Big Tip! Tidal Perspectives is an album by Giovanni Di Domenico, Pak Yan Lau, and John Also Bennett. Recorded across a single afternoon in Brussels, Belgium, the album’s four parts are a rippling alchemy of processed Rhodes piano, sizzling ceramics, and liquified bass flute, a rare meeting of three unique voices from the contemporary music landscape that manages to flow with the depth and effortless inevitability of the oceanic tides.
Giovanni Di Domenico, an accomplished composer and prolific collaborator who has released albums with Jim O’Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi and Akira Sakata, among many others, initiated the collaboration with Bennett after the two met at a record fair in Saint-Gilles, Belgium and bonded over a shared inquisitiveness for unconventional sonic combinations. Along with Pak Yan Lau, a Belgian-born sound artist and improviser who has developed her own rich and unique sonic footprint, the trio entered the studio with little, if any, discussion beforehand, jumping right into playing without preconceived structures. The resulting recordings had a depth of sound and emotional resonance surprising even them, with finished pieces emerging from single live takes and minor edits.
Bennett, known for his solo work as well as his collaborations with Christina Vantzou as CV & JAB, gives us here a taste of his bass flute in free flowing form. Unconstricted by concept, joyfully and lazily bouncing off the melodic shimmers of Di Domenico’s Rhodes, Bennett uses his flute’s pitch information to trigger long tones that emerge like rays of light piercing through low hanging clouds - moments of clarity among a clicking world of sonic stimuli. Meanwhile, Lau’s crackling and sometimes dissonant contributions on prepared piano, live hydrophone, and custom ceramic sound objects balance out the triangle, adding a sense of microcosmic intrigue that allows the music to seamlessly ebb and flow between moments of comfort and misty uncertainty.
The album’s title track and climax, the eighteen minute “Tidal Perspectives”, drifts in with some kind of clarity, Lau’s glinting tonal waves edging in just beyond the horizon lines drawn by Di Domenico’s Rhodes and Bennett’s bass flute. But like the tidal flows of the Atlantic that inspired its title, just as you begin to perceive what’s happening, the currents have already taken you out to sea. Tidal Perspectives will be released on June 14th, 2024, in a limited edition of 300 LPs by Editions Basilic.
- The first meeting of three unique voices on the contemporary music landscape, Tidal Perspectives was recorded across a single afternoon in Brussels.
- The trio uses liquified bass flute, processed Rhodes piano, hydrophone and ceramic objects, among other instruments and electronics.
- They will celebrate the release of the album with a live performance at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, Belgium on June 12th.
- Giovanni Di Domenico is known for his collaborations with Jim O’Rourke and others, as well as solo releases on labels such as Unseen Worlds and Black Sweat.
- Pak Yan Lau is an accomplished sound artist working with ceramic objects, prepared piano, hydrophones and electronics.
- John Also Bennett is an American composer currently based in Greece, known for his solo albums on Shelter Press and Poole Music, as well as for his work with Christina Vantzou as CV & JAB.
- RIYL: David Behrman, Tomoko Sauvage, Oren Ambarchi, Jim O’Rourke, John Tchicai, Akira Sakata.
