Sonic Gnostic

These recordings document a live concert in Los Angeles. Bill Frisell, Tim Tsang, Timothy Young, Lu Coy, Breana Gilcher, Diego Gaeta, Jessika Kenney, Jesse Quebbeman-Turley joined Eyvind Kang on stage. The double LP is completed with a solo performance of one of Kang’s compositions by pianist Adrienne Varner.
The conceptual, spiritual and searching style of Kang binds everything together. The guitar pieces – ‘binnah’ and ‘plainlight’ – are what Kang calls ‘oceanic’. After a while, they gradually slow down, coming to rest on a tonic. How long can the group be happy with just one note? The piano pieces – ‘grass’ and ‘grass study’ – do the opposite. It is ‘evaporating’: a scattering effect. No tonic, no key, no tempo. These chiasmic approaches turn out to have a lot in common. They blend and recombine sounds. The result is a gentle record, interesting to the mind and soothing to the heart.