Composer in Dialogue: Winter Sun Crying

In December 2009, bassist and composer William Parker was asked to collaborate with the ICI Ensemble Munich, a German collective improvisatory troupe that periodically sets itself into deliberate alignment with composers whose creative tendencies merit special consideration. Previous Composer in Dialogue collaborations had brought the ICI into close contact with an intriguing series of composers, although as this review is written, only those by George E. Lewis and Olga Neuwirth have been brought before the public in recorded form. In 2007 the ICI also released The Wisdom of Pearls, an album featuring works engendered by members of the group. Like everything having anything to do with William Parker, Composer in Dialogue: Winter Sun Crying stands as a stunning monument to the human imagination and the prismatic art of shared spontaneity. The overall effect is that of an environment through which the listener gradually drifts or suddenly plummets. Various woodwind instruments are handled by David Jager, Roger Jannotta, and Markus Heinze. Christofer Varner generates sounds with both trombone and sampler. Gunnar Geisse doubles on laptop and laptop guitar. The ground is held by pianist Martin Wolfrum, cellist Johanna Varner, drummer Sunk Poschl, and contrabassist Georg Janker. In addition to his own contrabass, guest of honor William Parker plays double-reed instruments, piccolo trumpet, and shakuhachi flute on this extraordinary 15-part ritual which he conceived especially for the ICI Ensemble Munich. The inclusion of electronically generated effects adds delightfully weird contours and unpredictability to an already adventurous itinerary. Winter Sun Crying may be enjoyed among the freest of William Parker's many imaginatively conceived and fully liberated recordings.