Quotes on Denman Maroney's Music
HYPERPIANO
"chillingly good" - Jeff Gibson, Other Music
"exciting... exhilarating" - Richard Cochrane, Musings
"hypnotic... intriguing" - Frank Rubolino, Cadence
"satisfying and diverse" - Howard Stelzer, Intransitive Review
"scary" - Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
"sonic treasures" - Michael Nastos, WEMU-FM, Ypsilanti MI
"shimmering partials hovering luminescent in the air" - John Chacona, Signal To Noise
"a development of both Cage and Nancarrow" - Andy Hamilton, Wire
"intellectual, strong and a workout for adventurous ears" - John Barrett, Jr., Green Mountain Jazz Messenger
DISTICH
"completely alien pianistic territory" - Scott
Verrastro, Jazz Times
"fascinating... incredibly unique soundscape"
- Fritz Schenker, WNUR-FM
"an astounding level of cohesion" - Matthew
Miller, allaboutjazz.com
"remarkable... in-the-moment intuition" - Nic
Jones, allaboutjazz.com
TIME
CHANGES
"effortless and alluring" - John Kellman, allaboutjazz.com
"Every track... is stunning and every note feels
perfect. It's a masterpiece" - Michael Anton Parker, downtownmusicgallery.com
"a delightfully surprising album... worthy of
repeated listens" - Troy Collins, Junkmedia
"strangely wonderful stuff" - Mark Karesman,
Jazz
Times
"delightful" - Jason
Bivins, www.bagatellen.com
"* * * * [4 stars]" - John
Ephland, Downbeat
"ravishingly exquisite" - Jay
Collins, One Final Note
"wild" - Brian
P. Lonergan, allaboutjazz.com
"deeply satisfying... telepathically swinging"
- Larry Appelbaum, Jazz Times
(re 2005 Jazz em Agosto concert)
"The strength of the trio is that they
are remarkably similar players" - Kurt
Gottschalk, allaboutjazz.com
FLUXATIONS
"a monument of new composition/improvisation
fusion" - Piero Scaruffi,
scaruffi.com
"a challenging, enormously engaging work of wonderful
rhythmic variety and delicate shadings that blends composition and virtuosic
improvisation in fresh, unpredictable ways" - Bruce
Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
"one of the best [CDs] I've heard so far this
year" - Robert Iannapollo, Cadence
"un disque profondément abouti" - Luc
Bouquet, Impro Jazz
"riveting" - Dan Warburton, bagatellen.com
"provocative" - KFJC
online reviews
"fascinating" - Chris Kelsey,
Jazz Times
"impressive" - Ken
Waxman, www.jazzweekly.com
"* * * *" [4 stars] - Giuseppe
Segala, allaboutjazz.com/italia
DUOLOGUES
"When I saw Denman
Maroney and Mark Dresser
perform at Victoriaville in May of 2000 I was on the edge of my seat, breathless,
agog." - Fred Frith
"extraordinary... an epic adventure" - Sam
Prestianni, Jazziz
"a whole new kind of poetry... beautiful" - Francois
Couture, AMG Expert
"superb... Be prepared to be completely transformed
and transfixed" - Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
"absolute musical intimacy" - Greg
Buium, Cadence
"magic... reconceive[s] the instrument's potential
in extraordinary ways" - Julian Cowley, The Wire
"an encounter between two string instruments,
one happening to be a piano... fascinating" - Jon
Andrews, Downbeat
TOOLS
OF THE TRADE
"marvelous... passionate dialogue... astonishing"
- Philippe Elhem,
jazzreview.com
"a genuine tunefulness and even lyricism invades
the music" - Derek
Taylor, allaboutjazz.com
"[Maroney]
coaxes dreamy, drifting sonorities from inside the piano" - Bruce
Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
BILLABONG
"Brilliant!"- Steve
Koenig, Jazz Weekly
"a master of the prepared piano... intriguing,
evanescent" - Phillip McNally, Cadence
"mind-bending yet incredibly seductive" - Glenn
Astarita, allaboutjazz.com
"clear-eared listeners... will revel in the multiplicity
of sounds" - Ken Waxman, www.jazzweekly.com
FIRE
SONG
"fascinating" - Bruce
Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
"refreshing" - Phil
Waldorf/Robin Edgerton, Other Music
"fantastic slithering, sliding, and spiraling"
- Gil Gershman, Muze
"a fascinating journey into sound" - Robert
Iannapollo,
Cadence (July 2000)
"satisfyingly disorienting" - Francois
Couture, All Music Guide
"a wild and wiggy workout" - Opprobrium
AQUIFER
"Wow. I don't think I can rave about this album
enough." - Fred Barrett, http://www.beyondcoltrane.com
"almost unspeakable" - Thom
Jurek, Allmusic.com
"marvelous and multi-faceted" - Jason
Bivins, onefinalnote.com
"remarkable" - Ken
Waxman, jazzweekly.com
"Maroney
is capable of unbelievably bizarre and eerie noises" - Charlie
Wilmoth, dustedmagazine.com
"cet étonnant trio... mérite une
écoute particulière" - www.lamediatheque.be
"[Maroney]
has the boneless fluency classic pianists... pray for" - Kitty
Montgomery,
The Daily Freeman (Woodstock NY)
"jagged, wild sounds" -
Seth
Rogovay,
The Berkshire Eagle (N. Adams MA)
THE
CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
"keyboard genius... the only slide pianist worth
mentioning" - Wolf Kampmann,
JazzThetik
"far more sophisticated than most" - Harvey
Pekar, Downbeat
"spontaneously prepared piano" - Kevin
Whitehead, Pulse
SEGMENTS
"outstanding performances" - Jay
Collins, One Final Note
"most compelling" - jazzreview.com
"Denman plays some fine angular and out piano"
- Bruce
Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
THE
ART OF IMPROVISATION: LEROY JENKINS' DRIFTWOOD
"edge-of-your-seat mesmerizing" - Bruce
Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter
"[Maroney's] control is phenomenal" - Michael
Rosenstein, One Final Note
"a universal new music" - Kevin
Whitehead, emusic.com
"brilliant... shimmering metallic highlights
of Maroney's preparations" - Bill Shoemaker,
Point of Departure
"roils with sound and ideas" - Rex
Butters, allaboutjazz
HYPERPIANO
"Maroney's wacky prepared piano is a development of both Cage and Nancarrow. He attaches moving as well as fixed parts to the instrument, sliding objects across the strings, making some tracks sound more like a percussion ensemble. Cage and Nancarrow turned to 19th century technology in the middle of the 20th, and Maroney looks like continuing it into the 21st."
HYPERPIANO
"Pity the poor pianist with progressive predilections! While the rest of the avant-garde was warping sound through extended techniques, pianists were stuck with those 88 damn keys that sounded pretty much the same no matter how you pushed them. Many pianists plugged in and found unlimited vistas of sound. Others were determined to wring something different out of their intractable iron-framed monsters. Now comes Denman Maroney who has wrung something very different indeed from his piano. He calls his techniques "Hyperpiano", also the title of this self-published CD. Without going into too much detail of how it's done... Hyperpiano involves bowing, striking, plucking, strumming, stopping and sliding the piano's strings with various objects. Once you get past the "gee whiz, how'd he do that" stage, you find yourself in the midst of shimmering partials hovering luminescent in the air like aurora borealis. And after a while, you lose consciousness of the fact that you are listening to a piano at all. It's all very beautiful and quite unearthly. It's hard to see this CD unleashing a torrent of Hyperpianistic imitators, but so what? Maroney has created a singular and very personal style of playing that's very much his alone." John Chacona, Signal To Noise
HYPERPIANO
“[On his Hyperpiano CD] Denman Maroney delves into three extended improvisations as he explores the alternate sound possibilities capable of being projected from a piano and its strings. He describes hyperpiano playing as the percussive attack on the strings by bowing, plucking, strumming, and striking the strings with various objects. He uses these techniques in conjunction with the keyboard to produce music that is dense, moving, and highly involved. The combination of this keyboard action and the string assault develops into a freely expounded session that would appear to be coming from multiple players. It is almost as though he had a string section and a percussionist playing along with his piano.
“On the keyboard side, Maroney uses a stabbing, staccato approach to produce an irregular heartbeat. His opening Flux Time contains three tempos that he produces simultaneously and explains with the astuteness of a numerologist. The use of multiple tempi expands the sound platform to its fullest, while the conjunctive string fingering or striking adds a further dimension to the already dense textures. Artemisia has a more eerie soul to it. Maroney concentrates more intently on using a bowing action on the piano strings and thus produces illusive images of wispy spirals of smoke rising from the bogs. This selection has heavy spiritualism attached to it, being music suitable for a séance. The final cut, On the Contrary, finds Maroney returning to the dual key/string mode. On this, he slides objects across the strings and vigorously develops a zither-like drone from the piano strings. It is an extremely fast paced exercise in string manipulation with complementary keystrokes.
