Jon Balke: Book of Velocities

Jon Balke (born 1955) is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer currently known for his Magnetic North Orchestra. He began with classical piano, but switched to "boogie woogie" at 12, though today he performs within the post bop medium. At the age of 18 he joined Arild Andersen's quartet. By the mid-1980s he worked on his own and would become one of Norway's leading jazz composers.

"For Book Of Velocities, solo pianist Jon Balke has recorded a highly unusual set of improvisations, which at times sounds quite unlike anything else in the instrument's established vocabulary. The Norwegian musician approached these pieces by recording a number of takes based around an initial, spontaneous idea, meaning that the music here is an odd, semi-improv compromise. Clearly Balke's policy of allowing off-the-cuff ideas to develop and hone themselves has paid off: you'll hear some very odd, very beautiful passages that sound quite alien, presumably as a result of a few subtle preparations being made to the instrument. 'Chapter I: Scintilla' is especially intriguing, sounding like the rhythmically unstable pinging of raindrops on sheet metal. Taking an entirely different slant on piano improv narrartives is a piece like 'Chapter III: Obsidian', which is a virtuoso tirade of notes and ominous, swirling harmonics. Balke's fingers fire off fractured, high speed phrases with a real intuition for sophisticated melodic development and dramatic denouement, only for the pace to dissolve into the sonorous bass dabblings of 'Chapter III: Sunday Shapes', another venture into piano preparation and the kind of freakish overtones that come about from that sort of experimentation." (www.boomkat.com)


01 - Giada 03:35
02 - Scintilla 00:57
03 - Spread 04:26
04 - Castello 03:48
05 - Resilience 03:35
06 - Single line 02:35
07 - Nyl 03:36
08 - Double Line 03:09
09 - Obsidian 03:26
10 - Sunday Shapes 03:19
11 - Gum Bounce 02:01
12 - Finger Bass 03:23
13 - Contrivance 02:45
14 - Drape Hanger 03:16
15 - Septima Llegada 02:04
16 - Reel Set 01:25
17 - Scrim Stand 03:18
18 - Sonance 04:46
19 - Nefriit 02:59