NEW! NICOLAS MEIER 'SILENCE TALKS' naimcd113
Posted by: Simon Drake on 30 April 2008
NEW!!!
NICOLAS MEIER 'SILENCE TALKS' naimcd113
RRP £12.98
Released 6th May 2008
Silence Talks is the latest and most eloquent musical statement from guitarist Nicolas Meier and his band. It is the sound of a band that have been playing together for more than three years and where every member brings their own distinct musical voice to the music in an ongoing musical conversation. This dialogue and empathy shines through every note of this, their third, album together as Meier’s increasingly confident compositions provide a natural launch point for some dazzling investigations of his own unique eastern-flecked jazz.
AVAILABLE FROM 6th MAY FROM ALL GOOD RECORD SHOPS, HI-FI SHOPS, THE NAIM E-STORE* & iTUNES
[BUY NOW] [MORE]
* Please log in before trying to make a purchase
NICOLAS MEIER 'SILENCE TALKS' naimcd113
RRP £12.98
Released 6th May 2008
Silence Talks is the latest and most eloquent musical statement from guitarist Nicolas Meier and his band. It is the sound of a band that have been playing together for more than three years and where every member brings their own distinct musical voice to the music in an ongoing musical conversation. This dialogue and empathy shines through every note of this, their third, album together as Meier’s increasingly confident compositions provide a natural launch point for some dazzling investigations of his own unique eastern-flecked jazz.AVAILABLE FROM 6th MAY FROM ALL GOOD RECORD SHOPS, HI-FI SHOPS, THE NAIM E-STORE* & iTUNES
[BUY NOW] [MORE]
* Please log in before trying to make a purchase
Posted on: 30 April 2008 by Simon Drake
Vortex Jazz Review!!!
By Chris Parker
April 2008
Thoroughly immersed in Turkish culture and music – his wife is from Turkey and he spends a lot of time there – but grounded in jazz, guitarist/composer Nicolas Meier has found the perfect musical collaborator in front-line partner, saxophonist Gilad Atzmon.
Complementing Meier's filigree delicacy on a wide range of guitars and related instruments (among them the Glissentar fretless guitar with eleven strings, which produces a wonderfully evocative lute/oud-like sound on this album's title-track) is Atzmon's fire and raw but controlled passion, enabling the band to race through the breathlessly exciting whirls of the likes of 'October in Ankara' and 'Dance of the Rain', but also to create more meditative, tranquil moods.
Drummer Asaf Sirkis and bassist Tom Mason provide both rollicking drive (Sirkis one of those drummers who seems effortlessly to internalise the music's rhythms, so that they pour out of him naturally, in an apparently inexhaustibly inventive stream) and subtle propulsion throughout, and with Meier and Atzmon producing a succession of intense and compulsive solos on an unsually varied selection of material (Turkish music, breezy fusion-tinged pieces, the odd whiff of flamenco etc., along with healthy doses of vibrant jazz), this is not only a worthy successor to Yuz (Naim, 2007), but a fine album in its own right.
By Chris Parker
April 2008
Thoroughly immersed in Turkish culture and music – his wife is from Turkey and he spends a lot of time there – but grounded in jazz, guitarist/composer Nicolas Meier has found the perfect musical collaborator in front-line partner, saxophonist Gilad Atzmon.
Complementing Meier's filigree delicacy on a wide range of guitars and related instruments (among them the Glissentar fretless guitar with eleven strings, which produces a wonderfully evocative lute/oud-like sound on this album's title-track) is Atzmon's fire and raw but controlled passion, enabling the band to race through the breathlessly exciting whirls of the likes of 'October in Ankara' and 'Dance of the Rain', but also to create more meditative, tranquil moods.
Drummer Asaf Sirkis and bassist Tom Mason provide both rollicking drive (Sirkis one of those drummers who seems effortlessly to internalise the music's rhythms, so that they pour out of him naturally, in an apparently inexhaustibly inventive stream) and subtle propulsion throughout, and with Meier and Atzmon producing a succession of intense and compulsive solos on an unsually varied selection of material (Turkish music, breezy fusion-tinged pieces, the odd whiff of flamenco etc., along with healthy doses of vibrant jazz), this is not only a worthy successor to Yuz (Naim, 2007), but a fine album in its own right.
Posted on: 30 April 2008 by Simon Drake
All About Jazz Review!!!
