Most Innovative recording of 2007: "They shaped this record
that's really not a jazz record at all. It's really this swamp language
that I found incredibly interesting and beautiful and very different."
-- Tom Moon, 2007: The Year in Review from All Songs Considered
“Taking a page from the Miles Davis/Teo
Macero playbook, guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Matt Chamberlain
teamed up with longtime production pals Martine and Townsend
to create this studio-collaged musical masterpiece - but
Floratone doesn't sound anything like Bitches Brew or In
a Silent Way.... The 11 compositions flow one into
another like segments of a steady-moving river - in turns brooding,
swampy, choppy, effervescent, and translucent. Chamberlain's tasteful
grooves and accents provide the deepwater impetus, while Frisell's
soulful vamps, plucky palm-mutes, shimmering harmonics, textural
twang, and spacey atmospherics weave together into so many currents
and undercurrents, as the horn and string lines glide majestically
over the surface. As intriguing as it is enjoyable, Floratone is
easily one of the best records of 2007.” Guitar
Player
“Call it Ambient
Americana Sound Sculpting ... The music on Floratone is
largely based around Chamberlain’s behind-the-beat grooves
and Frisell’s left-of-center blues-drenched chords and
phrases... it’s not about soloing per
se; rather it’s about collective interpretation, exploring
all possible nuances.
Floratone shares much, in fact,
with Teo Macero’s collage-like approach
to sculpting In a Silent Way, though
with modern digital editing the integration
is so seamless that it’s often impossible
to differentiate between live performance
and studio construction. Not that it matters.
The greatest success of Floratone is
how organic, how natural the music
sounds, the considerable technology
behind it notwithstanding. Despite all the
electronic textures used from conception
to final realization, it’s a distinctive,
extremely appealing and visual collection
of sonic landscapes.
There are those who believe that democratic/leaderless
projects are
inherently doomed to failure. Floratone is a modern masterpiece—a
completely equitable collaboration between Frisell, Chamberlain,
Townsend and Martine—that lays such claims to waste.” John
Kelman, All About Jazz
“This is some of the most vital and
exciting guitar work Bill Frisell has ever committed
to tape.... Listening to these unlikely swirls
of sound is almost like the beginnings of some
exotic new language, rising like steam from a
swamp. They're like nothing else.....
it's some of the most riveting instrumental music
to emerge this year.” Tom Moon, NPR’s All
Things Considered
"The fine-tuned soundscapes
maintain a satisfyingly hypnotic menace." UK Financial
Times
“A soundscape bonanza infused with a melange of jazz, country,
dub reggae, funk, rock and ambient music.” Dan Ouellette, Billboard
Collaboration seems to suit Bill Frisell.... Although Floratone
is more of a studio creation than I might like‚ the end result
is just too much fun to dismiss on technicalities.
Floratone came out of a 2005 jam session between Frisell and expolsive,
ever-versatile drummer Matt Chamberlain. Frisell responds to Chamberlain's
over-stimulus with a nasty‚ unfiltered buzz saw sound that
kicks you in the ass and says‚ "That…was an attention-getter!"
After the session‚ Tucker Martine and Lee Townsend‚ got
out the digital chisel and sculpted the raw tracks into an 11-song
set that suggests a Frankenstein-like melding of Wes Montgomery‚ Robert
Johnson and the White Stripes. The producers brought in bassist Viktor
Krauss - another cohort of Frisell's-to anchor the tunes‚ while
texture and scope were added with carefully placed contributions
from cornetist Ron Miles and violist Eyvind Kang.
A lot of Floratone is atmospheric‚ but there's lightning in
the atmosphere.
Your attention stays riveted through "The Wanderer‚" which
is a good walk spoiled by encroaching memory. "Mississippi Rising" lays
down a chugging swamp groove that rolls over you like a runaway freight
train. The funk-jazz "Swamped" and the looped-out "Louisiana
Lowboat" take long‚ sweet trips on that same train. Even
when things get meditative-on the loping "The Passenger" and
the hypnotic "Take a Look"-the aggressive tone never really
wanes.
Martine and Townsend share equal billing with Frisell and Chamberlain
on the album's cover‚ showing that this matrix is bigger than
the usual artist/producer relationship. Of all Frisell's collaborations‚ Floratone
may be his most productive. And a productive Bill Frisell is a very
good thing. - J.Hunter, State of Mind
It's not hard for the producer to be forgotten when there are musicians
such as guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Matt Chamberlain running
around getting all the credit. It's all too easy for people to notice
the virtuoso talent of the players and forget they're not the only
ones who had a hand in putting together what you're hearing - and
that's why Blue Note supergroup Floratone was put together, a band
which gives the same billing to its two producers Tucker Martine
and Lee Townsend as to its two players. This is probably down to
the way the record was put together, apparently Frisell and Chamberlain
had a series of sessions together and sent all the recordings over
to Martine and Townshend, who proceeded to chop and edit these jams
into 'proper' tracks. On sending the tracks back to Frisell and Chamberlain
they recorded more parts and brought in able help from Eyvind Kang
(on viola), Ron Miles (on cornet) and Viktor Krauss (on bass) to
add the finishing touches, and the results are quite astonishing.
There is the shadow of Americana and classic folk emerging from Frisell
and Chamberlain's carefully measured playing, but everything has
been reframed by Martine and Townsend in such a way that you could
almost be listening to an album of haunting soundscapes. It's rare
to hear a jazz album (for want of a better
term) with this kind of attention to detail, it's just a pleasure
to listen to from beginning to end and somehow manages to avoid all
the pitfalls of blending jazz and electronics by being straightforward
and innovative without sacrificing any of the players' musical virtuosity.
More than merely an experiment, this is an album which demands the
immediate attention of those of you interested in the sound of modern
jazz from the very fringes. -
Bookmat.com
