The Distance by Ben Monder, Chris Gestrin & Dylan van der Schyff

The record is wholly improvised apart from two tunes each by van der Schyff and Gestrin, yet there’s a cumulative sense of continuity and flow. The composed pieces tend to hover on the brink of freedom, while the improvs are fascinating as process but also strong on form. The particular character of this trio’s music-making involves a balance between speed/dynamism and a more inward, meditative feeling, between expansiveness and concentration, abstraction and the luminous impressions of the moment, music as sound or ambience and gesture as statement. The shifting continuum between consonance and dissonance or distortion also plays a part: Gestrin’s preparations (e.g. paper laid on strings in “Extrinsic”), Monder’s exquisite grunge (“Dark Engine”), van der Schyff’s multi-hued ringings and tappings. At times dreamlike and cinematic ... at others almost orchestral in scope and detail, The Distance is a different kind of chamber jazz.

This recording is meant to be played without gaps between tracks.

For SACD copies pease visit http://songlines.com/release/the-distance/

I'm an improvising percussionist based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.