By Chris May
April 2008
Like the saxophonist/flautist Gilad Atzmon, guitarist Nicolas Meier is a British-based musician exploring the rich synergy between jazz and Middle Eastern folk musics. Atzmon's synthesis is primarily shaped by countries. Meier's focus is Turkish, and also extends to neighbouring countries, particularly to the Balkans, with added flecks of Spain.
How Swiss-born Meir's exposure to Turkish music came about is unknown—whether it was via his Turkish wife, or whether the couple met during one of Meier's frequent visits to the country. Either way, Meier's acculturation is deep: inside and at ease with Anatolia's distinctive rhythms and melodies, and eschewing the manufactured, cod-dervish “trance” thrashes to which European/Turkish fusions are prone.
Atzmon is a regular Meier collaborator, and the compelling Silence Talks is the third Meier album on which he's been featured, following Orient (Naim, 2005) and Yuz (Naim, 2007). Also featured on all three albums are Asaf Sirkis, the drummer in Atzmon's Orient House Ensemble, and bassist Tom Mason.
All seven tracks are originals and most owe as much to Turkish music as they do to jazz. Meier's rhythms and harmonies are generally within an Anatolian paradigm, as are the variations in tempo and dynamics which are features of his arrangements. The music moves gracefully back and forth between Europe and Turkey. Only the improvising aesthetic is predominantly jazz-based, with Meier and Atzmon, the key soloists, forwarding motivic rather than reiterative lines.
Meier's technique is phenomenal. Dextrous and vigorous, favoring giddily-fast fingered, serpentine single note runs, it is musicianly in the best sense of the word. Atzmon, no technical slouch either, is the more intuitive and emotional player. He wears his heart prominently on his sleeve whether on a wild dance tune like “Dance in the Rain,” the Pat Metheny-esque, flamenco-flavored “Deja Vu,” or a gently-paced ballad like “Deniz's Love.”
Mostly, Atzmon plays warm-going-on-hot vocalized saxophone, but he contributes a lovely clarinet solo to the delicate title track. Guest clarinetist Giorgio Serci shines as brightly on the closing “A Rose in the Pyrenees.” Sirkis and Mason stoke the fire with weight and laser-precision.
A rewarding listen for anyone who doesn't think jazz stops east of the Hudson or west of San Francisco bay.
By Chris May
April 2008
Like the saxophonist/flautist Gilad Atzmon, guitarist Nicolas Meier is a British-based musician exploring the rich synergy between jazz and Middle Eastern folk musics. Atzmon's synthesis is primarily shaped by countries. Meier's focus is Turkish, and also extends to neighbouring countries, particularly to the Balkans, with added flecks of Spain.
How Swiss-born Meir's exposure to Turkish music came about is unknown—whether it was via his Turkish wife, or whether the couple met during one of Meier's frequent visits to the country. Either way, Meier's acculturation is deep: inside and at ease with Anatolia's distinctive rhythms and melodies, and eschewing the manufactured, cod-dervish “trance” thrashes to which European/Turkish fusions are prone.
Atzmon is a regular Meier collaborator, and the compelling Silence Talks is the third Meier album on which he's been featured, following Orient (Naim, 2005) and Yuz (Naim, 2007). Also featured on all three albums are Asaf Sirkis, the drummer in Atzmon's Orient House Ensemble, and bassist Tom Mason.
All seven tracks are originals and most owe as much to Turkish music as they do to jazz. Meier's rhythms and harmonies are generally within an Anatolian paradigm, as are the variations in tempo and dynamics which are features of his arrangements. The music moves gracefully back and forth between Europe and Turkey. Only the improvising aesthetic is predominantly jazz-based, with Meier and Atzmon, the key soloists, forwarding motivic rather than reiterative lines.
Meier's technique is phenomenal. Dextrous and vigorous, favoring giddily-fast fingered, serpentine single note runs, it is musicianly in the best sense of the word. Atzmon, no technical slouch either, is the more intuitive and emotional player. He wears his heart prominently on his sleeve whether on a wild dance tune like “Dance in the Rain,” the Pat Metheny-esque, flamenco-flavored “Deja Vu,” or a gently-paced ballad like “Deniz's Love.”
Mostly, Atzmon plays warm-going-on-hot vocalized saxophone, but he contributes a lovely clarinet solo to the delicate title track. Guest clarinetist Giorgio Serci shines as brightly on the closing “A Rose in the Pyrenees.” Sirkis and Mason stoke the fire with weight and laser-precision.
A rewarding listen for anyone who doesn't think jazz stops east of the Hudson or west of San Francisco bay.
