Montreal drummer-composer Gossage's new avant-jazz record with his long-running quintet is their most original to date.

Other Voices is Montreal drummer-composer Gossage's long-running quintet, and their new record is perhaps their most original and compelling to date. The band members are Steve Raegele (guitar), Miles Perkin (double bass), Frank Lozano (tenor & soprano sax) and Rémi Bolduc (alto sax). Gossage takes a sculptor's approach to sound, inspiring his musicians to carve out forms and concepts through structured group improvisations which demonstrate their quick yet thoughtful responses. Combine Braxton's love of abstruse counterpoint and borderline atonality with Varese's manner of animating blocks of sound, throw in a wry sense of humor, inject just a dash of chaos - and you get an experimental jazz record that is attractively varied as well as engaging on deeper levels.

Explains Gossage: 'Although I use tone rows and atonality I by no means adhere to a strict system. For each composition I have numerous pieces of musical information to choose from, and it then becomes a question of how they work together or how they make up the character of the composition. This assemblage is very intuitive. The key to the current music of Other Voices is that it almost completely comes from a melodic place. Sometimes the melodies are in unison, often there are many melodies overlapping, and they are placed within a pulse frame rather than more rigid time and harmonic structures. I'm also a big fan of suspension and release, creating blocks of music that answer to each other.'

Track Listing

• Id Est (In Other Words)
• Hic et Ubique (Here and Now)
• Counter Counter Clockwise
• Ab Infra Prologue
• Ab Infra (From Within)
• Inari
• Your Numbers
• Chemin II
• Tom Arthurs' Dinner

Additional Details

Label: Songlines

Genre: Jazz

Run Time: 59 mins

Release Date: 10/11/11

UPC: 774355159125