''Invisible Threads'' is an album by English saxophonist and composer

John Surman John Douglas Surman (born 30 August 1944) is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet, and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music. He has composed and performed music for dance performanc ...

recorded in Norway in July 2017 and released on ECM January the following year. The trio features Nelson Ayres on piano and

Rob Waring Rob Waring (born December 3, 1956 in Yonkers, New York) is an American-Norwegian Contemporary music composer and performer (drums and vibraphone), commonly associated with symphony orchestras and jazz ensembles. Career Waring studied with Rol ...

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

and

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

.ECM discography
accessed 5 June 2018

Reception

The

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

review by Steve Horowitz stated "This is jazz meant for a quiet room. The trio creates a space where a listener can drift along without getting tired. There's an energy to the playing that lifts one into a pleasant state and a good-humor to the enterprise as a whole. The mutual respect the musicians have for each other is evident by the space in which they give themselves to play. The silence between the instruments and the attentive pacing in which they perform suggests they are carefully listening to each other rather than just waiting for their turn."Horowitz, S
PopMatters Review
accessed 5 June 2018 The

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

review by Thom Jurek notes "As a whole, ''Invisible Threads'' is an approachable but major work of melodic improvisation and tonal inquiry."

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

reviewer Samuel Stroup said, "This band of veteran musicians achieves what it sets out to do on ''Invisible Threads'', mixing their improvisational skill with the rhythmic intricacies that make the album's songs unique. The trio's light sound never becomes flimsy, each member occupying his varying amount of authority, moment by moment. Surman masterfully leads the group through his exercises in cohesion in the flowing and pulsing music."

Track listing

Personnel

* John Surman –

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

* –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

–

References

{{Authority control 2018 albums John Surman albums ECM Records albums Albums produced by Manfred Eicher