PARIS (12/2005)

EMPFEHLUNG
Wie kein anderer verwirklicht Barry Guy seit 35 Jahren den Gedanken der damals an verschiedenen Orten de Welt entstandenen Composers Orchestras, die ungebremste Energie der freien Improvisation mit der Strukturiertheit der Komposition zu verbinden. Mit dem nunmehr zehnköpfigen New Orchestra gelingt ihm dies villeichst sogar noch besser als früher, jedenfalls lässt die Dichte der hart an- und ineinendergeschnittenen Klangereignisse so wenig zu wünschen übrig wie die glasklare Konstruktion des Ganzen. Auskomponierte Passagen fügen sich nahtlos in den freien Fluss der Improvisation, und zwischen heftigen Eskapaden verbirgt sich unvermittelt manch lyrisches Juwel. So etwas lässt sich nur mit erstrangigen Musikern verwirklichen, und die Namen von Evan Parker und Hans Koch, Johannes Bauer und Herb Robertson zeigen dem Eingeweihten sogleich, dass es sich hier um solche der ersten Garnitur handelt.
Doch die CD enthält noch eine weitere Überraschung: der von der aus der Formation ausgestiegenen Marilyn Crispell vorgeschlagene Pianist Augusti Fernandez gefiel offenbar auch dem Leiter des Orchesters so gut, dass er, soweit sich dies bei einem Ensemble von zehn Solisten sagen lässt, fast in den Mittelpunkt rückt.
Dietrich Heissenbüttel, Zeitschrift für Neue Musik, 6/05

Few could imagine in 1972, when bassist Barry Guy first convened the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, its future impact as a large ensemble. When he chose to work with a "new orchestra" in 2000, the scope was condensed, 10 players doing the work of what had been 20, but surprisingly was no less expansive.
With his New Orchestra, Guy has brought together a international tentet – Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Hans Koch, Johannes Bauer, Herb Robertson, Augusti Fernandez (replacing original pianist Marilyn Crispell, Per Ake Holmlander, Paul Lytton and Raymond Strid. These are not improvisational lightweights, having experience in a wide variety of settings, often with each other.
Two things stand out in contrast from the 2000 recording Inscape - Tableaux (Intakt). Rather than seven shorter "parts" of the 2000 disc, Oort-Entropy has three, allowing for more exposition within sections. And overall the time is almost 15 minutes less, making succinctness within expansion a necessary feature, masterfully accomplished. Pay attention to the most stimulating front line of horns (Parker, Koch and Gustafsson) in recent memory.
There is a side to Guy unique to most players known as "free' – a love for the wonderful sonorities of composed classical music. In 1997 with baroque violinist Maya Homburger, Guy recorded Celebration (ECM), featuring his own compositions for bass and violin. Dakryon continues this format with greater ambition. Three songs by Guy fill out a program of music from the 17th century by composers H.I.F. Biber and Dario Castelli; Strictly composed music, courtesy of Homburger, is mixed with Guy's incomparable improvising. The bonus is the addition of drummer Pierre Favre, veteran of solo percussion explorations. The format changes throughout the disc: trio, solo violin, duos of bass and violin or percussion and even a closing percussion solo. Taken alone, Dakryon is forceful and dynamic. Taken together with Oort-Entropy, it shows what a broad swathe of musical terrain Barry Guy cuts.
Andrey Henkin, All About Jazz New York, January 2006

