Stillpoint

While the group certainly functions as a very productive and integrated unit, it's clear that the vision behind Stillpoint is singular. In a very postmodern sense Gestrin seeks to bring together some unusual combinations and create something genuinely new. His effort is extremely successful. Those with the equipment to enjoy this disc's audiophile SACD encoding have an advantage in appreciating the multi-dimensional nature of this production, though it works fine on regular systems.

This is some of the most original and innovative new music on the scene today. Admittedly, it’s not entirely accessible even to those with the most open of minds, but for those who are willing to pursue, it’s well worth the effort.

From the lineup this may look like a heavy fusion session, but nothing could be further from the facts. The Vancouver, B.C.-based keyboardist admits to a heavily ECM-influenced sound and also says ‘the term New Age comes to mind, but not New Age as in rain falling while I’m in the bath with my crystals – it’s more like a soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist.’ That seems to say it all here. Not at all electronic-sounding, Gestrin’s dozen works – all either his sole compositions or shared with others in the group – are subtle and thoughtful creations exhibiting his love of experimentation and improvisation…The title Stillpoint is perfect for the album – it’s the Buddhist idea of being content with exactly where you are and not worrying about what has happened or is about to happen. Some of the tracks approach a sort of very musical musique concrete – Complex One/City has sounds like slamming doors which mesh with the various percussion sounds behind the trumpet, sax and piano. Cliffs and Clouds has a lovely soprano sax solo over what sounded to me like musical glasses struck with silverware – the notes credit the sound to ‘potlids.’…Sonics are super-clean, detailed and spatially located with great precision…’ear-stretching’ – as Charles Ives would put it.

Gestrin’s music is rounding so swiftly into shape that it’s hard to believe this 30-year-old pianist-composer from Vancouver is largely unknown outside his hometown. Stillpoint…is something wonderful. Here, a stark and brooding trio abstraction turns into a perfectly imagined 72-minute soundscape, a stunning and beautiful network of impromptu acts and through-composed bits. Bringing many sources to mind — Weather Report’s orchestra detail and ECM’s more cinematic stuff…Stillpoint bristles with action and fresh, absorbing ideas. Gestrin never panders emotionally and he’s got a real gift for making a handful of musicians sound remarkably like a dozen…Extended techniques and plain, handsome sounds are modestly wrapped and quietly submerged into the design…Songlines must have had Stillpoint in mind when it moved over to Super Audio CDs. It’s simply an exquisite sonic treatment, something commensurate to Gestrin’s rare and far-reaching vision.

Gestrin and his musical associates pursue ambient dreamscapes and climactically driven passages throughout this beautifully recorded production.