Posted on: 30 April 2008 by Simon Drake
Jazzwise Review!!!
By Andy Robson
May 2008
This Nicolas Meier’s third with this band, following Orient and Yuz. Fine as those releases were, the new album marks a distinct tightening of the sound and move forward with the writing. Gone are some of the world music vagaries, gone are the occasional cinematic soundscapes, gone indeed are many Metheny-esque leanings; still intact are the rich influences – flamenco, Turkish, and most obviously through Atzmon and Sirkis, the middle eastern themes.
Within Silence Talks these different flavours are not as abruptly shoehorned together as before. Instead this band is so relaxed with itself and its material that the musicians now move organically from one language to another. No longer are we on a Cook’s tour of musics, we are now at home in one world: the Nicolas Meier band. Paradoxically, this inner harmony – to these western ears at least – has moved the music to darker (Meier would say deeper) places, especially on the emotive title track, with its deeply slurred notes, cymbal splashes and melancholic tones. The emotional heart of the album though is the more upbeat ‘Dance Of The Rain’, based on a Turkish tune, which features an extraordinary (but when does he ever do ordinary?) extended Atzmon meditation that wrings a rich array of emotions from the listener. If you were nit picking you could say that there aren’t quite the range of colours of Yuz, and there are moments of Knopfler-ish noodling, but overall Silence Talks speaks volumes for the talents of this multi-faceted band.
By Andy Robson
May 2008
This Nicolas Meier’s third with this band, following Orient and Yuz. Fine as those releases were, the new album marks a distinct tightening of the sound and move forward with the writing. Gone are some of the world music vagaries, gone are the occasional cinematic soundscapes, gone indeed are many Metheny-esque leanings; still intact are the rich influences – flamenco, Turkish, and most obviously through Atzmon and Sirkis, the middle eastern themes.
Within Silence Talks these different flavours are not as abruptly shoehorned together as before. Instead this band is so relaxed with itself and its material that the musicians now move organically from one language to another. No longer are we on a Cook’s tour of musics, we are now at home in one world: the Nicolas Meier band. Paradoxically, this inner harmony – to these western ears at least – has moved the music to darker (Meier would say deeper) places, especially on the emotive title track, with its deeply slurred notes, cymbal splashes and melancholic tones. The emotional heart of the album though is the more upbeat ‘Dance Of The Rain’, based on a Turkish tune, which features an extraordinary (but when does he ever do ordinary?) extended Atzmon meditation that wrings a rich array of emotions from the listener. If you were nit picking you could say that there aren’t quite the range of colours of Yuz, and there are moments of Knopfler-ish noodling, but overall Silence Talks speaks volumes for the talents of this multi-faceted band.
Posted on: 30 April 2008 by Simon Drake
The Times Review!!!
By John Bungey
****
Since John McLaughlin melted frets with the Mahavishnu Orchestra we have become used to frenetic guitar-led groups. None, however, quite mixes styles and sounds like that of Meier, a Swiss player as happy in flamenco and Arab melodies as he is in Western jazz. His travel-mate in these intercontinental sorties is Gilad Atzmon, whose passionate saxophone often steals the show. Asaf Sirkis stokes the fires on drums.
Typical of the eclecticism, October in Ankara starts out with a Turkish melody before a bluesy solo from Atzmon leads to something close to a rock riff from the rhythm section at the climax. It's not all fireworks, though, as guitar and clarinet co-mingle in the eloquent brooding of A Rose in the Pyrénées.
By John Bungey
****
Since John McLaughlin melted frets with the Mahavishnu Orchestra we have become used to frenetic guitar-led groups. None, however, quite mixes styles and sounds like that of Meier, a Swiss player as happy in flamenco and Arab melodies as he is in Western jazz. His travel-mate in these intercontinental sorties is Gilad Atzmon, whose passionate saxophone often steals the show. Asaf Sirkis stokes the fires on drums.
Typical of the eclecticism, October in Ankara starts out with a Turkish melody before a bluesy solo from Atzmon leads to something close to a rock riff from the rhythm section at the climax. It's not all fireworks, though, as guitar and clarinet co-mingle in the eloquent brooding of A Rose in the Pyrénées.
Posted on: 07 May 2008 by Simon Drake
Financial Times Review!!!
Mike Hobart
May 3rd, 2008
The cross-curents of he American jazz and the Eastern Mediterranean swirl round this fine, all original third album from UK-based Swiss guitarist's regular quartet.