“Maroney’s piano methods are spellbinding while requiring deep concentration to slip into this mystic world. His music is hypnotic and extremely challenging. It allows you to drift into a nether world where images from Maroney’s symbolism spill over you. It is a most intriguing performance.” Frank Rubolino, Cadence (March '00)
HYPERPIANO
"John Cage was fascinated by it, and Fred VanHove is a master. They are reference points of departure for Denman Maroney, whose playful, 20th Century contemporary improvised approach at playing the inside of the piano, owes debt to the aforementioned pair. These unique explorations go well outside conventional boundaries, brandishing non-tonic manipulations, microtonal extravagances, and the restless soul of a nervous, twitchy composer who is truly hyper, but quite aware of infinity within the possible.
"Three pieces comprise the CD, all over 20 minutes. The first, "Flux Time," is pattern-oriented, using quirky rhythms and a banjo harmonic effect, pure percussive accents, and even an extended piano keys section quite reminiscent of a groove laden Thelonious Monk angular foot tapper! Cut #2, "Artemisia," is an exercise in bowing the piano strings, and all a space journey, at 1/2 impulse, riding through sounds of solar jig adjustments and ion storm interference. The third spontaneous composition, "On The Contrary," emphasizing objects slid over the piano strings, is also developmental, going through phases of contrast between the two, but pretty much based in a true combination of inside-and-outside-the-piano balance and hegemony.
"If one can appreciate the bold audio astronautical approach of Maroney, and can be patient enough to allow it to unfold, there are some real sonic treasures to be heard. For special tastes, ones that lean toward Cecil Taylor, Conlon Nancarrow, Misha Mengelberg, the brilliant VanHove, etc." Michael G. Nastos, WEMU, 89.1 FM, Ypsilanti MI
HYPERPIANO
"…the first and last tracks [of Hyperpiano] are very percussive, and there were moments during each that I forgot I was listening to a solo piano record. The precise, mechanical metal clanging frequently overtakes the Roger Miller/Peanuts-theme-like (you know what I mean) motif, and those are the moments I like best. They make the recurring melodic line that much more surprising and effective. Track two is the big winner, though, consisting entirely of bowed piano insides and scraping objects along the strings. At twenty minutes long, it sounds like mid-period Organum (which is quite something). A satisfying and diverse disc, really nice stuff." Howard Stelzer, Intransitive Review
HYPERPIANO
"I have always been both fascinated and perplexed by all of the unique sounds [Maroney] gets. Hyperpiano is in a world of its own. There are three 20 plus minute pieces found here, and each explores new realms of inner piano weirdness. Each piece involves a specific idea to explore. Flux Time utilizes three tempos simultaneously, but sounds like a music box breaking down, going in different directions at the same time. Artemisia involves moving objects across the piano strings, producing high end spirits whispering mysterious clouds of fractured notes. Pretty scary at times. On the Contrary employs sliding objects along the strings, rumbling through a dark terrain, ancient ruins uncovered, myths revealed." Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery e-newsletter
HYPERPIANO
"For a music proud of its innovation, the techniques of jazz remain in the past. Cecil Taylor's most radical move, the tone cluster, was devised by Henry Cowell in the '20s. Since then have come new ways to play the piano, all in the field of classical music. Now they appear in improvisation—it’s pungent, challenging, and very intense. If you're into modern classical, you've heard these sounds—but not like this. "Cowell also plucked the strings inside a piano, one of the first to do this. Maroney does it, in Flux Time, in three melodic lines with different tempos. The piece has nervous rhythm and percussive slams. As the left hand strikes keys, the right gives the strings a vigorous snap. Strings buzz and bend like a sitar. The lines swoop low, and there's a spooky sound like bridge cables. Notes melt, with weird quavers, then twinkle like a music box gone mad. The sound of the city: busy, chaotic and beautiful. Artemisia is a creepy night in an ancient factory, a storm, and it bathes you in sound. In On the Contrary, objects hit the strings, and slide down them. It's an active drone with a vicious twang. This CD is intellectual, strong and a workout for adventurous ears." John Barrett, Jr., Green Mountain Jazz Messenger (Vol. III, No. I, Sept./Oct. '99)
HYPERPIANO
“Three extended compositions by Maroney, each lasting over twenty minutes, for piano; but there's very little completely "straight" piano playing here. In common with many improvisers, but relatively few composer-performers, Maroney likes to play directly on the piano strings using an array of objects, often using one hand to modify the sound while striking the keys with the other. “In terms of techniques, most of these sounds will be nothing new to anyone who knows, say, Keith Tippett or Chris Burn. In fact, Maroney uses only a small selection of objects whose effects he has obviously researched very thoroughly, perhaps so as not to burden future performers with the need to acquire a vast array of oddments. You can read his very detailed descriptions of what he does on his web site; it's interesting, but there probably won't be many general points here which are unknown to anyone who has experimented with piano interior techniques before.
“The first piece, "Flux Time", is built around a bafflingly complicated set of rhythmic ratios. Like one of Xenakis' mathematical schemes—although of course less baffling than those—there's no way to work out the ratios just by listening, but the effect is somehow audible nonetheless. Maroney doesn't stick rigidly to his scheme any more than Xenakis used to, but uses it to generate material which is sometimes freed up from the constraints he's created. What does it sound like? Well, there's a proliferation of rather funky bass lines here in amongst the rattling rhythmic texture which predominates. The word "Cageian" was bound to come up, but there it is; like an updated "Totem Ancestor", this swaggers and dances around its own complexity, and is a lot of fun.
“"Artemisia" is more of a technical showcase, in which the class of techniques which Maroney calls "bowing" comes to the fore. By "bowing", he really means rubbing the strings in order to produce a bow-like sound, and there are none of the distended bow-strings which one finds elsewhere in piano interior music. This approach is much more dynamic, in fact, because the timbral possibilities are far richer (once one realises one could "bow" the string with virtually anything, then virtually anything becomes possible) and there's none of the awkwardness associated with actually using a bow intended for a stringed instrument of rather more amenable dimensions.
“It's inevitable that this technique will result in a lot of clusters, but what's nice is how varied Maroney manages to make this music. Eschewing the frenetic jazziness of "Flux Time", "Artemisia" hangs in the air, slowly transforming itself from harmony to harmony while scratching, clicking and rattling effects go on under or above it. It has that dense but fragile sound of Ligeti's string writing. To some extent, it's a technical demonstration, with different implements being used in turn to create very different effects, but that shouldn't be taken to imply that it's unmusical. There's a believe-it-or-not sensation of wonder at the sheer range of really inventive ideas in these twenty-three minutes. It may be a bit episodic, but it's no less gripping for that.
“The final piece, "On the Contrary", again uses a specific concept and explores it very thoroughly. This time, it's the idea of placing a moveable bridge on the strings and then, well, moving it around, to create a contrary motion—on one side, the pitch goes down, while on the other it goes up. That sounds facile, but Maroney's love of microtonality isn't going to see him sweeping wildly up and down the strings for nigh-on half an hour. It begins, instead, with a rapid-fire, cymbalom-like passage using mallets [no; keys] while somehow (Maroney really does have at least four hands) gently detuning them to create hugely complex microtonal clusters. It's a big sound, which breaks down beautifully into a brief section of straighter playing before exploring that moveable bridge a little more.
“The tempo this time is firey, but the approach is similar to that in "Artemisia", a slowly unfolding spectrum of techniques in their corresponding contexts, often moving undetectably and inexplicably from one to another. There's a trompe l'oreille effect in much of the music on this disc, and especially this track; for all the detailed information on how he does it, there are many passages which leave the listener hopelessly unable to imagine what combination of movements could have produced the sound coming out of the speakers.
“So this is an exciting record, no question about it. It's exhilarating, even, and the music has enough energy and internal coherence to carry it forward over these quite long durations. Those with an interest in extended piano techniques are seriously urged to add it to their collections—it isn't quite like anything you'll have heard before, for all that the techniques will sound familiar—but this isn't just one for the specialists. Richard Cochrane, Musings
DISTICH
"In free jazz, the possibilities may seem endless, only grounded by the usually loose framework of swing. In the world of free improvisation, anything goes: Obnoxious bursts of noise and the use of silence and found sound can play just as important a role as limited blues and jazz scales. Microtonal five-string violist Mat Maneri and prepared pianist Denman Maroney’s recent union, Distich, falls firmly into the free-improv camp, eschewing predetermined motifs and rhythms for aleatoric noises and melodies culled from intrinsic logic.
