christangelfox by Scott Fields Ensemble

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Scott Fields has been called "a musician of considerable conceptual sophistication" (The Wire), "a genuine musical adventurer" (Signal to Noise), and "arguably the Anthony Braxton of the guitar" (All Music Guide). Born in Chicago in the early 1950s, Fields was inspired to follow a path to avant-jazz by hearing and meeting musicians like Joseph Jarman and Don Moye. After the demise of his first trio, Life

Rhythms, in 1971, he stopped performing for many years, during which time he studied classical and jazz guitar, and took composition and music theory classes at the University of Wisconsin among other

pursuits. He began performing again in 1989, based exclusively in Madison, Wisconsin, with the Silt Loam Ensemble, the group that would evolve in to the Scott Fields Ensemble, which has featured a revolving cast of more than 30 notable improvisers from around the world in the last decade. Since 1996, he has toured throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and currently spends much of his time in Cologne, Germany.

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From the liner notes:

I wrote "christangelfox" for specific musicians playing, at

times, particular instruments, in this case small percussion

arrays, each with four pieces of scrap metal, four pieces of

stone, and four pieces of wood, all floating freely on opencell

foam slabs...I intended it to be so simple that it would

reveal the performer's essential character. Just three men

in a box making music.

The entire hour-long composition is based on a single

scale, and influenced, although not formally, by the musics

of several Asian cultures. The percussion, in particular,

reflects Javanese gamelan, Chinese opera, and Japanese

Buddhist temple music. At times the classical guitar is

meant to be koto-like, the clarinet shakuhachi-like, and the

cello erhu-like. These references are, however, intentionally

faint. The detail is in the sound of the instruments, tiny

variations in pitch and timbre, organic pulsations in time,

inhalation, exhalation, nails on nylon, spittle on reed, hair

sliding on gut, brass on wood, stone, and metal.

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