Renaissance stands as a compelling addition to the saxophonist’s discography.
ECM 2846 / 754 0837
Nicolas Masson (soprano & tenor saxophone); Colin Vallon (piano); Patrice Moret (double bass); Lionel Friedli (drums)
Recorded November 2023
This follow up to the Swiss saxophonist Masson’s 2018 ECM album Travelers has been a long time coming. In the intervening years the quartet, with a now stable personnel that have been making music together for nearly two decades, have been touring and honing their music still further as this exhilarating new release reveals.
Once again Masson is responsible for composing all the music, with the exception of the brief group improvisation ‘Tumbleweeds’, and having one person writing for the quartet brings a strong sense of identity and focus to the music. In bringing new compositions to the table, the saxophonist has loosened his grip on the compositional structures of the music allowing the quartet to interact more freely. Paradoxically the very looseness of the music finds the four musicians discovering common ground and all pulling together giving the illusion of a tighter structure.
Masson’s compositions vary from the melancholy ‘Forever Gone’ with its rubato introduction that builds to a dramatic peak before once again returning to the reflective opening melody played by the leader on soprano saxophone to the mercurial and ever-shifting ‘Spirits’ and the tentatively dramatic ‘Practicing the Unknown’.
The use of rubato-time is also exploited in the opening ‘Tremolo’ while other compositions utilise the talents of drummer Lionel Friedli to create a specific rhythmic feel for the composition to work from, and it is these pieces that offer up much in the way of interaction in the way piano and bass work together with and against the saxophone and drums. ‘Subversive Dreamers’ is a spellbinding example where the music is carefully propelled by the drummer with some choice accompaniment from pianist, Colin Vallon.
A further relationship is investigated in the beautiful duet for tenor saxophone and double bass, and the quartet close the set with the exquisite ‘Basel’ with Masson on soprano saxophone and producing a pure and expressive tone from the instrument that is quite different from his tenor playing that often covers a larger range. On the larger horn Masson encompasses the lower and higher registers of the saxophone along with a rich and warm middle register employing with a breathy lyricism that perfectly encapsulated on ‘Langsam’.
It may be seven years between Masson’s two releases for ECM, and it is reassuring to witness longevity in the quartet’s personnel which makes for interesting music making that is surely set to continue to evolve as time passes. For now, Renaissance stands as a compelling addition to the saxophonist’s discography.
