Carney's NY septet's 2nd release was designed as a movie in sound, exploring the border regions of styles and genres.

James Carney's 2nd release with his NY septet was designed from the outset as virtual cinema, a movie in sound, using both composition and solo/group improvisation. Like his previous release it explores the border regions of styles and genres, from jazz, rock, and funk to classical and world music, blending 'classical modernism with knowing futurism' (Troy Collins). Carney explains:

I wanted to create music that could function as the complete score for an edited sequence of images - music that would have themes, sound effects, atmosphere, shock value, drones, periods of time with no established tempo, and dynamic range surprises that are usually a component of scores. And I continually visualized the end result during the process. I didn't think of a specific story, but I did ponder and focus on abstracted collages of scenes from many films I admired in the past. But in traditional film scoring it's rare to have the music be jazz-based, or improvisational in nature, and usually when it is, it's a single or specific type of jazz like bebop or ragtime, big band or cool. And, almost always, the music becomes sliced and diced....When I scored projects in the past, they never featured group improvisation, and they never used all the sonic tools I now have at my disposal. It's not just blending electronic instruments [an Alesis Andromeda analog synth and a Fender Rhodes] and acoustic instruments in a jazz context - it's the ability of my band members to coax very unique and sometimes completely unpredictable sounds from their instruments because of their musicianship and their open aesthetic. And most importantly, it's the blend of all of those sounds, intervals, chords, and their related partials that I wanted to exploit, coming from both the composed passages and the open sections. You can't plan it, and you really can't orchestrate it, either.'

24/88.2 recording mixed to stereo and 5.0.

Track Listing

• Nefarious Notions
• Squatters
• Champion of Honesty
• Onondaga
• The Business End
• Legal Action
• Fallout
• Pow Wow
• Gargoyles

Additional Details

Label: Songlines

Genre: Jazz

Run Time: 68 mins

Release Date: 07/14/09

UPC: 774355158029