Recommended: Ben Zucker – “Confluere”

 

It’s pretty easy to forget that Confluere is a combination of multiple performances.  Actually, perhaps it would be more accurate to consider it a connection of performances.  Because even though the new release from Ben Zucker is compiled from a series of solo improvised performances over the course of a month, the cohesiveness that results from an extremely fluid environment is more than a little bit remarkable.  Apparently there wasn’t much studio manipulation going on here… Zucker simply laid down one performance atop the other.  And yet the endpoints of each performance snapped perfectly into place with its siblings, and it’s why the entire recording comes off as one long creative exhalation.

Zucker utilizes an array of melodic and rhythmic devices in his performances, which is why the end result is a work rich with the detail and nuance of an ensemble session.  Thankfully, however, the intimate nature of a solo performance isn’t lost when Zucker makes it all come together as one.  This is music situated at the peaceful end of the spectrum.  There’s plenty of activity and nothing about this music will get it slotted in an ambient drone playlist, but there’s an immensely contemplative nature to this music, and that quality alone is produced with sufficient strength to result in music made perfect for quiet moments in quiet rooms.

Your album personnel:  Ben Zucker (trumpet, vibraphone, marimba, drums, percussion, piano).

Released on Not Art Records.

Listen to more of the album at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Music from Oakland, CA.

Available at:  Bandcamp