"Maroney—who has played with artists as diverse as Mission of Burma’s Roger Miller, Tim Berne, Elliott Sharp, Ed Schuller and Bobby Previte—plays his Hyperpiano here, a Steinway B piano custom-made with metal, including the soundboard, tuning pins and strings. Taking Henry Cowell’s “The Banshee” and John Cage’s landmark 1946-48 recording “Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano” as a springboard to dive into completely alien pianistic territory, Maroney has, throughout his career, continued to find new ways to strike and scrape his instrument, coaxing myriad whines, howls and plinks from it. With a foil as advanced and creative as Maneri, Distich shows the pianist expanding his vocabulary even further.
"At numerous occasions throughout the disc, it sounds as if the viola and Hyperpiano are the same instrument; their microtonal properties make it almost impossible to discern who is playing what. Maneri does play fractured melodies that can be briefly identified as Eastern European gypsy folk or the avant-classicalism of Schoenberg and Stravinsky, but mostly he just darts around Maroney and saws and plucks with abandon, refusing to settle on a rhythmic or melodic idea."
Scott Verrastro, Jazz Times, August, 2007
DISTICH
"On this album, Maroney plays hyperpiano, meaning he plays with an extended piano technique that includes playing the inside of the piano and manipulating the strings with various objects. Maneri, known for his micro-tonal 5-strong viola playing, jumps into the wide sonic world that Maroney creates and engages, prods and sympathizes. Free improvisation within this range of sounds becomes all that more fascinating, since not only are we drawn into their dialogue, but also their incredibly unique soundscape of plucks, buzzes, glissandos, squeaks, harmonic wails, and tears."
Fritz Schenker, WNUR-FM
DISTICH
"Distich is a duo testing the limitations of its instrumentation. Mat Maneri brings his 5-string viola to bear and Denman Maroney his piano, on music that to all intents and purposes is concerned largely with new sonic possibilities.
"This is especially pertinent in view of what might be called Maroney’s extended use of the piano, through which he utilizes other elements of the instrument apart from the keyboard itself. The end result is a program of music as soundscape, in the best sense of the term, as much as it is the product of the two musicians interacting. The balance they consistently manage to strike between the two is remarkable.
"It could be argued that the devil there undoubtedly is in this music lies in the detail, and with that in mind the fact that it’s been recorded with such clarity and precision is only a blessing. On the title track even the tiniest nuance has been captured, and the effect of this is a truly intimate portrait of precisely where the music is going. By the same token the initially disorientating effect of “Bicinium” is not so much resolved as it is incorporated into a greater whole, like one of the pieces in a mosaic of sound the full life of which is conveyed through the sonic clarity.
"'Brace' offers up something of a snapshot of how the duo works. Their in-the-moment intuition comes out here in the way the two indulge in an out-of-pitch exchange, the music seeming to move stealthily towards some ever indeterminate point, if that’s possible. The effect of it is a kind of opposite to musical conservatism, especially as what music might be, as opposed to what it already is—this seems like an abiding preoccupation. Not even the fact that this piece enters the realm of a kind of warped formalism alters that impression, especially as its development thwarts expectations of even the closest, most diligent listening.
"In this setting a title like “Couplet” is only too apt. In contrast with a lot of the music, a form of hyperactivity pervades the piece, both musicians seemingly intent on staking out their own musical space at the same time as they are servants of the duo’s bigger needs. That might sound like a paradox, but it could be argued that it’s a paradox which lies at the very heart of music like this. When the results are as stimulating as they are here, the issue seems irrelevant anyway."
Nic Jones, allaboutjazz.com, August 10, 2007
TIME CHANGES
"Mark Dresser and Denman Maroney have covered a lot of territory in their 16 years of frequent collaboration, but this may be their most successful attempt at synthesizing diverse moods and concepts. While the experimental, challenging side of their musicality is de-emphasized on Time Changes, this program is a delirious swath of contemporary musical aesthetics "integrated not segregated"--to use Dresser's own words. These guys have invented fresh new ways to go way OUT while still being gloriously, heart-achingly, toe-tappingly IN; sometimes it feels like they've hidden a Kagel composition in the interstices of a jazz ballad. What's so special about Dresser is how he's developed an incomparable vocabulary of extended technique on doublebass, but he'sfound a way to incorporate this goldmine of timbral and dynamic detail into a conventional jazz context instead of the more straightforward and common approach of playing these techniques for their own sake. Dresser is no stranger to the latter approach of placing sound discoveries on center stage to speak for themselves and I personally find that musical direction endlessly rewarding as a wellspring of new musical parametrizations and forms, but it's a rare and joyous occasion to hear this kind of microstructural avant-gardism elevate an older form like jazz. And, wow, is this music elevated; it's floating in the celestial spheres of creative jazz. Accounting for its title, the album is highlighted by complex and innovative rhythmic interaction, an area of compositional investigation that Dresser and Maroney have both pursued to rare depths. Michael Sarin is a master of intricate post-jazz drumkit and he not only nails the tricky details of timing in these works, but also offers a degree of timbral detail that matches Dresser and Maroney. At times they deliver the sort of staggered, off-kilter, punchy, tightly wound, cyclical rhythmic structures that would appeal to fans of the RIO tradition in avant-rock (Nimal, Univers Zero, Henry Cow, etc) in addition to fans of the robust avant-jazz tradition of intricate "heads" (Chapin, Berne, Masada, Threadgill, etc). This album is a showcase for Maroney's flexibility; he freely moves between precise, economical keyboard parts and his famous "hyperpiano" vocabulary. On "Pulse Field" he treats the piano as the giant zither it is, with buzzing darts and clusters of high-pitched microtonal plucking. Even when the trio is in their post-Euro-improv/serialist zones, they favor repetition and fairly smooth timbres that sustain the album's subdued, gentle flow and nearly romantic mood of lush prettiness, which finds its peaks in the four tracks featuring mezzo-soprano female vocalist Alexandra Montano. As much as I love the contrasts from track to track that make it an intoxicating and varied total-album experience, I'd be just as happy to hear Montano's heavenly voice on every track! "Between 17th and Bliss" is not only the highlight of the album for me, but this miraculous triumph of creativity and beauty is probably the most gorgeous piece of music I'll hear all year. Towards the end an understated bass, piano, and cymbal composite gracefully glides down a breathtaking, shimmering arch with Montano's lilting, slow melodies. It's one of those moments where I feel truly transported by music. Transported to where? Perhaps an expansive flower garden on a warm day with a gentle breeze carrying the ephemeral scents of fresh blooms. At times, Montano recalls the pastoral, floating moments of Aina Kemanis' vocals in the Alex Cline Ensemble, and on "M.C." she rivals the darting, light bliss of Flora Purim's work with Airto Moreira and Chick Corea. Every track on Time Changes is stunning and every note feels perfect. It's a masterpiece rendered with audiophile recording clarity and presented with Cryptogramophone's customar lavish packaging and artwork."
Michael Anton Parker, Downtown Music Gallery
TIME CHANGES
"While Mark Dresser is best known as one of avant-garde jazz's leading bassists (he was a long-standing member of the Marilyn Crispell-era Anthony Braxton Quartet), pianist Denman Maroney is known primarily (on recordings, anyway) as one of Dresser's most faithful collaborators. It's a great matchup: Both Dresser (whose firm dark-hued, robust tone is marvelously Mingusy at times) and Maroney - credited with "hyperpiano," as his keyboard's innards are altered a la John Cage and Henry Cowell's prepared pianos - employ extended techniques, stretching and expanding beyond what's typically thought to be their instruments' ranges. "Fortunately, both draw upon these methods to serve the music, not to merely explore-for-the-sake-of-exploration - note the delicately dramatic guitar-and-cello-like sonorities and jungle of percussive tones of "One Plate." Time Changes features an enigmatic mix of reflective lyricism, edgy improv and wry swing. Maroney's soloing throughout "M.C." smacks of '60's era Vince Guaraldi in its joyful directness and Horace Silver in its earthy, graceful groove. The duo is frequently joined by the elegant, wordless mezzo-soprano of Alexandra Montano and the subtle, judicious drumming of Michael Sarin, who shines on the harrowingly taut, almost cinematic "Lateral Mass." It's strangely wonderful stuff."
