|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
ROG 140CD
|
"The evocation of a heartbeat greets listeners at the threshold of this succession of pieces that take on the role of a sum, a balance sheet (admittedly still provisional) of the artistic experience of the forty years since the day musician Ramon Lopez decided to leave his native Alicante to join one of Europe's active jazz centers: Paris. This emigration, experienced as an adventure without too many safeguards, gradually found its justification as Ramon has integrated Parisian jazz. Well, Ramon has carved out his own path. The 1985 Spanish emigrant, initially acclimatized to the Parisian scene, has built up a European network, associated with the likes of double bassist Barry Guy and pianist/keyboardist Joachim Kühn. In addition to the rhythmic reliability and flexibility expected of an excellent 'jazz drummer,' a dose of fantasy added an unexpected dimension. A poetic irrationality coiled in a functional gesture. The remarkable surprise of Ramon's playing is that he's equally at home 'spinning' a rhythmic pattern in a 'mainstream' modern jazz idiom (although it's not clear whether he's a disciple of Philly Joe, Elvin or Roy), and frolicking in the most open contexts of European improvised music. His abundant discography bears witness to all this. While it may seem like a leap into the void in a musical practice where collective interaction is the golden rule, the solo gesture may also be the expression of a synthesis of artistic experiences that follow and respond to each other like so many achievements. A whole vibrant world, inhabited by sounds that are familiar and then strange, cadences that seem to settle in and then dissolve, drawing us into shifting colors, traveling from brushing skins to scathing metallic strikes. These pieces, created in the moment but with an eye to a journey open to all winds, unfold in an open space of freedom, rich in shared experience and always on the way to a welcome adventure."
|