Shepp The New Wave in Jazz

Described in the press release as “Post-Everything”, each track on Zebra, Alexis Georgopoulos AKA Arp`s fifth solo long player, highlights a landmark from his musical journey. New Age synthesisers meet marimbas on Jazz-Influenced Post-Rock. Recalling Tortoise`s classic TNT, and Isotope 217`s The Unstable Molecule. There`s Space Age bachelor pad muzak, that plugs into Joseph Byrd`s lava lamp, and rifles through Janko Nilovic`s Library. Prompting me to namecheck Broadcast, Floating Points, and Vanishing Twin. Tribal rhythms mix with crystalline guitar on Pop, that could be a distant echo of Tears For Fears` Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Underpin the ghost of a Basic Channel reshape. Reich-ian counterpoint partners a racing robotic arpeggio. Horns blow in the manner of Archie Shepp`s reading of A Balm In Gilead. Brass sings like Leon Thomas` yodel on a Pharaoh Sanders-esque Spiritual. Cymbal crashes accompanying pianos and syncopation. Sounding like the ECM of Keith Jarrett Dancin`. Closing with a memory of Cluster`s Pastoral Kosmische. All of it overlapping, segueing seamlessly, synergising, into a whole.