Mark Karesman, Jazz Times
TIME CHANGES
"'Time Changes' (Cryptogramophone 124) focuses on a quite different style of improvisation. Bassist Mark Dresser and hyperpiano specialist Denman Maroney have been working together for a very long time, exploring a fairly unique blend of timbral experimentation and rhythmic diversity. In the collective Tambastics (with Gerry Hemingway and Robert Dick) and on their own recordings (notably Dresser’s Force Green, with vocals by Theo Bleckmann being a possible antecedent of this release), they’ve slowly developed their joint language. Along with drummer/percussionist Michael Sarin and, on several tracks, vocalist Alexandra Montano, the co-leaders explore material quite different from that heard on their previous Crypto release Aquifer. There’s a much stronger emphasis on rhythm here, both in the way their composed lines are structured and in the sense of providing pulse tracks. Montano has a rich, colorful soprano and her doubled lines with Maroney are delightful. And somehow the knotty, constantly permutating rhythms make sense, like Eddie Palmieri tunes from Saturn (one of the finest examples of which is the favorite “Aperitivo”). There are plenty of moments of Dresser magic, thankfully, and if you’ve never heard Maroney’s work you’ll be delighted to listen to the otherworldly sounds he generates (just check out the extremely abstract “Harkemony”). He can, of course, also play straight-laced piano trio as he does on “One Plate.” It’s really the blend of extended techniques with slightly abstracted idiomatic materials that makes the sound of this one so distinct. It’s the best disc of this batch [of the four Cryptogramophone CDs discussed in this review]."
Jason Bivins, www.bagatellen.com
TIME CHANGES
"* * * * [4 stars] This co-led date with bassist Dresser and "hyperpiano" player Maroney has the appeal of an open ended conversation. The tunes weave together, with stylistic changes suggesting a mood change, an opinion or a flight of fancy. The recording quality keeps things intimate as well, each instrument (including the singing voice of Alexandra Montano) heard close-in, without need to 'raise one's voice.' Drummer Michael Sarin is sensitive and dynamic. Montano's voice is a cooing chirper ("Double You," "One Plate"), while the outside tendencies toward angularity or abstraction ("Aperitivo," "Heap") are balanced by a sense of lightheartedness ("One Plate")."
John Ephland, Downbeat
TIME CHANGES
"Better still [at the 2005 Jazz em Agosto Festival in Lisbon] was a deeply satisfying set by bassist Mark Dresser’s trio with pianist Denman Maroney and drummer Michael Sarin. Their telepathically swinging soundscape combined odd metered stomps, vivid splashes of color, abstract blues and thorny, challenging compositions, most notably their final piece dedicated to Yvonne Vera, the celebrated, recently deceased writer from Zimbabwe. It was a performance informed by joy and a sense of discovery that, like much of Jazz em Agosto and the city of Lisbon, left me wanting more."
Larry Appelbaum, Jazz Times (Aug. '05)
TIME CHANGES
“Over the course of nine hot August [2005] days in Lisbon, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation managed to present major figures in European free improvisation (Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Paul Lytton, Paul Rutherford, Conrad Bauer, Irene Schweizer, Pierre Favre), American master instrumentalists (Mark Dresser, Gary Lucas, Erik Friedlander), some of the smartest piano preparers in the world (Sylvie Courvoisier, Denman Maroney, Schlippenbach again)... The foundation has been hosting the festival since 1984. At one time a more mainstream affair, under the guidance of artistic director Rui Neves, Jazz em Agosto has become a considerable showcase for innovative improvised music… “American pianist Maroney is usually more concerned with the piano’s guts, but in trio with Dresser and Mike Sarin he showed a propensity for jazz keying, only occasionally reaching inside the case. The strength of the trio is that they are remarkably similar players: they all play percussively; all create prolonged tones that hang in the air; and they can become a piano trio at the drop of a hat.”
FLUXATIONS
"Disque de compositeur ne bridant pas les solistes, au contraire, leur offrant de larges plages improvisées que ces derniers se chargent de généreusement exalter, Fluxations est un disque profondément abouti, inspiré et malheureusement passé inaperçu lors de sa sortie, l’an dernier. Fluxations est une suite en six parties à l’évidente souplesse compositionelle ; des enchevêtrements contrapuntiques, des dialogues inspirés entre instrumentistes et surtout des interventions solistes emportées : l’hyperpiano (sensible) de Denman Maroney, les phrasés pénétrants de Dave Ballou (musicien qu’il serait enfin temps de reconnaître), les tendres frénésies de Mark Dresser, l’alto défait de Ned Rothenberg, le vibraphone impénétrable de Kevin Norton. Un disque important, qu’un se le dise !"
Luc Bouquet, Impro Jazz #110, novembre-decembre 2004
FLUXATIONS
[translated from Italian]
"...Through the use of different modes of direct intervention on the strings... Maroney deepens and enlarges the idea of prepared piano. But the originality of his method undoubtedly is a result of the fact that, while the prepared piano is 'prepared' before the actual playing, Maroney's techniques are impromptu interventions in real time. "The performer is offered rich, expressive possibilities. From an enlargement of the sonic spectrum of the piano in both dynamics and attacks, the instrument produces sounds recalling the percussive gamelan, the light pizzicato of harp or sitar, the mallet sounds of marimba, or evanescent masses of sound arising from simultaneously playing the keys. A new instrument, this, as Maroney has precisely named it [hyperpiano].
"But what is special about 'Fluxations' does not stop here. All the music composed by Maroney follows a technique defined as 'pulse fields,' in which differing meters come together and respond or react to each other, not, as polyrhythmic or polymetric, where the different meters resolving in the arc of the measure, but as following their own course of variable periods, arriving to meet each other after many beats.
"This treatment, similar to those of Charles Ives and Conlon Nancarrow, has been utilized frequently by Maroney. See his duos with Mark Dresser [Duologues] and Earl Howard [Fire Song] and his own solo disc Hyperpiano. But the first disc of the hyperpianist that presents this compositional process through the course of an entire work is 'Fluxations,' a suite in six parts that involves Ned Rothenberg, Dave Ballou, Mark Dresser and Kevin Norton as well as Maroney. Musicians who are perfectly equipped to present Maroney's complex structure and to collaborate with him at the same time, as in the case of Dresser, whose activity incorporates a complex polyrhythmic and polymetric approach; as in the case of Rothenberg and Norton, habitual collaborators with Anthony Braxton...
"Far from being mechanical or rigid, the musicians succeed in imbuing this complex compositional operation with a vital spirit that is completely natural and fluent. The fusion between the written and improvised parts is well calibrated. Even more, the components, so stimulating to change, reveal in Maroney a subtle 'stirrer-upper' of timbres. The subtle metric shifting creates a continuous displacement of accents, an effect now dramatic, now alienating, rich in stimulus. A texture finally woven but transparent in its complexity..."
Giuseppe Segala, allaboutjazz.com/italy
FLUXATIONS
"A good amount of free jazz is made by improvisers attempting-consciously or unconsciously-to adapt post-Schoenberg compositional techniques to a largely improvised music. Pianist/composer Denman Maroney can be distinguished from most in that he brings to the table at least as much experience with European-derived music as with jazz. As a consequence, his music is more fully (and perhaps more authentically) informed by the classical principles he's adopted. The concept governing the music on Fluxations (New World) is, according to the liner notes by JazzTimes contributor Bill Shoemaker, based on a technique of rhythmic organization utilizing "pulse fields"-something too complicated to explain here and probably just as difficult to perform in a jazz setting. Fortunately, Maroney and his band - Kevin Norton, drums and vibes; Dave Ballou, trumpet; Ned Rothenberg, bass clarinet and alto sax; Mark Dresser, bass - do a good job of translating theory into action; the music here is well-organized, but you're not overly conscious of its origins. "The pulse-field stuff makes for some interesting ostinati over which to blow, as on the suite's "Part 3," where Ballou's elastic trumpet is given room to shine. One might expect such music to seem about as spontaneous as building a skyscraper. It's true, an air of reticence does lie over some of this music, as if the players aren't sufficiently comfortable with the material to cut loose. Nevertheless, it's quite attractive in its peculiarly brainy way-a bit dry and fussy at times, but never less than fascinating."
