Gorgeous neo-classical piano lines play alongside hurried cymbal work, with subtle ambient tones holding down the low end on "Guardians of Memory", the opening track to Australian jazz and electronic scene stalwart Laurence Pike's latest collection ", Possible Utopias for Jazz Quartet". There's a floating ambivalence to this song that introduces an album of charmingly aloof, rhythmically centred, explorative, and experimental arrangements.
Thematically, this album deals with ideas of freedom. Pike sees freedom as running counter to the capitalist state in which modern jazz and adjacent genres like experimental and ambient exist. After all, that's the reason jazz first came into existence, as a way for oppressed workers to blow off steam and express their desire for freedom in the shape of music antithetical to that found on the rigid FM programmed by the man. Speaking of the album, Pike states, "My loose concept was: What does music sound like when the expectations of late capitalism are removed from it?" It might sound like Pike is just using loaded language to describe being "experimental", but the music here suggests otherwise. It is controlled. It is experimental but informed. Like using a bungee instead of just jumping. Pike invariably winds his long, textured musings towards a definite centre. Like on "Night Bird", where the strong beats seem to rearrange the musical elements in real time. Likewise, the pitter-patter of cascading tones on "Mid Journey" feels like raindrops falling from a neon sky, collected in buckets of scurried percussion, while a confused narrator stumbles around in the rain, here represented by stunted bass-like hits. The alto sax of collaborator Ben Lerner enters this scene. There is confusion and drama, but he ultimately makes sense of the world by eventually mirroring the off-kilter vibe.
Can you ever really be free, or are we always chained to our choices? Is ultimate freedom always beneficial, or does it make possible things like, say, war? Pike asks these questions and others on "Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet", eventually landing somewhere in the middle; be as free as you can while still keeping your feet on the ground. You don't have to reach oblivion to find beauty; it exists all around.
★★★★