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Independent music since 1986.
Independent music since 1986.
354: MARK FELDMAN. Sounding Point

354: MARK FELDMAN. Sounding Point

Intakt Recording #354/ 2021

Mark Feldman: Violin

Recorded at Studio Lulu, Brooklyn, April 2020 by Owen Mulholland.

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CHF 30.00
CHF 12.00 - CHF 30.00
CHF 30.00
Format: Compact Disc
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The New York violin virtuoso Mark Feldman presents a new solo album, a portrait of the artist now, some twenty-six years after his first solo CD. Sounding Point contains six of his own compositions as well as one piece each by Sylvie Courvoisier and Ornette Coleman. Coleman’s 1987 Peace Warriors is one of three pieces in which Feldman skillfully employs overdubs.
The American jazz critic Kevin Whitehead writes in the liner notes: “In my 30+ years following violinist Mark Feldman, no record I know shows him off better than Sounding Point. He’s made much great music in groups, but solo play gives him maximum elbow room, fully exposing the richness of his sound, his distinct personal voice, and his sensitivity to sonic texture and pacing, all at the service of musical storytelling. Take for example the shortest piece here, the improvised “Rebound.” He starts with a simple gesture, the bow’s horsehairs bouncing lightly on the strings, a gesture he periodically returns to (and ends with), between scenic flights: high notes and trills, bracing close-interval wailing on adjacent strings, a burst of percussive pizzicato, falling glissandi, whispered notes barely bowed... Fancy stuff. Yet those expansions and contractions, and the contrasting dynamics, sound natural as breathing.”

Album Credits


Cover art and graphig design: Jonas Schoder
Liner Notes: Kevin Whitehead
Photo: Dawid Laskowski

Compositions by Mark Feldman, except «As We Are» by Sylvie Courvoisier and «Peace Warriors» by Ornette Coleman. Recorded at Studio Lulu, Brooklyn, April 2020 by Owen Mulholland. Mixed by Ryan Streber. Mastered July 2020 by Scott Hull, Masterdisk Studios, NY.
Produced by Intakt Records.

Customer Reviews

Based on 36 reviews
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A
Anonymous
Downbeat Magazine

BEST ALBUMS OF 2021

MASTERPIECES ★★★★★

MARK FELDMAN
Sounding Point
Intakt

D
Daniel Spicer
Jazzwise Magazine

Violinist Mark Feldman has had an astonishingly rich and varied musical life. He cut his teeth performing classical music as a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, jammed in rock bar bands, and spent six years in Nashville playing country. Moving to New York in the 1980s, he became part of the downtown scene, struck up an association with John Zorn. served in the band of guitarist John Abercrombie and forged a fertile partnership with Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier. You can hear all these influences and more on his new solo album Sounding Point (a belated follow-up to 1994's Music For Violin Alone). As you might expect, his technical skills are phenomenal, whether he's bowing strident and precise or engaging in unusual extended techniques. On opening track, 'As We Are, he interlaces the two extremes, sliding out of firm lyricism to fizzle and flash, or using the fingers of his left hand to pluck a clipped pizzicato while simultaneously bowing.

Elsewhere, he uses overdubbing to create miniature symphonies as on his version of Ornette Coleman's 'Peace Warriors,' where he departs from the jaunty fanfare of the theme to summon sudden flurries of sirens, ghostly harmonics and even a snippet of hoedown.

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Reviews in Other Languages

J
Jean Buzelin
Cultur Jazz Magazine

Le second solo est tout aussi exceptionnel. Il est l’œuvre du violoniste Mark Feldman qui avait déjà tenté l’expérience il y a vingt-cinq ans. Le violon solo en jazz est un exercice difficile, il faut “tenir” tout un disque. Or, Feldman parvient à nous retenir, plus, nous impressionner et nous captiver de bout en bout. Il ouvre le récital sur une composition de Sylvie Courvoisier (sa compagne et partenaire habituelle) dont l’interprétation est superbe. Suivent six morceaux personnels et un d’Ornette Coleman qui, rappelons-le, jouait aussi du violon. Des techniques les plus classiques aux recherches les plus audacieuses, tout un large spectre musical se déploie pour notre ravissement.

https://www.culturejazz.fr/spip.php?article3689

J
Jean-Pierre Goffin
Jazz Mania

Mark Feldman fait partie des musiciens de la scène de l’avant-garde new-yorkaise et est surtout connu pour ses nombreuses collaborations avec John Zorn, mais aussi avec John Abercombie ou son épouse Sylvie Courvoisier. Certains se souviendront peut-être de sa participation aux « Chromatic Persuaders » aux côtés de Neal Kirkwood, Tom Raney et Lindsey Horner, que l’on vit à Liège au Lion s’Envoile dans les années nonante. Violoniste virtuose qui saisit toutes les possibilités de l’instrument, Mark Feldman ne semble jamais être aussi bouleversant que dans ses prestations en duo ou en solo, où il expose la richesse de ses sonorités, l’invention de ses improvisations mais aussi la sensibilité qu’il place dans chaque note.

Huit thèmes, dont six du violoniste, un de Sylvie Courvoisier qui introduit l’album (« As We Are ») et « Peace Warriors » de Ornette Coleman, un musicien qui l’inspire, dit-il dans les notes de pochette, et dont il aime beaucoup le jeu au violon. Toutes les techniques du violon sont utilisées par Feldman : cordes frottées, pincées, frappées avec les doigts ou avec l’archet… on y ajoute l’utilisation du multi-pistes sur plusieurs morceaux. Tout s’enchaîne avec une dextérité hors du commun au point qu’on ne décroche pas une seconde, car l’écoute de ce disque est comme une aventure pleine de surprise à chaque moment. Une touche de swing (eh oui !), pas de danse (n’oublions pas que Feldman vient du country et est fan de Johnny Cash), free jazz, élans contemporains… La musique de Feldman ne laisse pas indifférent quand on veut bien prendre le temps de s’y laisser embarquer.

Vous n’écouterez pas ce disque en épluchant vos pommes de terre, ni en lisant un roman au coin du feu, son écoute est ardue et doit être répétée pour en saisir toutes les nuances.

https://jazzmania.be/mark-feldman-sounding-point/

A
Alberto Bazzurro
All About Jazz Blog

Beata solitudine! C'è chi ci si crogiola dentro, come a rimirarsi in un eterno specchio, chi ci si perde (che è spesso un po' la stessa cosa), chi si mette alla prova più che in qualunque altra situazione o contesto. È fortunatamente questa la dimensione scelta da Mark Feldman in questo bellissimo album, inciso a Brooklyn nell'aprile 2020, operando su composizioni per lo più sue (sei su otto), con l'aggiunta di una, l'iniziale "As We Are," della moglie, la pianista Sylvie Courvoisier, e un'atra, la celeberrima "Peace Warriors" (dall'epocale In All Languages, anno di grazia 1987), di Ornette Coleman.

Beata solitudine! C'è chi ci si crogiola dentro, come a rimirarsi in un eterno specchio, chi ci si perde (che è spesso un po' la stessa cosa), chi si mette alla prova più che in qualunque altra situazione o contesto. È fortunatamente questa la dimensione scelta da Mark Feldman in questo bellissimo album, inciso a Brooklyn nell'aprile 2020, operando su composizioni per lo più sue (sei su otto), con l'aggiunta di una, l'iniziale "As We Are," della moglie, la pianista Sylvie Courvoisier, e un'atra, la celeberrima "Peace Warriors" (dall'epocale In All Languages, anno di grazia 1987), di Ornette Coleman.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/sounding-point-mark-feldman-intakt-records__14817

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