Consensus by Jaap Blonk's Splinks

PRESS/PERS/PRESSE No one with a lively interest in modern jazz composition should miss Consensus. The Wire The remarkable range of colours and styles covers everything from mainstream jazz to post-bop and the avant-garde. A very satisfying recording, and one that should make some waves. All Music Guide to Jazz The interplay between Blonk and his musicians is impressive indeed, feeding off one another, matching gesture for gesture or engaging in a kind of musical tag, wending their way along a meandering, but marvellous musical path. MusicWorks De integratie met de 'conventionele' muziekinstrumenten is nu echter geslaagder dan ooit. De composities en arrangementen getuigen van een groot gevoel voor dramatische ontwikkeling. Ondanks de grote variatie in vorm en de stilistische breedte zijn er geen werkelijk zwakke momenten aan te wijzen in het programma van meer dan twee uur. Jazz Nu Consensus is een indrukwekkend labyrint, waarin men telkens nieuwe ontdekkingen kan doen. Met deze mijlpaal treedt Jaap Blonk toe tot de eredivisie van componisten in de Nederlandse jazz en geïmproviseerde muziek. Vrije Geluiden Dan blijkt ook het buitengewone potentieel van Blonks composities. Dat gegeven, én zijn bijzondere stemkunst maken hem tot een waardige kandidaat voor de Boy Edgarprijs. Trouw Die Konzepte und insgesamt 23 Stücke stammen allesamt von Blonk, wobei das älteste auf 1982 datiert. Entstanden ist durch die Kompilierung eine sehr abwechslungsreiche Hör-Revue, die geschickt zwischen verschiedenen musikalischen Genres jongliert, ohne didaktisch zwanghaft zwischen diesen vermitteln zu wollen. Alles sitzt am rechten platz und ergänzt sich gegenseitig in chronologischer Abfolge zu einem wahren Kaleidoskop. Neue Zeitschrift für Musik

SPLINKS Alison Isadora Anna McMichael Mary Oliver Angelo Verploegen Dieter Kuhlmann Bart van der Putten Tobias Delius Lorand Sarna Rob Daenen Jacko Schoonderwoerd Theo Bodewes Panc Daalder Jaap Blonk		violin violin violin, viola trumpet, fluegelhorn, piccolo trumpet trombone, soprano saxophone alto and baritone saxophone, clarinet tenor saxophone guitar synthesizer, sampler double bass electronic drums, percussion, drums drums, marimba, percussion voice, electronics, compositions

CD 1 Consensus Puy La Gorge Reportraits 1 Vesuvius Valavond Haakse Bochten Wib Fibby Wap Please Help Us (We're So Unhappy) Reportraits 2 For just a little HondeKip I Promise	5:14 11:08 0:52 6:42 5:59 6:30 7:03 9:21 0:44 2:39 3:53		CD 2 Cyril's Nightmare Scharreleieren Reportraits 3 Maelstrøm Cwmhir Caldera Galeras Hotel Vergetelheid Band loopt Vowelogy Reportraits 4 Krakatau Consensus	5:30 7:08 0:46 4:22 7:53 5:07 15:33 2:28 7:32 0:50 2:02 5:02
Kontrans 1545 Recorded November 9-12, 1998 by Chris Weeda at Studio Le Roy, Amsterdam, Netherlands Mixed and mastered by Chris Weeda and Jaap Blonk at Studio Le Roy Produced by Jaap Blonk Designed by Karin Meijlink
"The Netherlands seem to breed ensembles that combine flinty toughness with potently expressive oddness. Splinks certainly has that character, and Consensus is a tour de force wilfully coupling taut forms with intrinsically disruptive energies. Tangible control constantly teeters on the brink of anarchic abandon, but never quite succumbs. By the end of the second disc, it is clear that the music's antic acrobatics actually amount to a wonderfully poised balancing act. Splinks is a 13 piece ensemble, its trio of violinists including Mary Oliver, a member of The Ig Henneman String Quartet. An additional quartet of wind players includes tenor saxophonist Tobias Delius, whose group with Han Bennink brought the 1999 LMC Experimental Music Festival to a memorable close. Double bass, guitar, synthesizer and two drummers complete the line-up. The 13th man and resident factor X is Jaap Blonk, a sound poet adept at interpreting Dada, Futurist and Fluxus texts. Solo CDs such as Flux-de-Bouche ((1993) and last year's Vocalor document that strand of his work, while other recordings have captured his improvising skills in company with musicians such as saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. Blonk's declamations and incantations are diverting in their absurdity, throwing his voice through hoops in a style that attests to both its agility and extensive range. He is decidedly a performing poet in the mould of the great Bob Cobbing, rather than an expressionistic singer like Phil Minton. Here, the texts are his own, and his instrumental compositions evidently develop from their idiosyncratic articulations. But Consensus is nonetheless a massive ensemble jazz work. Blonk's imaginative orchestration is elaborated by his still more imaginative production work, which artfully shapes a series of remarkably heterogeneous pieces into the semblance of a suite. Soloists are granted ample room: Delius stretches out on "Cyril's Nightmare"; trombonist Dieter Kuhlmann purrs and growls on "Puy La Gorge"; Angelo Verploegen's fluegelhorn and Alison Isadora's violin weave lyrical figures on "Hotel Vergetelheid". The obvious danger is that a sound poet's work will be marginalised by jazz listeners, but no one with a lively interest in contemporary jazz composition should miss Consensus." Julian Cowley in The Wire, december 1999.