Evan Parker has practically single handedly redefined the language of the saxophone. A profound influence on several generations of musicians, his impact on modern saxophone technique is staggering. His newest project takes his visionary music to a new level through the world of overdubbing and electronics. Time Lapse is one of Evan’s greatest achievements. Eleven compositions by one of the most important and radical improvisers in the world. Essential.
The music of avant garde saxophonist Evan Parker is not generally known as easy listening, and though his recordings for ECM may have tended toward the atmospheric, 2006's TIME LAPSE, released on Tzadik, finds Parker returning to challenging form. There are 11 original compositions here, and Parker's sax is the only instrument on most (though he makes ample use of multi-tracking ). Parker can be ruminative at times, and at others full of gutsy, exploratory fire, giving fans familiar with this contemporary avant icon's wild, mercurial sound much to appreciate.
2023 is the 10th anniversary of Einaudi’s most popular album, In A Time Lapse. Building on the success of Nightbook and integrating more instrumentation than ever before, Einaudi fully embraced the range of possibilities this provided him. From delicate tracks including Waterways and the haunting Underwood through to Life, Experience and Newton’s Cradle where the larger ensemble is used to its full effect. Violinist Daniel Hope lends his talents to many tracks on the album and is featured on Experience, the song that has gone on to become Einaudi’s best most popular track.
"In a Time Lapse" was composed over a period of two years and recorded in October 2012 in a Monastery near Verona, Italy. The 14 pieces that compose the album range between piano, strings, percussion and electronics. As with previous albums, "In A Time Lapse" develops as a suite with a concept that recalls the form of a novel divided in different chapters. Epic and emotional, experimental and adventurous, "In A Time Lapse" moves even further exploring new textures and arrangements that blends different musical worlds in one.
Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi, grandson of an early president of postwar Italy and student of Luciano Berio, has at times used either his first or his last name solo. His music is a bit difficult to pin down, for it treads up to the lines of minimalism, new age, and pop piano without quite going over any of them. It depends on repeated, slowly shifting piano figures but is too grand to be really minimalist. Stress reduction and contemplativeness are the chief virtues ascribed to it by its admirers, but it doesn't have the improvisatory jazz basis of American new age music.