Zum zweiten Mal nach dem Gründungsjahr 2000 des New Orchestra führt Barry Guy mit der neuen CD Oort-Entropy in diesem Ensemble seine Vorstellung von zeitgenössischer Kammermusik zusammen auf den immer wieder zitierten Punkt, orientiert an dem in der Welt der Improvisierten Musik singulären Klaviertrio mit Marilyn Crispell und Paul Lytton. Einige Kompositionen aus dessen zweitem Album „Ithaka“ schlagen den Bogen zu der dreiteiligen Suite ohne Namen von „Oort-Entropy“, damit auch eine deutliche Hommage an Marilyn Crispell, die der Ursprungsfassung des New Orchestra angehörte, aber im Rahmen ihrer reduzierten Reisetätigkeit in den letzten Jahren ihren Platz dem Spanier Agusti Fernandez überließ, der an die Qualitäten der von Guy geschätzten Pianisten von Schlippenbach/Schweizer/Crispell nahtlos anschließt.
Hin und her bewegt sich die kammermusikalischen Duos und Trios im Rahmen dieser 10köpfigen Meister-Crew im ersten Teil hin und her zwischen den Saxophonen von Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson, der Bassklarinette von Hans Koch, der Posaune von Johannes Bauer, der Tuba von Per Ake Holmlander, der Trompete von Herb Robertson und den Perkussionsideen von Raymond Strid und Paul Lytton.
Der Hauptteil lebt die im ersten Teil aufgebaute Poesie und Kraft restlos aus, die sich zwischen schönen lyrischen Passagen auf gewaltige Art entlädt, so zum Beispiel zwischen Gustafsson und Robertson oder in Evan Parkers sehnsüchtig erwartetem zirkularem Endlos-Solo.
Immer wieder bewegt sich das Geschehen zwischen Guys vorgegebenen Strukturen und freien Gedankegängen der einzelnen Partner, Meisterbeispiele einer Überhöhung der Virtuosität, wie sie nur derartige Meister ihres Fachs beherrschen.
Geradezu symbolisch betritt Patrik Landolt mit der Nummer 101 seines Katalogs mit dieser großen Einspielung ein neues Zeitalter Zeitgenössischer Musik.
Aufgenommen ist das Werk in Baden-Badens SWR Studios unmittelbar nach der Erstaufführung bei dem Taktlos-Festival 2004 in Basel und Zürich. Und von Ohrenzeugen dieser universellen Musik ist zwischen Mulhouse und Vancouver zu erfahren, wie sich der Kern dieses Konzeptes mit jedem weiteren Auftritt immer weiter steigert. Wohin dies führt, bleibt der Neugier jedes Einzelnen vorbehalten, einer Tugend, die in der Kultur so rar geworden ist.
Hans-Jürgen von Osterhausen. Jazzpodium, Deutschland, April 2006

As far as large ensembles go, Barry Guys London Jazz Composers Orchestra was one of a handful of superior creative Music orchestras, if not the finest purveyor of the art. Sadly, economic conditions, among other obstructions, forced the group to conclude their journey in 1998 (after thirty years together!). Thankfully, Guy chose to continue to explore his large group conception, compressing the mighty LJCO into a smaller tentet of remarkable, pan-European musicians. In this streamlined form, Guy's strlictures – a mix of improvised and written material, mounting tension, richly lyrical melodic threads, spontaneous inventions and of course, the bombast of the group's fueling of its massive iron lung – were realized on 2001's initial offering, Inscape-Tableaux. Perhaps the linchpin, other than Guy, was pianist Marilyn Crispell, one of Guy's frequent collaborators. Sadly, Crispell opts out but her recommendation, Spanish pianist Agusti Fernandez, was asked to fill her huge shoes. Fernandez is up to the task here, ably throwing out energy to make the keys jump or, conversely, the subtlety to move quietly.
This second composition and the title of this disc, Oort-Entropy, originally premiered at 2004's Taktlos Festival in Zurich, Switzerland, and as one might expect, the result is a remarkably cohesive and thrilling work. Part of its appeal is that the piece builds upon three themes that originally appeared on the Crispell-Guy-Lytton lthaca. "Part One" commences with a puckish opening cadence from Hans Koch's bass clarinet before Guy's pliant bass interacts, leading to intermittent ensemble accentuations, with Guy's trademark throbbing horn swells meeting the bustling rhythm section's clattering. Fernandez quickly makes his mark during the deliciously tempestuous maelstrom that eventually simmers into a solemn respite with Herb Robertson's clarion trumpet voice shining. The skirmish eventually quickens, led by a blistering solo from trombonist Johannes Bauer before Fernandez is at it. As the final bluster sounds off, Fernandez' soft petals emerge from the smoldering embers that present this group's most gentle moments.
Evan Parker's delicate tenor musings commence "Part Two," the majority of which draws its strength from Guy's "Void (For Doris)," a hauntingly solemn piece that originally appeared on Guy's Odyssey. After the initial ventures, the prickly textures interact before Gustafsson's baritone shrapnel sputters out in conjunction with Robertson and rhythm to electrify the ensemble. The wind begins to slowly leave the collective sails as Fernandez beautifully creates fragile drops of water on a crystal lake as Guy's silky arco and others drift away, almost silently.
The final section of the piece hits the ground running with Gustafsson's wild fluteophone before Parker's trademark circular breathing jaunts rise above the sonorant ensemble, with the lauded Parker-Guy-Lytton axis taking over amidst the jarring ensemble uppercuts. After Fernandez picks Lip where Parker left off, a low-toned melodic luster emerges that is cut short by a furious Lytton/Strid duet, over which the horns pulse to quicken the pace along with Fernandez's thrilling flights. Ending with a bang, the final moments leave one gasping for breath-and the play button for another round.
Each Guy creation is an event and Oort-Entropy delivers on such promise. With its challenging musical poles and everything in between, Guy further demonstrates that his every step is worth watching.
Jay Collins, Cadence Magazine, 2006, USA

Marcello Lorrai, Digitalizzato, Italia, 12.12. 2006

Gonçalo Falcão, Jazz.pt, Portugal, September/Oktober 2008

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