Release Date: 30 March 2018
Label: Babel
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5028159000622
Genres: Jazz  Contemporary  
Release Date: 30 March 2018
Label: Babel
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5028159000622
Genres: Jazz  Contemporary  
Description
Mr Vertigo is a bold, diverse exploration of solo piano counterpoint by Bruno Heinen, and his sixth album for the progressive Babel Label. Heinen has established pedigree in both classical and jazz worlds, in his various collaborations with jazz players in London and Italy, and his recent role in the piano chair in Bernstein's Wonderful Town with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle at the Barbican.
On Mr Vertigo Heinen approaches the instrument from a new standpoint, without a prescribed attitude to improvisation or preoccupation with genre distinctions in his compositions or selections. Instead he focuses
in the contrapuntal identity of each piece - using each to explore a particular aspect of the rich relationships between parts in solo performance. The result is a record that resists traditional categorisation.
"Erudition, eclectic studies and a jazz sensibility make Heinen the kind of
newcomer who repositions the goalposts" - The Guardian
Part of Mr Vertigo's project is technical and investigative, a kind of research: Mirage explores space and atonality using subtle overdubs and post-production techniques; Virgo is a 'duet' with an original Stockhausen music box; Forgotten Images weaves a rare Debussy theme into an original Heinen composition; Daydreamer draws on Wayne Shorter's 'Night Dreamer' to investigate the relationship between two time signatures.
Each piece of music also has a very human point of origin, a story being expressed by each contrapuntal approach. The title track, based a Paul Auster novel, describes the traumatic experience of a boy learning to fly. 'Hommage à Kurtág', played with ly the two index fingers, is based the instinctive moves of children arriving at a piano to play for the first time. In Kochi Heinen draws a Vagadhibhusani South Indian Carnatic scale he learned while travelling through India.
The pianist's ability with counterpoint has always been evident: in his approach to solo building, his Tierkries Sextet writing, and in his current studies with renowned pianist Fred Hersch. Mr Vertigo shows him engaging with the full range of its possibilities.
Tracklisting
Glockenspiel
Barbacana
Black Top
Black Top
Black Top
Christine Tobin
Christine Tobin
Billy Jenkins
Sultan Stevenson
John Patitucci
Tommy Whittle & Alan Barnes
Xhosa Cole
John Clayton & Mulgrew Miller
George Cables
Sylvaine Helary & Orchestre Incandescent
The Exu