Jan Garbarek Group: It's OK To Listen To The Gray Voice

ECM 1294 Date: 84-12-??

Tracks:

  1. White noise of forgetfulness (8:22)
  2. The crossing place (9:10)
  3. One day in March I go down to the sea and listen (5:32)
  4. Mission: to be where I am (8:08)
  5. It's OK to phone the island that is a mirage (5:49)
  6. It's OK to listen to the gray voice (4:41)
  7. I'm the knife-thrower's partner (0:54)
In the top drawer of "straighter" Garbarek albums. Torn's picturesque guitar provides an excellent backdrop to Garbarek, and turns in a few imaginative scorching solos. Not just a Frisell copyist, Torn has a unique variant of "the twang", and he uses a wider variety of tone than Frisell. To me, the album has a little more of the colour and softness of Paths, Prints, than the colder edge of Wayfarer.

I've heard numerous people enthuse about the track Mission: to be where I am; this is the most "straight" piece on the album, and does indeed have a very memorable theme. However, to me it's always seemed a little out of place: as in Paths, Prints and Wayfarer, the other tracks use colour and space to paint pictures; Mission just doesn't have that effect at all. Nonetheless, its straightforwardness is something that Garbarek has returned to more and more in his "straight" albums since. I find it hard to choose a favourite track here. White noise of forgetfulness, which is again monothematic but more ethereal competes for my vote with One day in march I go down to the sea and listen (with a wonderful Torn solo) and the moody linked pair It's OK to listen to the gray voice and It's OK to phone the island that is a mirage, the former reminiscent of Considering the Snail (from Wayfarer), the latter built on a simple ascending cycle with a repeated theme that begins quietly on synth, but ends up with Garbarek screaming it out in ever-higher registers.

After ...Gray Voice, Garbarek has stopped using guitarists, and much as I still like what he does, I miss them. What I think of as the "Garbarek guitar trilogy" has a special meaning for me. (I don't include his albums with Connors for historical reasons, nor his albums with Towner or Abercrombie because they inhabit a very different sphere.)

Highly recommended.

(Go to Jan Garbarek album list)