Chris Kelsey, Jazz Times, May 1, '04
FLUXATIONS
"Hyperpianist Denman Maroney has distinguished himself as one of the most unique pianists to emerge in the '90s (although his discography goes back to the '70s). Utilizing an extreme prepared piano technique and a unique rhythmic sensibility, both instrumentally and compositionally, he has become one of the most intriguing composer/performers around. His most recent release is a six part composition for quintet: Fluxations (New World 80607). "I haven't heard a lot of Maroney's work, but it strikes me that this disc is probably his most jazz-oriented release. Having four high caliber players from the genre in his group (Dave Ballou, tpt; Ned Rothenberg, as, b cl; Mark Dresser, b; Kevin Norton, d, vib) reinforces the connection. But while, at times Dresser and Norton function in the manner of a traditional jazz rhythm section (e.g. at the beginning of "Part 3"), there is an equal amount of compositional material for them. And, frankly, timekeeping in these pieces must be difficult, since Maroney's rhythmic concept is tied up in a technique called "pulse fields," one where three or more players are working in diffferent rhythmic cellular structures. A good example of this is the beginning of "Part 4," which has Maroney, Dresser and Norton playing out ping-ponging rhythms (sounds like Maroney is doing two different rhythms with each hand) and Ballou enters with the theme - a line that soars around and through the various rhythms created.
"But don't be put off by this music thinking it may be too academic sounding. The music flows even when it's venturing into such areas as prepared piano and rhythmic juxtaposition. What's impressive is the way Maroney switches from regular piano to hyperpiano mode in the blink of an eye. Once again, "Part 4" is an excellent example of this when the group pares down to Ballou, Dresser and Maroney, and the pianist begins sliding something up and down the strings, which creates an effect that seems to stretch the music. Subsequently Ballou drops out and Maroney and Dresser engage in a fascinating string dialogue.
"There's much to this music to absorb. It's complex and intricate, yet, with these musicians it also flows with a naturalness and ease. One suspects it belies the difficulties inherent in learning and playing these pieces. This is a recording definitely worth hearing and one of the best I've heard so far this year."
Robert Iannapollo, Cadence, Jun. '04
FLUXATIONS
“Denman Maroney is perhaps best known to readers as a virtuoso improviser... but Fluxations reveals his considerable skills as a composer. It's a six-part suite based on what Earl Howard calls "pulse fields," i.e. complex cycles of overlapping polyrhythms, and perhaps the most rigorous instance to date of improvised music turning its attention to compositional techniques that have existed in more academic circles since the middle of last century... Recruiting a first-class band including bassist Mark Dresser, percussionist Kevin Norton (who both have in-depth experience of notational intricacy through their work with Anthony Braxton), clarinettist/saxophonist Ned Rothenberg and trumpeter Dave Ballou, Maroney certainly has the men for the job, and his scores, though obviously detailed and notated to a high degree of precision, leave room for the occasional juicy solo (Ballou's the guy to watch here). One slight reservation I have about such a line-up is that it inevitably – perhaps deliberately? – resembles the traditional jazz quintet, meaning that Dresser and Norton are often heard more as a rhythm section (i.e. accompaniment) than as rhythmic elements of equal importance. The other quibble is more strictly compositional; in concentrating his attention on the pulse field, Maroney intentionally focuses the listener's attention on the horizontal rather than the vertical, the melodic rather than the harmonic. The lack of strong harmonic identity in most of the music reinforces the rather dry nature of the polyphony. Braxton, whose own GTM music is not too far removed from Maroney's in its concept of pulse, gets round this problem by building spaces into his compositions that allow for abrupt changes of direction, unfettered free playing, and even the incorporation of other Braxton pieces. One wishes that some of these fine players would just let rip once in a while – it'd make the return to the pulse field even more riveting."
Dan Warburton, bagatellen.com
DUOLOGUES
"When I saw Denman Maroney and Mark Dresser perform at Victoriaville in May of 2000 I was on the edge of my seat, breathless, agog. It had been a long time since a concert had drawn me in and held me in that way, and I was fascinated by the effortless melding of different ways of 'composing', spontaneous and otherwise. Duologues confirms this reaction eloquently, even though it is, predictably, a different kettle of fish. And while it would be tempting to focus on technical matters, since these two are nothing if not radical in this direction, I have to admit that in spite of my awe of their skills in unusual techniques, this is not, when it comes down to it, what the music IS. So......what is it? "Precise? Loose? Dense? Airy? Broken up? Sustained?
"Well, yes. Imagined instructions: Berate - Caress - Swing - Sing - Lurch - Groan
"Be: Insistent - mechanical - forceful - implacable - playful - enigmatic
"The result? Irresolute beauty, hesitantly definite, wide, wild."There's a lot in this sound world that I can't relate to modern human interchange at all, not only from the perspective of wind on an Aeolian harp, but of the action of natural elements on other natural elements, something you might hear in winter in the Andes or spring by the ocean, not here in a concert hall, or there in your living room - birds, insects, dolphins, wolves, trees, streams, slap of water, flick of tail, earth's vibration under rain, insistent breakers, drips, slides....... "Ecstatic wail of a wall it could be anywhere but now it's here right? Identifiers hard to come by, how come? I can't even write about it without adopting this syntax stretching that grammar..... "Obscurely familiar if I know what you mean, roiling, is that the word? Darkly hyperactive, punctuate that, punch through, don't, I'm all yours, mine, yours is mine.... "You ask, I answer.
"Arc to arch.
"Precious metal."There's a monumental sweep to the music, great swells, climbs, plunges, movements grounded in granite, sirensongs to turn any head. At other times, that disarming quality, something I've always liked about improvisation, of ordinary people going about their business. This is what we do - you have a problem with that? Often the tension comes precisely from that contradictory aspect - a couple of blokes doing stuff, but the stuff happens to be magic, transformative and transforming, beyond our mundane ability to analyse, we just have to let it shove us over and pull us in, a riptide, a hurricane, a kiss, hypnosis." Fred Frith, CD liner notes
DUOLOGUES
"Since their performance in Victoriaville last year, the duo of Mark Dresser and Denman Maroney has been a common sight. Recorded in Brooklyn six months after that Quebec concert, Duologues might just be the start of a prodigious run. Indeed, this spring they've played a handful of shows in the Northeast. Dresser and Maroney communicate exquisitely—at a level of absolute musical intimacy. For those unaccustomed to microtonality or to the use of hardware store accessories, there might be a suspicion that these men conspire against us. That would be dead wrong. Duologues, in fact, befriends quiet, careful spaces. And Maroney's appliances—tools, copper bars, aluminum bells, knives, rubber blocks, plastic cassette boxes, plastic bottles, mallet, potato mashers, cowbells—are communication and sound devices. He's impervious to discord or aggression; fine connections are his strong suit. Then Dresser, who must possess one of the great modern bass sounds, can't feign intimacy either—his voice is simply too rich, too expansive. His vast vocabulary permits choices so shrewd that he punishes wayward listeners. Dresser gives any duo (or any configuration, for that matter) instant gravity. Bowed, he can set sound adrift, ethereal or ragged, but then, reaching down to his bass's bottom end, he draws a platform good and wide. These short conversation pieces sketch beauty with the rigor and the complexity of the high avant-garde. Thankfully this isn't a one-off—they might even be in it for the long haul. Duologues must be a signal event for Mark Dresser and Denman Maroney." Greg Buium, Cadence, Jan. 2002
DUOLOGUES
"The prepared piano repertoire has evolved its own set of formulas and cliches. Denman Maroney sidesteps those and discovers new magic in the instrument's dusty interior. His 'hyperpiano' techniques (as he terms his subtle bowing, plucking and rubbing) reconceive the instrument's potential in extraordinary ways, subordinating the keyboard's conventional use to the huge range of sounds latent within the strings. The result is concentrated music, never mere effects. With that great double bassist Mark Dresser, Maroney summons up timbres usually confined to electroacoustic compositions with an extra freshness and life." Julian Cowley, The Wire, Oct. '01
DUOLOGUES
"Consider Duologues an encounter between two string instruments, one happening to be a piano. Maroney focuses on manipulating the strings, apparently through plucking , scratching or hammering techniques. His fascinating approach recalls works by John Cage or bowed-piano innovator Stephen Scott. What does it sound like? You may hear slide guitar, gamelan, harp, doussn'bouni or even synthesizer. Dresser plays multiple roles. On tracks like "Amalgamon," his bass lines offer a center of gravity in contrast to Maroney's flights. When Dresser applies extended technique to the bass as on "Arco Optic," the identity of the instruments can be obscured in the exchange of drones and textures. Jon Andrews, Downbeat, October 2001
DUOLOGUES
"...Bassist Mark Dresser and pianist Denman Maroney's extraordinary Duologues (Victo) is an altogether different type of bass-drums affair. Actually, considering Maroney's manipulation of the piano - which he hammers, taps and plucks, all with merry abandon - it's more of a bass-percussion combo. "The album's suite-like series of 14 improvisations, which vary in length from one to eight minutes, is cleanly executed with a sneaky, smart sense of purpose - a well-defined compositional arc - from start to finish. The music's sober intensity and complete absence of anything remotely resembling jazz groove (a.k.a. swing) give it the experimental imprint of the European avant-garde or 20th century classical music. In particular, Maroney's muted, metallic patter on more than one occasion echoes the out-of-this-world timbre of late composer Conlon Nancarrow's player-piano studies.