Meier is equally adept on clean-tone fusion guitar and the emotionally resonant Turkish Glissentar and baglama. The compositions are strongly rooted in the scales and melodies of the Middle East but the principal soloist, saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, adds the fier, multi-noted phrasing of classic modern jazz.
Mike Hobart
May 3rd, 2008
The cross-curents of he American jazz and the Eastern Mediterranean swirl round this fine, all original third album from UK-based Swiss guitarist's regular quartet.
Meier is equally adept on clean-tone fusion guitar and the emotionally resonant Turkish Glissentar and baglama. The compositions are strongly rooted in the scales and melodies of the Middle East but the principal soloist, saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, adds the fier, multi-noted phrasing of classic modern jazz.
Posted on: 16 May 2008 by Simon Drake
Metro, London Review!!!
Friday 25th Aprill 2008
Nicolas Meier’s Silence Talks (Naim) is deeply imbued with the dance rhythms and folk melodies of Turkey, the native land of the Swiss-born guitarist’s wife. Meier is an unusual figure – how many musicians can you name who play both jazz and full-on heavy metal? His new quartet album falls unambiguously at the world music end of the jazz spectrum, blending Oriental sounds with virtuosic flamenco flourishes on the likes of Turquoise. Great Methenyesque fusion playing from Meier (on an 11-string fretless gissentar among other things) and inspired contributions from his regular collaborators make this an unalloyed pleasure.
Friday 25th Aprill 2008
Nicolas Meier’s Silence Talks (Naim) is deeply imbued with the dance rhythms and folk melodies of Turkey, the native land of the Swiss-born guitarist’s wife. Meier is an unusual figure – how many musicians can you name who play both jazz and full-on heavy metal? His new quartet album falls unambiguously at the world music end of the jazz spectrum, blending Oriental sounds with virtuosic flamenco flourishes on the likes of Turquoise. Great Methenyesque fusion playing from Meier (on an 11-string fretless gissentar among other things) and inspired contributions from his regular collaborators make this an unalloyed pleasure.
Posted on: 16 May 2008 by Simon Drake
The Guardian Review!!!
Friday 16th May 2008
By John Fordham
****
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2280145,00.html
Three years ago, UK-resident Swiss guitarist Meier made his powerful world-jazz debut Orient, a set strongly featuring Turkish music plus the input of Israelis Gilad Atzmon (sax/clarinet) and Asaf Sirkis (drums). Meier has been steadily shifting his composing toward more explicitly Turkish references (and less of his early world-music, Pat Metheny feel), and this mostly excellent set furthers that process - but with the jazz edge still very sharp.
Even John McLaughlin admirers might raise an eyebrow at Meier's flying acoustic playing on the frenetic whirl of October in Ankara, but it's the subtle segue of the Turkish dance groove into a steadily ticking jazz-funk pulse for Atzmon's soprano-sax arrival that really signals the sensitivity of Meier's tastes. Atzmon's solo, building to whooping ecstasy, is a tour de force, but he's at his most emotionally irresistible on clarinet - warm and hauntingly tender before Meier's startlingly vocal-toned solo on the title track, and with close to a sob in the tone on the lyrical Metheny-like ballad A Rose in the Pyrenees. There could perhaps have been fewer build-ups to an ecstatic improvised thrash, but for the most part Silence Talks is a musically fresh and beautifully recorded unplugged triumph.
Friday 16th May 2008
By John Fordham
****
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2280145,00.html
Three years ago, UK-resident Swiss guitarist Meier made his powerful world-jazz debut Orient, a set strongly featuring Turkish music plus the input of Israelis Gilad Atzmon (sax/clarinet) and Asaf Sirkis (drums). Meier has been steadily shifting his composing toward more explicitly Turkish references (and less of his early world-music, Pat Metheny feel), and this mostly excellent set furthers that process - but with the jazz edge still very sharp.
Even John McLaughlin admirers might raise an eyebrow at Meier's flying acoustic playing on the frenetic whirl of October in Ankara, but it's the subtle segue of the Turkish dance groove into a steadily ticking jazz-funk pulse for Atzmon's soprano-sax arrival that really signals the sensitivity of Meier's tastes. Atzmon's solo, building to whooping ecstasy, is a tour de force, but he's at his most emotionally irresistible on clarinet - warm and hauntingly tender before Meier's startlingly vocal-toned solo on the title track, and with close to a sob in the tone on the lyrical Metheny-like ballad A Rose in the Pyrenees. There could perhaps have been fewer build-ups to an ecstatic improvised thrash, but for the most part Silence Talks is a musically fresh and beautifully recorded unplugged triumph.
