Sound Liberation

Sound Liberation – Open Up Your Ears And Get Some
2008, col legno Beteiligun

New York City’s own Sound Liberation isn’t just the name of a band, but a musical philosophy that runs all through their second album, Open Up Your Ears And Get Some. Classical, Jazz, Rock, Rap, Folk and anything else you can find in the musical cupboard might just show up in one of the thirteen tracks presented here. Sound Liberation has been together since 1996, playing such venerable NYC clubs as Joe’s Pub, The Cutting Room, The Knitting Factory and The Blue Note. They’ve also played some prestigious gigs around the globe, including the Blaine Jazz Festival (Blaine, Washington); the Etna Music Festival (Catania, Sicily); The Outreach Festival (Schwaz, Austria) and the Peekaboo Festival of New Music and Theater.

You just can't put a name or definition on what Sound Liberation does on Open Up Your Ears And Get Some. Listeners who don't know the score will come away thinking Sound Liberation is the most unfocused band they've ever heard. I picture the members of Sound Liberation sitting around in a musical writer's circle playing musical truth or dare, because no genre boundary is respected or detected here. Violin and cello intermix with electric guitar, flute, drums, bass and a host of other instrumental touches to create a recording as alive as creation itself. The album opens with Prelude 21st Century, a funk laden Baroque Rock instrumental that sounds like it might have been culled from an old silent film and married to its more modern elements. Which Of The Days is a hard-core rap tune done in organic instrumentation including Jethro Tull style flute riffs. Ashes' early moments revolve around a bass/cello duet that sounds like the product of a Steve Howe/Yo-Yo Ma collaboration.

Sound Liberation gets to rock out a tad with Oh Come To The Window, complete with lyric Italian vocal line. Like I said, no boundaries respected or detected. Be to check out Mozart and 21st Century Klezmer, one of the oddest and most amusing pieces I've heard since starting this blog over a year ago. Other highlights include the impressionist flavor of Infinity, the faux Flamenco of Unutterable and the Techno flavored Let Go Of My Soul.

Sound Liberation creates a widely variable and original tableau on Open Up Your Ears And Get Some. You can't help but be intrigued by such an ambitious and original cycle of songs. Even if you end up not liking the album, you won't feel cheated. Sound Liberation always keeps things new and interesting.


- wildy's world

"Barring the obvious exceptions, much of 21st century composition appears to be thinning in significance, but this might be about to change. Gene Pritsker is one of a very spare handful of composers effecting this change, and evidence of this is found in the Varieties of Religious Experiences Suite, a towering instrumental extraction from his opera of the same name."
- Raul d'Gama Rose
- allaboutjazz.com

"The VRE Suite," as it is also referred to, presents a microcosmic version of the schematics of William James and his philosophy of pragmatism“Sound Liberation are afraid of nothing, mixing rhythm and genre to the point where the listener simply gives up on labels and enjoys the ride!....grab this indie gem now!” - RootdownFM.com - RootdownFM.com

A Band With A Philosophy

Music of Gene Pritsker: Sound Liberation – Open up your ears and get some. Col Legno records.

I’ve been a follower of the Sound Liberation band for 12 years, since their inception in 1996. However, I have never seen as attractive and accomplished a CD as their latest from the Austrian company Col Legno. Col Legno has historically handled what might be termed “experimental new music” of primarily the European variety, with a little Ives and John Cage mixed in. A classics mixed with hip-hop album seems for them a stretch although, of late, they have indicated a desire and even a necessity to change their focus with changing times.

Perhaps Sound Liberation is just the right opportunity for them to express their new direction. A glorious result it truly is, enhanced by the exceptional Col Legno CD graphics and packaging. This is the best Sound Liberation product so far.

There is something for every kind of music enthusiast in this album. This is part of the Sound Liberation philosophy. Gene Pritsker is not the type to sit around wondering if his musical taste is relevant to today’s society. Instead, he includes and transforms all his varied musical interests into something that practically everybody will like and which has an important educational component to it as well. How many young people going to clubs, even jazz clubs today, are likely to hear Brahms and Mozart, however they are orchestrated? Certainly they do with Sound Lib.

Since there are so many fascinating cuts on this album, I will simply describe my favorites. The greatest song on the entire album is an original one, with words and music by Gene Pritsker called “Nerve Crashes.” It is an amazing tour-de-force of harmonic and rhythmic writing. Harmonically it explores new places in progression. Pritsker “gets away with this” and still has, essentially, a pop song. Likewise, the rhythms are unusual. There are unexpected accents (syncopations) and phrases going over bar lines that harken back to one of Pritsker’s idols, Frank Zappa. However, most of it is in 4/4, as is much of his music, so this means that since the accentuation is basically over the bar lines, the music is very playable and countable. Very clever. You should buy this CD just to hear “Nerve Crashes” alone.

