improvisations and edits tokyo, 09/26/2001

This CD documents a one-time encounter between Jan Jelinek and the laptop group Computer Soup. On September 26, 2001, Jelinek was on tour in Japan and at this Tokyo concert shared the stage with the minimal techno-jazz trio. The album presents a selection of edits from the continuous improvised set. The result is interesting, but not fantastic. Jelinek's minimal house-cum-clicks & cuts sound finds a way to fuse with the processed trumpet and more ambient approach of the Japanese musicians. The album begins very softly with a 3/4 clicking beat to which jazzy bass and Wurlitzer lines are added, along with a muted trumpet solo — the Cinematic Orchestra goes German! "Straight Life" works out superbly, and if the session had maintained this level of integration from beginning to end it would be marvelous. "Ballads" takes a long time to lift up and even then remains somewhat tentative. The two "Hot Barbecue" cuts push the music deeper into electronic free-form. Noisier and more chaotic, they have their moments, especially the second one. "The New Anthem" brings listeners back to the mood of the first piece: ambient and lush. Two tracks later, the same theme comes back as "The Post-Anthem" and that's where you realize that these pieces, some sounding very structured and planned out, have been assembled through longer, slow-evolving performances. After a lengthy silence, an unannounced eighth piece appears, strongly related once again to the first one, bringing the album full circle. It makes a nice disc and should it mark a departure for Jelinek. The CD is packaged in a DVD case, for no apparent reason. ~ François Couture, Rovi