Parker Notch

The concept behind this project was for Peter Ablinger and Gareth Davis to explore alternate takes on the use of jazz standards as their musical source material. This is not to suggest in any way that improvising on the themes is without interest or has become exhausted. Instead the duo look at ways of combining what may be seen as different musical backgrounds and seek less expected possibilities. Principle motifs in ‘Parker Notch’ are listening, noise, silence and the idiosyncrasies involved with performance. How often does ambient noise play a part in listening to music? And how often do we, as listeners, pay attention to this? The two sides of the record are polar opposites. The A side is a flood of information, a recording, noise and an additional instrument, whilst the B side has been stripped of everything with the exception of ambient noises left over from their source material. From Peter Ablinger.

“The instrumental part can be played by any (fast) instrument from f# (f# below middle c) to c3 (high soprano c), 4’25″. The instrumental part is a sort of automatic transcription from a record of Charlie Parker playing “Lester Leaps In”. The original record constitutes itself as one layer of the piece, but is treated by a “notch filter” that erases the area from 200-1100Hz, the fundamental pitches of Parker’s playing. The notch makes room for the instrumentalist’s “Karaoke”, which in fact is highly virtuosic – the tempo is M.M.347 – but even so, almost nothing of that can be really heard: Not the solo, nor the “accompanying” tune. Both are almost completely wrapped into a dominating static noise containing the totality of sounds from the original record, merged into a single monochrome noise colour.”

A wonderful conceptual piece of work.

Tracks: 1. Parker Notch 2. Weiss/Weisslich 13

Duration: 8:59

Catalogue: FJ201105

Format: Limited edition lathe cut 7-inch

Edition: Limited to one copy per person/household

Released: 6 June 2011

Personnel: Peter Ablinger, Gareth Davis