How would you like a little unadulterated Don Giovianni? Well, Don Giovanni was a great adulterer and we do have a bit of a stretch here, with electric guitar accompaniment to the aria “Deh vieni alla finestra” (“Oh, Come to the Window”) from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This is sung by the inimitable Sound Lib. sidekick Charles Coleman, nicknamed “Das Crooner,” a baritone who has a fine voice and classy stage presence. Pritsker usually insists that Coleman wear a full tuxedo on stage. The classical singing and dress add a valuable element of contrast. Coleman, indeed, puts the “class” in classical.

But, how about a little Chopin? OK, let’s take the first cut, “Prelude 21st Century” based on Frederic Chopin’s piano “Prelude in E minor” as performed by Dave Gotay on the cello, to electric guitar accompaniment. Gotay also gets to rap, one of his other enthusiasms. Pritsker, himself, is a facile rapper, in addition to his other fine performance skills on guitar, including some adept classical work in yet another piece, “Mozart and 21st Century Klezmer” where he pairs with the expert playing of clarinetist Mychio Suzuki, a new music veteran, in a pop rendition of Mozart’s “Quintet for clarinet and string quartet” K. 581.

One great aspect of this album is that the classical pieces from which the tunes are derived are all carefully indicated in the graphically engaging program notes. There is also significant contrast between more straightforward popular songs like “Which of the Days” and “What Shall I Do,” both sung convincingly by Chanda Rule and cuts that feature instrumentals and jazz improvisation, such as “Ashes” and “Let Go of My Soul.” I hear a bit of a Miles Davis influence in the latter, from the synth accompaniment to the trumpet work of Franz Hackl.

It should be mentioned that this CD and the recent work of the Sound Liberation Players has been greatly enhanced, in my opinion, by the inclusion of acoustic instruments and more of a jazz influence than was present in their work of, say, around the year 2000, when they were more a rap-rock type band. Franz Hackl, trumpet and Vessko Gellev, violins as well as Mychio Suzuki on clarinet add to this variety.

As an example, we should mention their signature number, “Infinity,” based on Brahms’ Symphony #4. It now has a jazzier feel than in earlier days and includes trumpet work, while still retaining the surefire poise of “Das Crooner” Charles Coleman. This is usually enough to get close to a standing ovation at a club. Well, expectedly, Brahms is a pretty good composer (smiley face here). However, nowadays, particularly with the state of music e - New Music Connoisseur

"The freedom of sounds, as the name suggests, is truly implemented in a masterful way"

- Thorsten Bendnarz - Jazzethic Magazine, August '08

"The future belongs to Sound Liberation . . . even if takes a while to ge there"

- Frank Bender- Ragazzi online magazine, March '09

“Never had I heard Pritsker try to put all these elements together in one composition. Here, in Money, he does, and it is the apotheosis of his form. This is the best Pritsker work I have ever heard. We can only hope that Gene Pritsker, in his perfection of this very personal and idiosyncratic form and the strength of his exceptional talent, can reach the very pinnacle of the compositional mound.”

- - Joseph Pehrson, The Music Connoisseur, Fall 2006

Gene’s rap songs are clever, complex, and very interesting musically, exactly what the market stuff is not. - Barry L. Cohen - The Music Connoisseur

The cover of this demo shows the two rappers behind bars, heads hanging down. Lighten up guys, I say, since as I peruse the liner notes, I see words like "cello" and "flute" next to people's names. What?!? A rap disc with cello and flute?!? Yo G, straight up. Perhaps it's surprising because I've never really heard rap over classically infused music, and I have to admit, it's pretty interesting. Sound Liberation have been at it a few years now, and if this disc is any indication, they seem to be in peak form. The juxtaposition of rapping over classical or jazz with hip-hop beats opens doors to improvisation; further, the ban - - Bill Ribas - NY Rock Street Beat

Wow, indie rap. Two verbose MCs cram in as many syllables as they can between every measure of music. The music on "Loan Shark" includes acoustic guitar and synth strings repeating a minor key figure. "Which of the Days" is a nice pimp-jam with sweet beats and, uh, flute and bass. Not sure how convincing the "I-had-it-hard" lyrics are but the rhymes are good and the music is well produced. "No Truth" adds classical piano and strings to the funky mix. The lyrical flows are modern and intriguing. "Money" is this crew's response to Wu-Tang's "C.R.E.A.M." "What Shall I Do" flows over a, um, disco music bed. Disco ballad. Cool. "Rap Sense" has the fattest beat and wonders, "Can a MC get a lap dance?" Very cool.

- Ian C. Stewart - AutoReverse

- Ian C. Stewart - AutoReverse