Greg Fenton reviews Juan Farcik – Aster – Archipel Musique Canada
Colours run riot across Juan Farcik’s new album for Archipel Musique. Although there’s little point in trying to define or confine this music within conventional terminology, free-form electronics and the spirit of jazz are all part of the radical picture. Ghosts and embers of future past enhance the mysterious journey you are about to embark upon, beginning with the resplendent atmospheres of Páramo.
Notes appear but aren’t always quite as they seem, receiving a treatment that explores their extended possibilities. The electric piano that greets you on En Blanco, for instance, soon becomes warped and transformed, dissolving into a much looser interpretation of form as something altogether more exciting takes its place. It’s a powerfully engaging listen, granting entry into a world of fiery imagination where circuits break down and sounds don’t always behave as you might expect.
Almost any piece on here will reveal similar qualities, but try the punctuating bass of Mientras Avanza, which dives headlong into a simmering cauldron of jazzy implications, with keys and vibes firing in all directions while the drums speak their own native tongue. There’s something here that recalls the freewheeling spirit of improvised music from the 1970s, yet this is anything but a nostalgic exercise. Instead, it feels compellingly contemporary.
Un Minuto Más reworks the machine-generated calling cards of Chicago and Detroit in the spirit of their original intent, producing a sting in the musical tail. Fizzy, shimmering arpeggios provide the backdrop to an insistent desire to break free, bringing another dimension to an album that thrives on unpredictability and the possibilities of sound. Another outer world to explore, and one that leaves plenty of room for further discovery.
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