add to cart
add to wantlist
email a friend
 
PRICE:
$13.00
PREORDER
Ships When IN STOCK.
ARTIST
TITLE
Armageddon Flower
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
TAO 018CD TAO 018CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
6/20/2025

"The seminal Matthew Shipp String Trio (Shipp: piano; Mat Maneri: viola; William Parker: bass) reconvened in late 2024 in order to commune with tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman in the studio, and Armageddon Flower is the epic result. This album is a peak gem of improvised communication in each of their extensive and astonishing bodies of work, revealing new ways of exemplifying tradition, language, physics, material, and energy. A profound work presenting such communication at a very high level indeed. Since 1996 Perelman and Shipp have recorded 46 albums together in duo and small group settings. But as Shipp is careful to point out, 'there's only one Matthew Shipp String Trio.' At the turn of the century, this Trio struck out on a path to redefine 'Third Stream' chamber jazz via two very well-received Hat Hut CDs. A quarter century later, this new work clearly builds on extensive, musically interwoven personal history. For Shipp, 'William and Mat are as close to my natural soul brothers as you can get -- and by soul I mean the soul. Ivo is another layer of that same soul.' Perelman's copious studio dates -- beginning with his self-titled Ivo (1989) -- are a continual refinement and study in process whether or not they share personnel, and countless gems reside in his vast body of work. Armageddon Flower is a singular gem in the entire body of improvised music. This work is fundamentally a group music; while there are sections of duo and trio interaction, the onus is on a four-way conversation in which parallel streams become oceans of sound, only to be distilled into isolated rivulets once again. Without a drummer but with forward motion and bounce, the music on Armageddon Flower is sublimely striking and operates in a continuous flow of both impulsion and idea. As these four musicians have spent decades together in various capacities, their language is on one level honed. What's surprising is that entirely new pathways are exploding into view. It's unquestionable that this is music of necessity, of striving, and of possibility."