Posted on: 16 May 2008 by Lontano
Simon - congratulations on the good reviews for this disc. I have enjoyed listening to my copy of this album.
Adrian
Adrian
Posted on: 19 May 2008 by Simon Drake
quote:Originally posted by Lontano:
Simon - congratulations on the good reviews for this disc. I have enjoyed listening to my copy of this album.
Adrian
Thanks Adrian! Very kind of you to say so - and there's plenty more to come!
S
Posted on: 19 May 2008 by Simon Drake
Guitarist Magazine Review!!!
June 2008 Issue
****
This UK-based Swiss guitarist’s new album is aspirited world/jazz album, which evokes the heady days of seventies fusion. Exquisitely recorded, the four-piece band create a big sound with Nicolas’s (nylon-string) guitar taking centre stage as he effortlessly burns or languishes over the varied tempos and moods. (JS)
June 2008 Issue
****
This UK-based Swiss guitarist’s new album is aspirited world/jazz album, which evokes the heady days of seventies fusion. Exquisitely recorded, the four-piece band create a big sound with Nicolas’s (nylon-string) guitar taking centre stage as he effortlessly burns or languishes over the varied tempos and moods. (JS)
Posted on: 20 May 2008 by Simon Drake
The Scotsman Review!!!
20th May 2008
***
NICOLAS Meier is a Swiss guitarist resident in London, but his music is strongly marked by a passion for the music of Turkey (his wife is Turkish) and the Middle East. He is abetted in that by the presence in his band of Israeli saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and drummer Asaf Sirkis, with Tom Mason completing a tightly knit quartet. The various influences in Meier's compositions seem more fully integrated than on his earlier discs, and are explored at length. The guitarist has shed some of the more overt Metheny-derived directions in his playing, and continues to develop an individual voice on a range of acoustic guitars, including the "glissenar", a fretless 11-string instrument used to atmospheric effect on the title track.
20th May 2008
***
NICOLAS Meier is a Swiss guitarist resident in London, but his music is strongly marked by a passion for the music of Turkey (his wife is Turkish) and the Middle East. He is abetted in that by the presence in his band of Israeli saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and drummer Asaf Sirkis, with Tom Mason completing a tightly knit quartet. The various influences in Meier's compositions seem more fully integrated than on his earlier discs, and are explored at length. The guitarist has shed some of the more overt Metheny-derived directions in his playing, and continues to develop an individual voice on a range of acoustic guitars, including the "glissenar", a fretless 11-string instrument used to atmospheric effect on the title track.
Posted on: 27 May 2008 by Simon Drake
GUITAR TECHNIQUES REVIEW!!!
June 2008 Issue
Nicolas Meier
Silence Talks
Naim
***
Swiss born Nicolas Meier has been turning heads in music circles over the past twelve months with his quirky, Middle Eastern take on modern jazz guitar. His chosen instrument ranges between fretted and fretless nylon string guitars, with the occasional steel string thrown in for good measure. Meier’s compositions are all very atmospheric. Aided and abetted by the saxophone of Gilad Atzmon, with the drums and bass of Asaf Sirkis and Tom Mason respectively, they roam freely between the dreamy and lyrical to ‘cut ‘em off at the pass’ improvised frenzy. All of the tunes here display overt Turkish and he has spent time there, so he’s obviously been soaking up a lot of the culture. Stylistically, there is a mix of flamenco, eastern and western influences at work in Meier’s fiery playing, which add together to make something genuinely new and invigorating. It’s a heady mix, to be sure, but one that never loses its edge.
June 2008 Issue
Nicolas Meier
Silence Talks
Naim
***
Swiss born Nicolas Meier has been turning heads in music circles over the past twelve months with his quirky, Middle Eastern take on modern jazz guitar. His chosen instrument ranges between fretted and fretless nylon string guitars, with the occasional steel string thrown in for good measure. Meier’s compositions are all very atmospheric. Aided and abetted by the saxophone of Gilad Atzmon, with the drums and bass of Asaf Sirkis and Tom Mason respectively, they roam freely between the dreamy and lyrical to ‘cut ‘em off at the pass’ improvised frenzy. All of the tunes here display overt Turkish and he has spent time there, so he’s obviously been soaking up a lot of the culture. Stylistically, there is a mix of flamenco, eastern and western influences at work in Meier’s fiery playing, which add together to make something genuinely new and invigorating. It’s a heady mix, to be sure, but one that never loses its edge.