"With rapid-fire imaginations in almost unreal union, the twosome winds through action-reactions that will make the average listener's head spin. Technically, these players are at the top of their respective games: Maroney as a rhythmic-harmonic colossus, teasing out tasty sounds from deep inside the piano and more conventionally on the keyboard; Dresser as the four-string maestro whose melodic precision and shimmery arco are second to no one's. Whether stormy with filmic portent ("Fanfare for the Rare Woman") or dirge-like with heavy minor chords on the 88s and the bass mimicking a backwards tape loop ("Throso"), each piece opens a door to fantastical dreamscapes - Alice's Wonderland, Freddie's Nightmare - a hall of mirrors with the ecstatic luminosity of a night-long rave. Duologues is an epic adventure."
Sam Prestianni, Jazziz, Oct '01
DUOLOGUES
"Mark Dresser's first bass line on Duologues is a very jazzy one, but do not be fooled: This CD is one of his most adventurous from this period. Thanks should go to Denman Maroney, a very peculiar pianist who forced the bassist to reinvent himself. Over the years, Maroney developed a highly personal musical language focused on the inner resonances of his instrument. Even when considered from the angle of prepared piano playing, his approach remains unique. He does not exploit defects, mishaps, and accidental resonances of objects placed on the strings, but frees a whole new kind of poetry from the wood and strings of the instrument by moving bowls around, bending strings, and working simultaneously inside and outside the instrument. Dresser was inspired by the pianist's art and complemented his playing beautifully, extending his own techniques and concentrating a lot more on resonance himself, as can be heard on "Fanfare for the Rare Woman," "Oscicaglia," and "Bozcaada." The duo chose to play short improvisations, from one to eight minutes long, a decision with beautiful consequences. The sonorities don't have a chance to become tiresome: When a piece ends, the listener is left still wondering how such sounds could emanate from a piano and/or a bass. Duologues makes a very nice companion to Maroney's 2000 CD with guitarist Hans Tammen (Billabong, on Potlatch). As for Dresser, this album contains some of his best playing in years. This is not the live concert these two gave at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in May 2000, but a studio session recorded six months later.” Francois Couture, AMG Expert
DUOLOGUES
"This challenging duo played at the last Victoriaville festival and blew away all those in attendance with riveting contrabass and hyper-piano explorations. This superb release is a studio effort and it also captures their ever-inventive sonic seasoning. Each piece works through a focused area of strange minute sounds - "Pulse Feel" contrasts Mark [Dresser]'s thick throbbing tone with Denman [Maroney]'s shrill inside-the-piano rubbings - soon the piano becomes more playful as Denman deals with the keyboard itself. "Fanfare for the Rare Woman" is pretty scary as both musicians coax ghostly sounds from their manipulated artillery. Denman goes for even more frightening sounds on "Slithereens" - both players rubbing a series of elongated alien notes. You can tell that this duo has been playing together in numerous contexts through the years, since they often anticipate each other's sonic palette and arrive in similar places together. The majority of these pieces are under 5 minutes and each one successfully explores a focused sonic terrain, evoking a wealth of altered spirits. "Amalgamon" is the longest piece and it explodes with layers of strange shrapnel and cosmic spirits. "Throso" is filled with sinister suspended sounds as Mark's bowed bass and Denman's dark clouds unleash a series of harrowing images. On "Bozcaada" and often elsewhere Denman comes up with alien brain-melting sounds which shimmer in both frightening and fascinating ways, Mark consistently matches many of these sounds with equally riveting results. Be prepared to be completely transformed and transfixed by these astonishing sounds. Almost too much." Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
"I have known Ned [Rothenberg] for more than twenty years and I'm always excited by each and every project he works on, since a great deal of work goes into each endeavor. Each project is very different, each a challenge. Although, I've mainly seen/heard Ned on alto sax and occasionally shakuhachi, he has been also concentrating on clarinet and bass clarinet in recent years. On this duo CD Ned plays all three - alto sax and both clarinets. "Denman Maroney plays hyperpiano in that he explores sounds often inside the piano with metal bowls and other objects. I have also been watching him evolve over the past decade playing solo or in duos with Mark Dresser, Earl Howard and more recently with Hans Tammen.
"Here we have yet another duo excursion by two local masters. In the liner notes, Denman explains how each piece works in terms of which objects are used and overall structure.
"Saw" starts things off with wooden-toned bass clarinet and piano throbbing quickly together - Ned plays slower, more ponderous bent notes at the center as Denman spins more quickly around him - sprinkling notes both on the keyboard and occasionally inside as well.
"Jug" is a playful, sort of Monkish jazz-like tune that swings in an odd, twisted sort-of way - Ned sails on alto sax as Denman also spins quickly with his fragmented lines. I dig the way certain notes connect, while others fly around each other and come close, just a bit off-center.
"Denman does bend and mute notes inside the piano on "Plank" while Ned also flies, often also bending certain notes so that they also intersect in a fractured yet focused way. There is fascinating section where Ned spins a tight stream of notes while Denman also matches him with quick note-bending inside-the-piano flurries - eventually both players begin twisted their notes into strange alien sounds which sound just right together, but eerie and bizarre none-the-less.
"Plane" is even more sinister with lone notes buzzing or humming as Denman coaxes dreamy, drifting sonorities from inside the piano and Ned slowly caresses each note, only slightly bent, but more lyrical in tone as Denman rubs the strings with buzzing and banging activity as punctuation.
"On "Crab", Denman shifts between percussive buzzing inside the piano and low-end rumbling at the keyboard while Ned keeps a fairly normal clarinet tone mostly until both begin bending sharp notes into the higher toned regions.
"Ned's "Skeleton" has a fine slow walking memorable melody which sounds perfect on bass clarinet and regular keyboard piano - Denman plays an interesting solo with one hand at the keyboard and the other rubbing a bowl muting notes inside.
"Ned opens "Feet" by stretching notes out on alto - both players begin playing flurries of notes following each other as the scenery thickens - soon the notes get thinner as Ned starts popping percussive sounds as Denman both rubs inside and spins webs at the keyboard - later they swirl together as the plot thickens once again.
"Both players switch roles throughout "Ham" as each short section shifts into different textures, densities and shapes - this is the most exciting piece here, as it leaves on the edge of their sets with anticipation.
"Drill" is the final piece and it is a solo work for mutated inside-the-piano dark and twisted sounds - like alien insects buzzing around their hive."
Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter #63
BILLABONG
"Denman Maroney is a master of the prepared piano who has come to focus on the instrument’s insides. He not only tampers with the strings, but he is experimenting with ways of attacking the strings without the use of the keyboard. This is what he means by “hyperpiano.” Hans Tammen approaches the electric guitar in much the same way, by altering the strings with objects and then experimenting with ways and objects that pluck, strike, bow and bend those strings. This is what he terms the “endangered guitar.” "So this duo is a dream team for fans of prepared instruments. Yet this is not the music of AMM. While they alter their instruments and play in unconventional manners, you as a listener always know you are listening to a piano and an electric guitar. And there is no confusion about which player you are hearing is which. The aesthetic here is to expand the voice of the instrument into new territories, not to abandon or alter its own special characteristics, or even to disappear into a group sound. One has to admit, with music like Maroney’s and Tammen’s, that the listener misses the visual element. How much more enticing this music would be if we were seeing it played!
"The music itself, as you would expect, is abstract and free form. As with much free improvisation, when it is clicking there is nothing better in music. But it is a high wire act to stay up there in the world of flying invention. One misstep and you have no net, you have no nothing to land on. Maroney and Tammen don’t always manage to stay up on that wire. But particularly in their most delicate moments, in improvisations like “Bog” and “Jag,” the duo can create intriguing, evanescent structures.
"Music like this is not for everyone, but there is real beauty here to be had, especially for the patient and the quiet. For admirers of Derek Bailey, Billabong is worth checking out, if only to hear where Bailey’s disciples are heading."
