Ephemeral

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Although there is a somewhat spectral vibe to the latest release from New Zealand musician Dave Wilson, the title Ephemeral may not be doing it justice, as that word can imply a sense of fleeting emptiness. Instead, what this album offers is a sound that is quite substantial, with dreamy, complex numbers illuminated by the confident playing of a large group: Wilson plays tenor sax and bass clarinet, while a core "jazz" group is rounded out by double bass player Chris Beernink, trumpeter Ben Hunt, guitarist Callum Jephson Allardice, and drummer Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa, all of which is further complemented by the inclusion of a powerful string quartet. The tone is set immediately with the woozy, Arkestra-evoking horns of "speak to me of yesterday and tomorrow (elusive as the dead)," a number that, over the course of its 12 minutes, unfolds in a dreamy, incorporeal manner that allows all of the members of this expanded ensemble to make a mark with improvisational prowess and textural complexity. Similarly, the 14-minute "Liv's Theme" revives the skronking interplay of the brass meshing with haunting collaborative moments between guitarist Allardice and the four string players; it's both delicately spare and intensely dynamic. Not all of the numbers are quite so ... ephemeral. In fact, the group swings hard and directly on cuts like "High Maintenance" and the bouncy, Eastern European-inspired drive of "Keep it to Yourself," and the record is remarkably percussive and rhythm-forward for an album with a horn player as a leader. Yet, it's on the more inchoate numbers that this album truly shines, and on a track like "For Olivia"—insistently droney with Middle Eastern tonality and Wilson's bass clarinet sounding like a foghorn cutting through the night—where all the brave elements of this group's sounds can come together, it proves itself to be as daring as it is dreamy. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz