Hailed by The New York Times as “a drummer around whom a cult of admiration has formed,” superstar drummer & composer Mark Guiliana (David Bowie, St. Vincent, Pearl Jam) brings an adventurous spirit, eclectic palette and gift for spontaneous invention to a staggering range of styles. Equally virtuosic playing acoustic jazz, boundary-stretching electronic music, or next-level rock, he’s become a key collaborator with such original sonic thinkers as St. Vincent, Pearl Jam, Matt Cameron, Brad Mehldau, Meshell Ndegeocello, Matisyahu, and the late, great David Bowie.
Following his acclaimed quartet albums ‘Jersey’ and ‘Family First’, Mark Guiliana’s latest release is everything you’d expect from him, whilst taking the music in new directions we’ve never seen from him before. In complete contrast to his latest BEAT MUSIC! work, ‘the sound of listening’ (intentionally lower case) is a deeply honest and expressive album by a musician who knows where he’s headed and what he wants to say with people he deeply trusts. The album ‘the sound of listening’ is released on October 7, 2022.
The title and idea behind ‘the sound of listening’ is taken from the book ‘Silence’ by Thích Nhất Hạnh, which considers, as Mark explains, ‘the inner silence required to truly observe the world.’ In ‘the sound of listening’ the entirety of compositional breadth of Mark’s acoustic and electronic influences is brought together, interspersed with miniature vignettes in a unified voice: the album speaks of Mark’s own journey and thinking with his relationship to music – to see the world and his presence within it through a zoomed out lens, where differences are unified and perspectives aligned. Track titles including ‘a path to bliss’, and ‘the most important question’, reflect Mark’s passionate response to his own exploration and path to serenity, which takes centre stage in this meticulously thoughtful, introspective album.
Guiliana initially came to the drums via the grunge-dominated music of his teenage years: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden (whose drummer, Matt Cameron, would later enlist Guiliana for his own solo project). As he began to study the instrument, he was introduced to jazz in high school and was captivated by the music’s complexity, nuances and diversity. Leaving the relative isolation of his suburban New Jersey home to find a wealth of like-minded acquaintances at William Paterson University, he heard Feed Me Weird Things, the debut album by UK electronica pioneer Squarepusher, for the first time. That opened up a whole new world of sonic possibilities for Guiliana, who began to pursue electronic music in parallel with jazz.
No matter the focus of a particular album or project, Guiliana’s music blends those three major influences in varying balances: the raw power and intensity of hard rock; the spiritual questing of John Coltrane and the aggressive musical curiosity of Miles Davis; the brain-twisting manipulations and cut-up hybridizations of Squarepusher and Aphex Twin.
Those diverse influences have converged in different ways throughout Guiliana’s career. On one end of the spectrum is his Jazz Quartet and on the opposite is BEAT MUSIC, with which he’s recorded twice before – on a self-titled 2012 EP as well as the 2014 album The Los Angeles Improvisations – and the similarly-inclined outings A Form of Truth (2013) and My Life Starts Now (2014).
In between are a multitude of combinations, from the electro-acoustic duo Mehliana with Brad Mehldau to the increasingly electronic-influenced work of Donny McCaslin, which also features Lindner and Lefebvre. Those four players also became the core band for David Bowie’s acclaimed final release, Blackstar.
“Being in the same room as David and watching him realize his vision was huge for me,” Guiliana says. “He balanced knowing from the outset what he truly wanted to do with being extremely open and creating a very democratic environment. Those are seemingly contradictory qualities, but he so beautifully danced between the two, attacking every moment in the music with great spirit and love, making the art that he believed in. I really try to carry that with me.”
Mischief is Mark Guiliana’s newest release from the sessions that produced 2022’s acclaimed the sound of listening. Effortless and flowing, this is music by a band of eight years standing at its most spontaneous. This is the sound of the band just as they are. Setup, Hit Record and Play. Recorded at the same sessions as the sound of listening, the music on Mischief represents a different side of the same coin. There’s a liveness and spontaneity that, as Mark explains, operates as a ‘sonic photograph of the band’. This music is not an afterthought or bonus material; it stands as an artistic statement in its own right. It’s a snapshot of the band of eight years just as they are – no overdubs, no electronics, no studio wizardry – live and direct.
The band are all exemplary musicians who share a common understanding and empathy built from playing together for so long. The performance flows easily, moving from the effortless vamps of Jam Til End of the Tape to the compelling Audience American or the more traditional When Day Turns Into Night.
Mark Guiliana’s third and fourth quartet album– his first quartet recording for 5 years – features pianist Shai Maestro, saxophonist Jason Rigby and bassist Chris Morrissey.
(text: https://markguiliana.bandcamp.com/album/the-sound-of-listening & https://markguiliana.bandcamp.com/album/mischief)
