Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier - Oblivia

We Told The Orchestra We Could Do It.

Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier are a violinist and pianist, respectively, duo. This is another record that the duo have released under John Zorn's Tzadik Record Label. From my knowledge of the duo's previous work, this is their second collaboration together.

The music, despite the fact that this is just two people and is, from what I can tell, done live in the studio, this is not just classical. This album moves through elements of jazz, classical, and avant-garde, sometimes all in the course of a single track. The music shifts around a lot, sometimes going very slow and haunting, sometimes wild and frantic sounding, so it's not as simple as what someone taking a violinist and pianist and putting them into a room might expect to hear, but then again, what else would you expect since it's coming out on John Zorn's record label.

Tracks on this record range from short, spastic minute long songs to epic pieces that seem more like the duo jamming. Depending on your view of jams on recording ultimately could effect how you even listen to this record, favorably or unfavorably, but that was probably obvious. Having said all this, I won't lie and tell you that I have any idea as to what's going on in some of these tracks, Oblivia De Oblivion.

I found this release a bit easier to grasp when I approached it as a single piece rather than smaller individual tracks, but that's just me. Whether or not this was composed as a single piece or not is unknown to me, but it certainly made the experience a bit more cohesive sounding, to me anyway. The album flowed a bit more for me when I did approach as a single piece, but single tracks still managed to feel a bit more fulfilling than others, both ways I kind of interpreted it, tracks like the finale, Sous Un Rêve Huileux or the second track, Dunes, still managed to sound better than others.

Overall this is an odd one, and maybe a bit out of the blue, but does have it's moments. This is not the most typical listen for me, but it did provide something different and at times, was very enjoyable. If you're into more abstract forms of classical music, definitely check this one out.

Overall Score: 6

Highlights: Purveyors, Double Windsor, Sous Un Rêve Huileux