The V16 Project

Since all four musicians play in the ‘now’, anyone listening to this CD will find something recognizable in it, whether that be blues, rock, funk or jazz improvisation, all of which, by way of sampled soundscapes and freeform, four-sided jamming, turns into something both startlingly familiar and virtually unheard of…a collection of fascinating versions of groove, creative musical interaction, and a liberating sense of self-structuring form….We hear fragments of delta blues, Gregorian chant, turntable scratches, feedback loops and quarter tones, embedded in various pleasant grooves that virtually sample the history of American jazz…The V16 Project is not about muscle. It’s about the power of the musical imagination.

The mixture of composed material and explorative tendencies all adds up to an effort that defies rigid boundaries…The guitarists’ odd tunings, complete with fuzz-toned ponderings and various blues-based variations, skirt avant-garde territory…This production is awash with elusive qualities…(Recommended…)

Judging by its grille and supercharged front end, Jerry Granelli’s new thing is built to cruise…restlessly shifting among styles and mixing them up to the point where you can’t tell them apart…Kögel and Tronzo have a striking range between the two of them, the former tending toward a more pointed sound and the latter usually smooth as butter. When it’s time for a lyrical moment, they meld together into ripples and swirls, as on ‘O Bossa, Where Art Thou?’…Granelli himself certainly makes no unnecessary gestures…Whether on a country-rock of ‘Family Man,’ the deep rumbling funk of ‘Texas Oklahoma Conspiracy,’ or the headbanging jam of ‘Black Confederacy,’ he’s got it covered. The 11 minute opener gets deep into interlocking rhythms, which seem to be Granelli’s favorite place to dwell…

Since the early 1960s, percussionist Granelli has worked with an amazing array of musicians, including Ornette Coleman and Sly Stone. At the end of the decade he played free music on bills with Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, which sealed his taste for certain guitar sounds…Boundary crossing is to be expected from a musician who admires both Squarepusher and Max Roach, but Granelli’s blend is grounded at a deeper level, in discerning awareness of the properties and character of sounds, alone and in combination. The string players share his awareness. Far from simply elaborating themes and riffs, their improvisations spin out deliberately textured webs of contrasting or complementary sound qualities.