Phillip McNally, Cadence, May 2001
BILLABONG
"This new release, titled Billabong, presents the listener with a series of duets by two eminent improvisers who pursue relatively unusual implementations as Denman Maroney mans the "hyperpiano" in concert with Hans Tammen's permutations on the "endangered guitar". "With this effort, the duo converges for eight pieces that might depict some sort of bizarre and thoroughly imaginative musings among creatures from outer space as the musicians offer a very special language atop a seemingly uncontrollable path of improvisational deconstruction. On the opening track "Stud", Tammen performs scathing lines amid disjointed sequences of maniacal interaction with Maroney's percussive block chords and somewhat patented techniques and explorations from within the inner workings of his piano. Here, the musicians explore ethereal yet roughly hewn soundscapes, in conformance with their protean statements and frenetic interplay. Yet on "Bog", Tammen produces a horde of downright eerie tones on his amplified ax, which elicits imagery of something intangible yet imminently catastrophic. Whereas on "Jag", the twosome renders a motif that could signify a schizophrenic or warped tiptoe waltz, accelerated by Tammen's strange articulations that sound like tape loops replayed in reverse. Maroney launches an attack on his detuned piano strings yet counters with a humorous sonata on "Bounce". - Throughout, the duo elicits a distinct sense of playful mayhem via their nearly indescribable methods of execution and often mind-bending yet incredibly seductive improvisations. By Glenn Astarita, AllAboutJazz.com
BILLABONG
"What is that noise?" is the usual question asked by those hostile to experimental sound when confronted with a fine session like this. The follow up is often a demand to explain how this seemingly random collection of scrapes, scratches and reverberations could even be thought of as music. "The answer, as Louis Armstrong was once reported to reply when asked for a definition of jazz, is: "If you don't know what it is, don't mess with it."
"Simplistic perhaps, but applying one set of standards to a different style of expression is as fallacious as condemning a dog for not having cow horns. Both creatures are domesticated, have a tail, walk on four legs, don't talk and are reasonably loyal and friendly. But no one expects Rover to resemble Elsie, so why should pure improv approximate conventional popular sounds?
"Just because isn't good enough. Since sound explorers like the American [Denman] Maroney and German [Hans] Tammen have decided to devote their careers to inserting objects under a piano's strung frame or radically de-tuning and reverse-engineering an electric guitar, they should really be celebrated for the new tones they create.
"Someone once theorized that the history of Western music over the past couple of centuries has been the gradual acceptance of what once was thought of as "noise" as conventional music. Billabong may seem "far out" today, but will it still be so in 2050? After all, some of the eclectronica practiced by Tammen isn't so far from what you'll hear, bloated with a heavier rhythmic thud, blasting from the speakers at a dance hall rave. Plus any loudness here can certainly never compare to the wall of sound produced by a heavy metal band at full-throttle.
"That too isn't exactly the point either. On the contrary, clear-eared listeners of this session will revel in the multiplicity of sounds, tones and even "noises" coming from these traditional instruments -- and note how they're mixed and matched. On "Bilge," for instance, what could be a 1960s guitar rave up is played off against something resembling harpsichord crunches, while the futuristic spaceship beeps on "Bog" have to coexist with what could be harp string glisses from the piano. Heck, about half way through "Bounce" you can even hum along to a pretty conventional "bouncy" melody.
"Billabong is an Australian expression for a blind channel leading out from a river. Brave souls unafraid of adventure or "noise" will follow this Billabong into the uncharted waters to see what adventure results.
Ken Waxman, www.jazzweekly.com
FIRE SONG
“[Denman] Maroney and [Earl] Howard have been working together for 25 years, yet [Fire Song] is the first time their improvisational and compositional projects have sprouted in full CD form (they have a track on Einstein records' Confederacy of Dances from a few years ago, too). Maroney is most known for his work on his "hyperpiano", where he redefines the use and sound of a prepared piano. Four pieces make up the CD: a dizzying dialogue between hyperpiano and synthesizer of otherworldly sounds, percussive rumbles and spacious electronics; solo "hyperpiano" with the instrument's full spectrum of sounds and melodic tension; a saxophone/hyperpiano piece where the latter gives a gentle backbone to the former's extensions; and one of Howard's solo sax pieces. In these, Maroney and Howardhave laid out some turns and directions before them, then started down the paths, allowing each other to wander off, even get lost, and come back together cohesively. To something that has become a bit of a tired tradition, they manage a refreshing approach.” Phil Waldorf/Robin Edgerton, Other Music
FIRE SONG
"Veterans of New York City's "downtown" jazz and contemporary music scene, Earl Howard and Denman Maroney have been friends since their days as composition students at Cal Arts. The two musicians share an interest in extended instrumental techniques and in improvisation within the parameters of composition. Maroney's "hyperpiano" approach takes the piano beyond its 88-key tonal range as he plays the instrument-from within and without-using such resourceful implements as knives, bowls, mallets, bottles, and potato mashers. In his alto sax and Kurzweil synth playing, Howard strives for novel treatments of timbre, texture, and technique. "Howard and Maroney each contribute a pair of solo and duet compositions to FIRE SONG. Maroney's dynamic solo "UnCaged Bacchanal" presents hyperpiano's fantastic slithering, sliding, and spiraling signatures and watered-metal sonorities in dazzling contrast to traditional low-note figures and trickling treble motifs. The sax solo "Orchid" introduces Howard's restless exploration of mid-range melodies and elaborately overlapping phrases. Of the duos, Maroney's "Pulse Field" is the more "musical," leading Howard's convoluted sax into progressively less definable hyperpiano provinces. Howard switches to synthesizer for the extraordinary abstraction of "Fire Song," matching the metaphysical ruckus of Maroney's deft keyboard-and-wire maneuvers with an equally unearthly electronic spectrum." Gil Gershman for Muze
FIRE SONG
"[Fire Song (Erstwhile Records 003) is] Four long solo and duet pieces totalling 54 minutes from these two NYC-based, criminally underdocumented musicians. [Earl] Howard and [Denman] Maroney have been playing together sporadically since 1975, when they recorded a version of Stockhausen's 'Kurzwellen' as part of the Negative Band (a record engineered by Carl Stone for the Finnadar label). Howard plays alto saxophone and synth, while Maroney plays hyperpiano, which is further explained below. Howard has played over the years with such luminaries as Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Takehisa Kosugi, George Lewis, Nam June Paik, and Richard Teitelbaum, but has barely recorded, except for a mostly solo electronics CD on Random Acoustics, Pele's Tears. Fire Song contains his first composition for alto to be documented on disc, the solo piece 'Orchid'. Maroney has pioneered a technique for the piano which he refers to as 'hyperpiano', which involves stopping, sliding, bowing, plucking, strumming and striking the strings directly with a variety of tools including bars, bowls, knives, bells and mashers of metal, boxes and bottles of plastic, mallets of various kinds, and blocks of rubber. Hyperpiano differs from prepared piano in that the piano is not prepared beforehand. "The week that I heard this CD, I also witnessed Wally Shoup put a rubber glove on his saxophone, his breath causing it to wave like a sarcastic hand. One could not find two more disparate, conflicting values in music performance, though both Shoup's gesture and the Maroney/Howard CD share something in that they are both instilled with an awareness that conscientious abstraction is an empty gesture -- Maroney and Howard perform with a humility that speaks more of functionality in a musical language." Dean Roberts, Forced Exposure (April 2000)
FIRE SONG
"A duo using a different sort of method is found on Fire Song by Earl Howard and Denman Maroney. Rather than free improvisation, this duo improvises freely within situational guidelines and structures. Of the four pieces, Howard wrote the title track and his alto solo Orchid, and Maroney wrote Pulse Field and his solo UnCaged Bacchanal. "Fire Song is a fascinating journey into sound where Maroney's hyperpiano (which sounds like an extremely prepared piano) sounds as electronic as Howard's synthesizer (a Kurzweil 2500). Frequently their instruments meld into one voice. Maroney's solo gives a good indication what his instrument can do and the recording picks up every scrape and scratch as he attacks the insides of the piano. Pulse Field and Orchid feature Howard on alto and he possesses a dry, almost vibratoless sound. He also applies well-placed tonal distortion and bending to his phrases. Although the orientation of this music leans toward the contemporary classical end of the spectrum it should still interest the catholic taste of many readers of this magazine."
