In most live improvisations a player is trying to transcend their instrument – but live concerts for Chuck van Zyl are an attempt to transcend a system. The double CD Recitals 3 arrives with high expectations and from the start it delights and transports. The live concert, the flickering shadow of the soul is where moment by moment this music was realized – as it is here that Chuck van Zyl uncovers the secret of his own operation.
Disc 1 (71’39”) includes music from live performances for MUSIC WITH SPACE, Johnny Brenda’s and NEEM Fest 2018 and moves from the dolorous to the ecstatic in a balance of opposing tensions. As if upon the workings of some powerful engine the music moves deliberately in sequencer steps rather than abruptly in leaps. A symphony of thought, “The Weakening Eye of Day” fascinates the mind, captivates the heart, and stimulates the imagination.
Disc 2 (76’05”) features extracts from the abstract passages of five performances, and hopes to bypass the conscious sensibilities for a direct connection to that which is elemental. Notes collide, collude and combine. Each movement comes at you in a ramble of melody, a search of harmony, a flight of timbre. In “To the Close and Holy Darkness” we hear a unity in the arrangement and the message conveyed.
The music found on Recitals 3 displays the glimmer of imaginative energy that has graced Chuck van Zyl’s music for over 30 years. Conjoining disparate impulses it evokes cycles of collapse and renewal. Gorgeously colored, weighty in theme, style and construction this music reaches into the world of the surreal – in a profound poem of electricity.
The Recitals series of CD releases presents music recorded at various recent live performances by Chuck van Zyl. The shows were documented with an ordinary two-track recording device, and, after months of review, produced and released as Recitals (2016) Recitals 2 (2018) and Recitals 3 (2019). This substantial triple-double CD set is presently sold in a limited edition signed and numbered slipcase. Only 125 of the value priced Recitals Box will be available to Spacemusic collectors.
Also on offer is a specially priced item for the fortunate fans who already have Recitals and Recitals 2 in their collection, but wish to add Recitals 3 and the Recitals Box to their collection.
Track Listing:
CD1: “The Weakening Eye of Day”
CD2: “To the Close and Holy Darkness”
Recorded Live in 2018.
English