''Amorphae'' is a

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

guitarist

Ben Monder Ben Monder (born May 24, 1962) is an American modern jazz guitarist. Biography Monder started playing guitar when he was eleven, after two years on violin. From 1979–84, he attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music, the University of Miam ...

recorded in October 2010 and December 2013 and released on

ECM ECM may refer to: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Elliptic curve method * European Congress of Mathematics ...

in January 2016.

Background

The first session featured drummer

Paul Motian Stephen Paul Motian (March 25, 1931 – November 22, 2011) was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer. Motian played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties. He first came to prominence in the l ...

, who appears for a

Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popu ...

standard and a joint original—Motian died, however, before the duets album could be finished. Monder decided to continue the project in 2013, with a second sessions featuring Pete Rende on synthesizer and drummer

Andrew Cyrille Andrew Charles Cyrille (born November 10, 1939) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographe ...

Reception

In ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'',

John Fordham John Fordham (died 1425) was Bishop of Durham and Bishop of Ely. Fordham was keeper of the privy seal of Prince Richard from 1376 to 1377 and Dean of Wells before being named Lord Privy Seal in June 1377. He held that office until December 1381. ...

gave this album three stars and says that "Playing unaccompanied on conventional and baritone guitars, Monder embraces soft tone poems of humming sustains and eerie echoes, as well as wilder David Torn-like tumults." and add that "His soundworld is a shade private and austere, but ECM’s blessing should alert a wider audience to Monder's talents." '' Jazz Times''' Thomas Conrad wrote:

The album sustains a single ethereal domain of sonorities, even though it was recorded in two sessions three years apart and uses four different combinations of players... It is remarkable how many layers of sound Monder can produce from one guitar and one vintage Lexicon reverb unit. Cyrille offers, selectively, brushstrokes of color. On two trio pieces with Cyrille and Pete Rende on synth, the sonic landscape becomes vast but the creative process remains profoundly gradual. In one respect only, Amorphae is typical of current jazz releases: The ratio of originals to standards is 7-to-1. “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” is a duet with Paul Motian, in one of his final recordings. Motian's signature deft irregular accents create dramatic expectancy for the initial tentative forays of Monder, who grasps for fragments of the melody. Then Monder and his Lexicon blow this sweet song of Rodgers and Hammerstein into a wild, keening, howling storm. With more tracks like this one, Amorphae would have been a stronger and even stranger album.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

October 2010

– electric guitar, electric baritone guitar *

– drums (except "Dinosaur Skies")

December 2013

* Ben Monder – electric guitar, electric baritone guitar * Pete Rende – synthesizer ("Gamma Crucis", "Zythum") *

– drums (except "Tendrils")

Technical personnel

* Sun Chung – producer, liner photography * Rick Kwan (October 2010) – mixing engineer, recording engineer * James A. Farber (December 2013) – recording engineer * Sascha Kleis – design * Max Franosch – cover photography * Jesse Chun – liner photography

References

{{Authority control ECM Records albums 2016 albums Albums produced by Manfred Eicher