Robert Iannapollo, Cadence (July 2000)
FIRE SONG
"Fire Song presents two duets between Earl Howard (synthesizer, alto saxophone) and Denman Maroney (hyperpiano), plus a solo performance from each. Up to the release of this CD in 1999, both of these musicians were underdocumented, considering they have been active since the mid-1970s. "Fire Song" is a composed piece for synthesizer and hyperpiano (which, notwithstanding Maroney's distinctions, is prepared piano). Howard's digital keyboard intermingle with Maroney’s very organic approach of the piano.The latter plays almost as much inside his instrument as on the keys. His extended techniques are wonderfully showcased on his solo piece "UnCaged Bacchanal," which starts with the pianist playing directly on the strings (he makes them sound like a slide guitar) and then moves into a strange free-form oompah, both rhythmical in form and exploratory in nature — a fascinating number. "Pulse Field" is a hyperpiano/saxophone duet. This is the first time Howard is documented on alto saxophone. Two different meters collide in this piece, a satisfyingly disorienting number where both musicians show how much they can leave room to each other. If only for Denman Maroney's impressive piano vocabulary, Fire Song deserves attention." Francois Couture, All Music Guide
FIRE SONG
"Earl Howard and Denman Maroney are NY-based improvisers of long standing. Their association goes back 25 years, but short documentation; the pair’s conflated discography lists only a Howard solo disc on Georg Grawe’s Random Acoustics label. Fire Song hence, inevitably, has something of an introductory feel, and is evenly divided: each gets a solo piece, and each gets credit for one of two duos. The first pits Howard’s synthesizer against Maroney’s “hyperpiano” (his term for playing the strings of an unprepared piano with various objects) in a wild and wiggy workout; Howard shifts to alto sax for the second, lending proceedings a more traditional jazz/improv air. Maroney gets to show off the hyperpiano’s range of tricks on his “UnCaged Bacchanal” solo spot, and Howard rounds things off nicely with “Orchid,” a literate and accomplished alto solo. An impressive disc, introducing two names who, in future days, will surely become increasingly familiar." Opprobrium
FIRE SONG
“One of the first Stockhausen records I ever bought & dug was performed by the Negative Band (on Finnadar), a trio [sic] of musicians who were attending Cal Arts in the mid-seventies. Two members—Earl Howard (alto sax & synth) and Denman Maroney (piano innards or hyperpiano)—eventually found their way into the downtown scene. Sadly, both of these truly adventurous players have been under-recorded. Denman, who specializes in playing inside the piano with various objects, can be heard on two fine CD’s for Mark Dresser [Force Green and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari] and also released an outstanding solo piano CD [Hyperpiano] earlier this year [1998]. Earl Howard, who has also done engineering for a number of sessions, has collaborated with Gerry Hemingway & Ernst Reijseger in recent memory and has a solo CD on Random Acoustics. "Fire Song" consists of four long tracks, two duets and two solos, one for each player. The title piece is 17 plus minutes of dark, rumbling, low end inside-the-piano manipulations and equally ominous synth seasoning. It does seem as if both of these musicians have been collaborating for quite a long time, since they follow each other into well blended terrain, shadowing each other most effectively. "UnCaged Bacchanal" is for solo piano manipulations and Denman continues to expand his palette of other-worldly sounds by playing both inside the piano and the keyboard often simultaneously, deal with both fascinating and scary textures. The other duo piece, "Pulse Field," is for hyperpiano & alto sax, and both players once more flow together in well matched streams, commencing with more restrained sounds, eventually building and interweaving into denser & darker waters. The final piece is "Orchid" for solo alto sax, a first recording of this endeavor for Earl. Earl takes his time, playing with a softer tone early on, before he begins to unfurl layers of quicker lines, never screaming or squealing, but letting things erupt slowly into more & more complex streams. More challenging sounds from the great Erstwhile label.” Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery e-newsletter
AQUIFER
"Wow. I don't think I can rave about this album enough. When it clicks, it truly clicks, deep inside the mind where it grabs hold of a section of your brain and builds a home. This incredible trio is the brainchild of Mark Dresser, who plays an upright bass with a pickup near the headpiece, under the nut. Called the "giffus", this little dealy can pick up harmonics and tones in the opposite direction: from the pinched string upward. Using a volume petal, Dresser can mix the top sound with the bottom sound, sometimes fading out one and bringing up the other. Pretty innovative, eh? Who can match this technique? Well, Mathias Ziegler, for one, has brought his flutes: his electro-acoustic flutes that range from contrabass to piccolo. Have you ever seen a contrabass flute? It looks like a piece of modern art: a twisted, angular tube that rests on the floor and bends at the end so that one can actually play it. Who rounds out this trio? Well, Denman Maroney plays "hyperpiano", which is what he calls a prepared piano, playing the strings on the inside with knives, bowls, forks, etc. to get that "different" sound. This trio sure is different, but how does it actually sound?
"There are many moments of "scary" freedom, in which other-worldly sounds are brought forth from the depths of . . . who-knows-where, but then, like any great Avant Garde album, moments of clarity spring forth, in this case some of the most breathtaking jazzy-classical passages in frenetic unison! This album is not for everyone, because it does need to "click" in the mind, and not everyone has a mind that will "click" to this. When one does "hear" it, like I have done, one cannot stop playing it. I spun it three times in a row the day it clicked. I spun it twice yesterday, and I am listening to Dresser's giffus howl this very moment, as I write this. This has become one of the true gems in my collection and may have achieved the title of Desert Island Disc. That is how much I like this!"
Fred Barrett, http://www.beyondcoltrane.com
AQUIFER
"As a composer Mark Dresser walks no lines; he enters and exits the musical body without regard for boundaries or conventions imposed from outside his musical view. As a soloist, improviser, and bandleader, Dresser is well-known for turning the musical tract inside out in order to get what he needs from his instrument, his ensemble, or a particular piece of music. On Aquifer, his second album as a leader for the now-venerable Cryptogramophone label, Dresser uses the title as a veil-lifting exercise on what it is this ensemble does with music. They act as the ground from which all force is created. They are unchanging and look at everything with equanimity, yet, based on the dictates of a particular composition or interaction, cause chain reactions of force, silence, ebb, and flow with each movement or consideration. Here with Mathias Ziegler, with the entire family of flutes played electroacoustically and the hyper piano of Denman Maroney, the ensemble charts more unknown, perhaps unknowable territory while keeping their focus on the axis of purely musical expression.
"That musical expression finds its means of erudition in the array of sounds this trio is capable of dredging out of the creative heart. Where the jazz and blues of Horace Silver are tracked via Jaki Byard on "Digestivo," so are serial components à la Alban Berg. "Digestivo" and "Modern Pine," which closes the album, have been performed quite extensively by Dresser with Mark Helias, but the textured sounds of the flutes and the angular piano of Maroney create a depth and dimension that the originals didn't touch. Ideas here, in both structure and improvisation, don't drone or breathe; they all have edges and move through their chosen frameworks with deceptive ease. The abstracted soundscapes on "Sonomatopoeia" give way effortlessly toward poetically inspired compositional sketches that are precise and expansive, having integrated the sonic palette. Where improvisation is called for in order to reveal the invisible foundations of a particular musical notion, as on the title track, it sidles the premise of an integral, interchangeable sonic and sonant amalgam of cooperative sound exchanges that shore the idea while making its utterances so vast they are almost unspeakable. Mark Dresser hasn't missed in his quest to integrate all the values of sound and music creation into a refracted, prismatic whole, and the Aquifer trio is a band whose potentials have merely been tapped here.
Thom Jurek, Allmusic.com AQUIFER
"NORTH ADAMS- The 1929 silent film classic "Un Chien Andalou"by Luis Bunuel and Salvadore Dali has finally gotten the original score the cinematic landmark deserves. Bunuel and Dali's uniquely disturbing and provocative vision could not have bee better served than it has by composer Mark Dresser and his innovative trio. "Like Bunuel and Dali did in their chosen form, Dresser and his trio take the raw tools of their chosen form, in this case the musical instruments and the basic rules of composition and improvisation, and explode and invert them to explore what's typically hidden or overlooked in performance and composition. The result is, like "Un Chine Andalou," a subterranean voyage, in this case a sonic one, although at times the music strikes with such visceral shock and force that to insist on thinking of it only as sound to the exclusion of other sensations is in itself a limiting point of view. "As heard on Saturday night at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art's B-1- Theater -- a venue that is fast becoming a haven for the most experimental cutting-edge art ever seen or heard in the Berkshires and, indeed, far beyond -- Dresser's trio is about nothing if not pushing limits. "In a two-act program with intermission, the group played seven original compositions and accompanied two films, "Un Chein Andalou" and a short video, "Subtonium," also with original music.
"As an instrumentalist, Dresser gives new meaning to the term "contrabass." While on the one hand it is the name of his instrument, more often called double bass or just plain bass, the use of the term also slyly evokes Dresser's approach to the instrument, which is contrary to any and all preconceived notions of how a bass can and should be p