It would verge upon the unforgivable if you, the reader, were to admit that you knew nothing of the two artists who make music together on this CD. Where have you been? I have been tempted to begin the CD notes in this manner because of my sadness and incredulity that such consummate masters of their chosen instruments and in this chosen medium of creative engagement - improvisation - are not more widely heard, perceived, understood and valued.
John Tilbury, now in his early sixties, and Evan Parker, in his mid-fifties, are flourishing as active artists. However, they work in a world that has been deceived into thinking that the media-driven tastes created by the music industry are what constitutes the contemporary serious but ‘popular culture.’ Bruce Springsteen and Madonna are, for examples, touted as cultural icons whose work should be taken seriously. But of course all the virtues claimed by some broadsheet critics, many of whom cut their writing teeth in the pop music press before conning their way into our so-called (but now diminished) serious cultural discourse, offer us only a reflection of product that serves the ideology and the bank balances of what John Tilbury himself would call ‘monopoly capitalism.’ Funny to see and hear this term these days. But it is long overdue for an outing. The deceitful mystique of ‘end of history’theories and the ‘no otherwayism’ of the Reagan/Thatcherite impoverishing legacy has to be countered. And, indeed it is countered by numerous people in their everyday lives and choices. The music herein is one such heroic example.
Artists like Evan Parker and John Tilbury have been countering the kind of idiocy I have referred to above for a long time. Not in terms of rhetoric - we are all, I am sure, sick to death of meaningless critiques and empty promises, especially those characteristic of pop and comic relief gestures. There is nothing empty in the music that these two artists display with consummate confidence and almost devastating ease - even though I am (if only partly ) aware of the effort that has preceded such demonstrations of artistry by way of diligent practice and thought. The product of this meeting of minds and spirit revealed, if only momentarily on this CD, is the product of endeavour and commitment to deep felt views, positive in regard to mankind in general and how people should relate to each other.
These musicians have chosen to eschew the given media of jazz, from whence Evan Parker received much of his initial inspiration, and the classical world from which John Tilbury received his early and formative training, in order to become autonomous human beings who can engage creatively and practically - not only with the world of sound but with the world of philosophy, and thence reflect upon a civil society. Why make art if not wanting to indicate other worlds and to transcend this one?
Music may not be considered as a life-saving agency, but it can put life into some meaningful perspective for so many people. Its apparent objectivelessness is deceptive. It is another language which escapes the inexactitudes and the wriggling distortions and delusions of the word. I do not hear John and Evan talking politics on this CD, but I do hear the way each applies their critique and their suggestions within this dialogue. Each speaks and lets the other speak. Each I know was suitably (and charmingly) nervous of the intercourse. Each respectfully feared the encounter and wanted not - as in some competitive bust up that often characterises instrumental struggles, in say, tenor saxophone battles - to impose their will upon the other. However, each in the process of an uncompromising engagement, wanted to find out more about the other. And, as importantly, wanted to find out more about themselves. More importantly still, to review, propose and test what is possible in wider human discourses.
Whilst I may be able to stake a claim as the midwife to this long overdue and most obviously fruitful of musical collaborations, I cannot claim to have thought of this recording project. Evan and John have all too rarely performed in each other’s company. When it has happened it has been mostly by way of Evan’s occasional guest appearances with AMM. But in that context there are of course other matters and other musicians to consider. The distinction of having the idea to create these duets goes to a deep listener to this kind of music and a supporter of Matchless Recordings who sidled up to me one day at a concert and casually remarked that perhaps a duet of Evan Parker and John Tilbury on our label would be a good idea. I nodded, not with any great conviction but the more I thought about it the more obvious such a musical match appeared. I hope this is a good example of a recording label responding to the listeners.
The imagining was the hard part, because thereafter these two artists lent their minds and wills to the project at hand. My own illness at the time meant that I couldn’t even attend the studio session. But with the least amount of fuss the CD was produced in good time. This alone was enough to bring tears of joy to any record producer who as a breed are inherently nervous about what musicians might or might not do when they are let loose in the studio. Nothing feels more like writing an open cheque! But I need not have feared. They are both men of personal and musical integrity. The work at hand being the only objective to be realised. My experience of them is that despite their obvious talents they each have so little in them in the way of guile and self-aggrandisement and so much by way of generosity, which I think is amply revealed in this recording. It is a pleasure and an honour to be able to call them my friends.
Eddie Prévost
February 2000
Track Listing
1. Ch. 1. In which the listener will perceive that in some cases madness is catching (32.10)
2. Ch. 2. Which shews that there are more ways to kill a dog than hanging (36.45)
3. Perro semihundido (02.42)
Recorded at Gateway Studios, Kingston-upon-Thames on 3 August 1998.
