Finding Gabriel

"Finding Gabriel sounds like an ambitious experiment by one of our most creative American musicians. When it works, when the elements are focused together, it stuns and sounds lovingly new. When things aren't quite adding up, the parts are still beautiful or daring, interesting at a minimum. The territory is hard to define, as the electronica this evokes would be unlikely to include this kind of writing for ensembles of voices, winds, or strings. The jazz it evokes doesn't sound nearly this composed. It contains hints of other genre-less projects - Pat Metheny's "Orchestrion" projects sound a bit like this, but barely, and some of the recent work of pianist/composer Vijay Iyer overlaps with this project - but there is nothing to compare to this music. I want to hear more music like this, even if I'm not eager to listen to all of Finding Gabriel on repeat. I want to hear more music that reaches the way this music does. And I'm glad that I'm not sure quite what it is reaching for".

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"It will take several listens to appreciate all that takes place on Finding Gabriel, but that's as it should be. Mehldau is scratching an itch; whatever bothers him is provoking action that leads to a strange, ethereal space where the questions and answers of both history and mystery are not only provocative, but interchangeable".

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"It will take several listens to appreciate all that takes place on Finding Gabriel, but that's as it should be. Mehldau is scratching an itch; whatever bothers him is provoking action that leads to a strange, ethereal space where the questions and answers of both history and mystery are not only provocative, but interchangeable".

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"Den amerikanske pianist Brad Mehldau er uden diskussion en af vor tids mest centrale og sammensatte jazzfigurer ... På 'Finding Gabriel' er mange variationer af jazz, klassisk af både ny og gammel slags og kogende prog-rock fuldstændig fusioneret ... På dette album byder sopransax, synthesizer og cello ind som ligeværdige repræsentanter for jazz, elektronisk pop og klassisk ... Jazzen er trods alt den dominante toneklang, men der skal noget mere end jazz til at rumme så direkte en samfundskommentar, som det eksperimenterende fusionsalbum 'Finding Gabriel' også er ... 'Finding Gabriel' er et visionært værk ... En foreløbig kulmination på Brad Mehldaus mangeårige forsøg på at give samtlige musikalske genrer mening samtidig".

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"Den amerikanske pianist Brad Mehldau er uden diskussion en af vor tids mest centrale og sammensatte jazzfigurer ... På 'Finding Gabriel' er mange variationer af jazz, klassisk af både ny og gammel slags og kogende prog-rock fuldstændig fusioneret ... På dette album byder sopransax, synthesizer og cello ind som ligeværdige repræsentanter for jazz, elektronisk pop og klassisk ... Jazzen er trods alt den dominante toneklang, men der skal noget mere end jazz til at rumme så direkte en samfundskommentar, som det eksperimenterende fusionsalbum 'Finding Gabriel' også er ... 'Finding Gabriel' er et visionært værk ... En foreløbig kulmination på Brad Mehldaus mangeårige forsøg på at give samtlige musikalske genrer mening samtidig".

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