John Garner : Movie Night
Movie Night began life as a plan B. Originally intended as a session for an established jazz quartet featuring two of the Movie Night musicians, the two studio days (or rather, evenings) were left suddenly vacant due to personal circumstances in the original line-up. Seizing on the opportunity to try out some improvised music to screen, violinist John Garner assembled quartets for both days, radically different in instrumentation and aesthetic preferences. To add an additional, and potentially disruptive, element, three silent films were made available to each group, who were instructed to bring their own devices for the screenings. The first take of each night was a roulette of sorts: each musician would choose one of the films, unbeknownst to the others, await the starting pistol, and then proceed to improvise along to the images onscreen. Nobody had seen the films in advance and so the visual, thematic, and narrative materials were all experienced afresh. The quirks of isolation and unknowing led to various atypical considerations and questions arising over the course of the recordings, along the lines of: am I watching the same movie as ___; should I try to match my playing to the others, even though it feels like they’re responding to something entirely different; should I even pay attention to the others; as this ensemble texture is sounding so beautiful, can I just ignore the movie? As chance would have it, for the first take of each night, two musicians were watching one movie and the other two another, leaving a third movie for all to watch (in unison) for the second take, drastically altering the dynamic, reintroducing a more conventional ensemble approach and the comfort of shared viewership. After two nights, there emerged four takes in total, each lasting 60 to 73 minutes in length. The final LP features a chopped-up selection of moments from the sessions, unedited but reordered. The result is a surprisingly cohesive, occasionally unhinged, kaleidoscope of uncanny textures and claudicant grooves in glorious technicolour.
Movie Night began life as a plan B. Originally intended as a session for an established jazz quartet featuring two of the Movie Night musicians, the two studio days (or rather, evenings) were left suddenly vacant due to personal circumstances in the original line-up. Seizing on the opportunity to try out some improvised music to screen, violinist John Garner assembled quartets for both days, radically different in instrumentation and aesthetic preferences. To add an additional, and potentially disruptive, element, three silent films were made available to each group, who were instructed to bring their own devices for the screenings. The first take of each night was a roulette of sorts: each musician would choose one of the films, unbeknownst to the others, await the starting pistol, and then proceed to improvise along to the images onscreen. Nobody had seen the films in advance and so the visual, thematic, and narrative materials were all experienced afresh. The quirks of isolation and unknowing led to various atypical considerations and questions arising over the course of the recordings, along the lines of: am I watching the same movie as ___; should I try to match my playing to the others, even though it feels like they’re responding to something entirely different; should I even pay attention to the others; as this ensemble texture is sounding so beautiful, can I just ignore the movie? As chance would have it, for the first take of each night, two musicians were watching one movie and the other two another, leaving a third movie for all to watch (in unison) for the second take, drastically altering the dynamic, reintroducing a more conventional ensemble approach and the comfort of shared viewership. After two nights, there emerged four takes in total, each lasting 60 to 73 minutes in length. The final LP features a chopped-up selection of moments from the sessions, unedited but reordered. The result is a surprisingly cohesive, occasionally unhinged, kaleidoscope of uncanny textures and claudicant grooves in glorious technicolour.
Movie Night began life as a plan B. Originally intended as a session for an established jazz quartet featuring two of the Movie Night musicians, the two studio days (or rather, evenings) were left suddenly vacant due to personal circumstances in the original line-up. Seizing on the opportunity to try out some improvised music to screen, violinist John Garner assembled quartets for both days, radically different in instrumentation and aesthetic preferences. To add an additional, and potentially disruptive, element, three silent films were made available to each group, who were instructed to bring their own devices for the screenings. The first take of each night was a roulette of sorts: each musician would choose one of the films, unbeknownst to the others, await the starting pistol, and then proceed to improvise along to the images onscreen. Nobody had seen the films in advance and so the visual, thematic, and narrative materials were all experienced afresh. The quirks of isolation and unknowing led to various atypical considerations and questions arising over the course of the recordings, along the lines of: am I watching the same movie as ___; should I try to match my playing to the others, even though it feels like they’re responding to something entirely different; should I even pay attention to the others; as this ensemble texture is sounding so beautiful, can I just ignore the movie? As chance would have it, for the first take of each night, two musicians were watching one movie and the other two another, leaving a third movie for all to watch (in unison) for the second take, drastically altering the dynamic, reintroducing a more conventional ensemble approach and the comfort of shared viewership. After two nights, there emerged four takes in total, each lasting 60 to 73 minutes in length. The final LP features a chopped-up selection of moments from the sessions, unedited but reordered. The result is a surprisingly cohesive, occasionally unhinged, kaleidoscope of uncanny textures and claudicant grooves in glorious technicolour.