Pat Metheny - Orchestrion
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CD Details
Artist: Pat MethenyEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2010-01-26
Music Label: Nonesuch
Product features:
- METHENY PAT ORCHESTRION
- Orchestrion
- Entry Point
- Expansion
- Soul Search
- Spirit of the Air
Music reviews of Orchestrion
Music Review: fascinating album
Rating: 5 Stars
I won't go into any detail about the actual orchestrion itself. Other reviewers have done that very well and there are many links on youtube and Mr Metheny's website which explain and show how it works. Make no mistake though the orchestrion is a major progressive development technologically over the older versions and the player piano.
The orchestrion sounds uncannily like a group of musicians (that is how convincing this new invention is) It does sound somewhat different to Pat's varying ensembles but there are complex interactions going on on the macro scale as well as the micro scale of the music.
In a sense this is a kind of follow up to the old album 'new Chautauqua' On that album pat tried to use the studio as an instrument with overdubbed guitars etc to build up the songs. On that album probably due to the technology available and restricted studio time he came away with a very listenable album whose sparseness was highly appealing. On Orchestrion he is afforded a broader, richer pallette to work from and 20 odd years more musical experience.
The Orchestrion is a machine which has been humanised (or gives the illusion of such) It is a very tight but flexible sounding 'ensemble'all under the control of Mr Metheny.
I felt a little underwhelmed on first listen but several plays later this album really begins to grow in the memory. There are a lot of very complex things going on in this music, structurally, rhythmically and melodically & Pat plays some wonderful melodic solos over all of this.
Pat has always done his own thing musically and often taken some wide detours on his musical journey (Song X, Zero tolerance for silence, the sign of 4 etc) Orchestrion unlike those albums follows more in the footesteps of the PMG albums/'Secret Story' and 'the way up'. If the fans wish to follow that is up to them.
The songs on the album (all multi instrumental) have all the hall marks of a Metheny composition but the orchestrion allows him the personal freedom to change the songs often subtly and to do new things. There are new twists to a lot of the music here and like 'Secret Story' the spaces are often filled with great detail in the sound.
The first track is one of the many highlights on the album and is a little reminiscent of 'first circle' from the album of the same name. It builds to a wonderful climactic apotheosis. There are a lot of time changes in the songs which keeps the listener's attention also.
Some attention has been brought to the quality of the drumming/bass playing on this album, namely that it is not up to the standards of a Mcbride or a Sanchez. I think this is asking over and beyond the possibilities of Pat and the orchestrion. The bass and drumming segments are definitely more than functional within the compositional structure of the works here and while not sounding like a well honed bass/drummer do a very fine job. One has to remember the bass parts on albums like 'New Chautauqua' and 'As falls wichita...' which Pat played himself. Those were obviously not as good as a well crafted bass player but did the job within the context of the pieces. Overall critics have very positive things to say about this album. I'm sure if we get an 'Orchestrion 2' it will be even better than this one.
My only criticism of the album is that it feels too short (this is not the case though in reality it is around 54 mins) which indicates that the album is definitely engrossing.
Albums which are immediately likeable usually don't get played much ultimately (in my experience) This one though will certainly be played a lot. Sadly some fans seem to be somewhat resistant to this new device and change of Pat's, for those who decide to stay the course there are many rewards.
In the development of the orchestrion Pat stated in interviews that ultimately the 'music' does the talking. I think he has managed to do this to a high level.
I would recommend the full quality cd version (1411 kbps) mp3 doesn't really do the music justice.
Highly recommended.
Description of Orchestrion
Grammy Award-winning composer-guitarist Pat Metheny s Orchestrion may turn out to be his most talked-about, argued-over undertaking. It s already his most adventurous. With Orchestrion, Metheny redefines the concept of the solo album. He is indeed the only live musician on this recording, but it s the opposite of, say, his 2003 One Quiet Night, in which Metheny hunkered down in his home studio to explore all the musical possibilities of one new guitar. Here he works with an extraordinary set-up of acoustic instruments, assembled for him by a visionary team of inventors. What they have created in collaboration with Metheny is a veritable made-to-order solenoid orchestra that includes, among other things, bass, pianos, percussion, marimbas, guitar-bots, and a mellifluous cabinet of carefully tuned bottles. Using one-of-a-kind software programs and solenoid switches, Metheny controls each instrument via his guitar and an array of pedals.Orchestrion was influenced by the primitive but evocative player-piano technology of yesteryear that has fascinated Metheny since he was a child. The player piano inspired inventors of that age to create the orchestrion, a large mechanical multi-instrument device that imitated the sound of an orchestra. Metheny brings this concept into the 21st century, composing and playing five ambitious pieces with his tailor-made, sophisticated, musically dynamic ensemble. Orchestrionics is what Metheny calls this new method of performing. The resulting album, recorded in midtown Manhattan s MSR studio after months of experimentation at home, is a marvel of the digital era, yet the record sounds beautifully, stirringly, human. In other words, timeless.
To witness Metheny improvising on guitar while surrounded by these instruments, digitally triggered to play the scores that Metheny has painstakingly written for each of them, is indeed a wonder. Eager fans have already made sell-outs of the first dates of Metheny s Orchestrion tour. But hearing is truly believing: there is not a single note on Orchestrion that sounds mechanical, and some tracks, like Expansion, have a thrillingly improvisational feel to them.
Metheny has gone into uncharted territory: every day in the studio with these instruments was a revelation as he began to comprehend what they were capable of musically and, more importantly, what he himself could achieve in their presence. They were not a substitute for the interaction of other players and this does not signal a shift from Metheny s other collaborative ventures. In fact, Metheny most recently proved his love for ensemble playing with his 2008 tour-de-force trio release, Day Trip.
Orchestrion is all about innovation. As Metheny puts it, This experience so far has provided me with a self-imposed challenge that has proven to be enormously difficult and time-consuming, but the early results have been absolutely exhilarating. I am excited to share this project... I am hopeful and confident that if nothing else, this will be something truly unique. It feels like progress to me and has gotten some notes out of me that I didn't know were there. That is always a good thing.
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