Front cover: Dalrymple (detail) by Trevor Sutton.
Evan Parker has played very occasionally with pianist John Tilbury before (particularly when guesting with AMM), but this is their first recorded duet Eddie Prevost's sleevenotes seek to locate the work of Parker and Tilbury as that of autonomous radicals outside of 'monopoly capitalism', but despite this his rhetoric about their musical 'heroism' merely burdens them with yet another mythology.
Two Chapters sounds dated at first The whole tonality, the extended instrument techniques, the off-plane juxtaposition of sounds any of it could have been recorded in the late 60s/early 70s and nobody would be able to tell the difference. Both musicians have been willing to embrace new technologies, but this collaboration is defiantly 'traditional' in its approach. Free improvisation has long since passed the stage when it could claim to be breaking with the genre cliches of jazz — it has found its own tradition to replace them. Nobody would mistake Two Chapters for being located anywhere other than at the centre of that stylistic tradition. What's normally emphasised about music of this sort is the talent, intuition and social sensitivity of the musicians involved, and this album can't escape that however much this listener might like to ignore the musicianship and concentrate on the pure recorded sound. Tilbury and Parker may well have been nervous when they made this album, but their interaction is absolutely superb. No great musical empathy is required to recognise such a brilliant partnership such as this, particularly on 'Which Shews That There Are More Ways To Kill A Dog Than Hanging', one of the two lengthy improvisations that dominate the album. Blisteringly fast sax tootling from Parker and raindrop-falling piano from Tilbury are contrasted against lower register clumps of reverberation and flaky, polyphonic seagull impersonations. It's a glorious, immersive experience.
At times the sound is simply gorgeous in its richness and colour, and the duo are superbly responsive and alert throughout. Tilbury in particular is content to hold his fire when necessary and let ego take a back seat while his piano sits silently. The other long piece, "In Which The Listener Will Perceive That In Some Cases Madness Is Catching', is notably less startling, but once it gets going still has no shortage of staccato incident contemplative languor, and oddly entertaining oppositions. Two Chapters is one of the most impressive free Improv albums I've heard for some time. Perhaps it does all sound like an escapee from a previous era, but since the music's so successful, that may just make it timeless.
Brian Duguid
The Wire (UK) June 2000
Certain releases come along that are almost daunting to write about. This meeting between John Tilbury and Evan Parker is one such outing. The two have played together occasionally when Parker was a guest with AMM, but this was the first time they had recorded together and the first time they had played as a duo. Eddie Prévost's informative liner notes describes how a "deep listener and supporter of Matchless Recordings" came up to him at a concert and suggested a duet recording between the two. It quickly becomes clear that this is more than just a casual recording session based on a whim. These two are consummate improvisers who have continued to define and develop their own musical voices over the course of decades-long dedication to collective, spontaneous improvisation. Each has helped to veritably define the voice of their respective instruments in free settings. Just as important, they have each developed a keen ear for spontaneous communication; knowing how to respond with lightning reflexes, when to open things up, how to leave space for the other player, and how to develop extended improvisations full of startling brilliance and then bring them to logical closure.
With two long pieces of over 30 minutes each, along with a short epilogue', the two have ample room to create improvisations of expansive scope, balancing passages of rumlinative conversation with expansive fieriness, On 'Ch. 1 ...' Parker starts on tenor, creating flowing lines and bristling knots around Tilbury's crystalline pools and resonant flurries. When Parker switches to soprano, he slowly starts to spin a serpentine web of circularly breathed lines, but never lets the density overwhelm his partner. Tilbury's spare chords start out 'Ch. 2.... ' and Parker slowly adds quiet, breathy lines. Parker's work with electronics is in evidence here as he creates hovering tones that seem to become disembodied from the horn, sounding oddly like a theremin quavering over Tilbury's dark rumbles. Again Parker starts off on circularly breathed lines and Tilbury responds, weaving sparking tracers of high notes, and crashing thunder hammered from the bass strings against the mounting tension. Throughout, the two create dynamism as they move from dense interplay to quiet openness. As the piece draws to a close, Tilbury's scraped and bowed strings create an ethereal counterpoint to Parker's hovering split tones only to open up to lithe, dancing lines that build with electric vigor. The quiet, spare piano and tenor epilogue provides an effective close to the recording. This release is a rare opportunity to hear Tilbury outside of the context of AMM. The pairing with Parker is nothing short of brilliant.
Michael Rosenstein
Cadence (USA) March 2001