| Jazz |
Like a painting that could have taken pride of place in the decor of a Peter Greenaway film, like a porcelain doll, the face of Asha Parkinson, composer and saxophonist, is revealed, and towards the bottom of this album cover in neon blue style, the title of this CD ‘OBSESSION’ appears—it didn’t take much more to pique my curiosity… A curiosity that was more than satisfied, even if we are much closer to contemporary classical music than to jazz in the strict sense. Discovering a composer with such a deep and perfectly organized universe could only speak to me, or even, please me!
It’s impossible not to see images from the film *Drowning by Numbers* flash before me, because ‘POSSESSION’ could also be considered a series of numbered tableaux that draw their gigantic poetic form not only from Asha Parkinson’s compositions but also from the choice of this marvelous performer, Rebecka Edlund, who perfectly fits this dreamlike universe and gives it its full meaning.
By stylistically blurring the boundaries between jazz, contemporary music, flamenco, Mediterranean, and Arabic music to find a unique and deeply resonant voice, ‘Possession’ delves into themes ranging from obsessive love to urban trance, from mystical inspiration to devotion and beyond, drawing on lyrical motifs from traditional tales, Tolstoy, Huxley, Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi, and the Lord’s Prayer in original Aramaic. Admittedly, this work is deeply elitist and will likely upset the ‘purists’ of jazz or classical music, but our mission is precisely to promote borderline works, because it is with projects like this that art can advance. Wen feeds on many worlds in which, in my opinion, music is only a small part; one must hear it as a particularly literary, pictorial, even symphonic and cinematic work, because to fully appreciate this work, one must open one’s senses to all the propositions of the composer.
Asha Parkinson also makes her voice heard as a performer and arranger for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, Issie Barratt’s INTERCHANGE, and the Sam Eastmond Big Band, composing for ensembles like Table Music and the Ligeti Quartet, and working as the founder and driving force of Voices Beyond Divisions, a charity dedicated to peace education through music, bringing together young people from different cultures.
So, how could one not want to embrace this work? By mixing styles, indeed, Asha Parkinson intends to speak to everyone, at least to those who can grasp and adopt this music. When art enriches our hearts and minds, as it does here, one can say that we are in front of an exceptional work, and indeed, this is the case. Perhaps at times, we are not far from the world of musicals, but it doesn’t matter; Asha’s work is in tune with the world, which, like it, can sometimes be joyful, tormented, poetic—there is here a breath of life, a rage to hold the world in its arms. Many of these arguments can also be strangely found in the work of Peter Greenaway. To say that there is a distinctly intellectual English style common to a certain number of artists is a step I am more than willing to take, to propel this album onto our pile of ‘Indispensable’ albums.”
Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, August 13th 2024
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Tracklisting:
1. Urban Fantasy
2. Distant Devotion
3. Mirror Image
4. Possession
5. The Juggler
6. Maelstrom
7. There
8. Our Father (Avvon D’Bishmaiya)
9. Permanent Verse