TROLLER, MANUEL - VANISHING POINTS (CD)

"For years, Manuel Troller shied away from performing solo. But three years ago, the Bee-Flat jazz club in Bern asked him to play a gig with Marc Ribot. The young, up-and-coming Swiss musician was to play first, followed by the American grandmaster of free improvisation on the electric guitar - clearly an opportunity just too good to pass up. Since then he not only plays with and composes for Schnellertollermeier, his "main" band, but also performs solo. And now he's releasing Vanishing Points, his first solo album, recorded using only one guitar, live, with no overdubs. It features six abstract yet sharply designed compositions bristling with minimalist, shifting tessellations without relying on obvious dramatic flourishes. There's no rock dynamism, no catharsis; only the ingenious and clearly structured form the musician gives his ideas and sounds. And then there's also Troller's talent for making his guitar vignettes sound surprisingly like club music. No, Manuel Troller isn't what you'd call a sound scientist. He's not interested in experimentation for experimentation's sake. He's more about transforming this musical language into a craft, about giving it form, and thus finding a new lyricism within it. This is what these partially carefully composed, partially freely improvised Vanishing Points speak of. They translate his playful curiosity and fervent adventurism into ingenious and perfectly formed compositions." (label info)