Dylan Ward: Tourmaline

Dylan Ward uses his reed collection of soprano, alto and tenor saxes not for bop lines, but for creating sonic atmospheres. Occasionally teaming with Seth Andrew on laptop/electronics or Kenneth Michael Florence/g-p-elec, Ward plays with tapes, effects and tonalities to become a kind of sax version of Morton Subotnick. Using reed tonguing and long tones, he creates a pulse for “Tourmaline” while sounding like cars whizzing by the windshield on the echoey “Naica”. Davis’ electronics creates a static white noise on the tensile “Angelus Novus” and Florence brings in guitar riffs under Ward’s growling tenor on the dreamy and almost subconscious “Seven Steps”. The subtones of the reed instruments create a visceral atmosphere throughout, almost feeling like radiation of heat on “Sum Of It’s Parts”. Musical colors for the museum of modern art.

 

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