That Wasnt a Dream＜限定盤＞

ピノ・パラディーノとブレイク・ミルズが、New Deal/impulse!から4年ぶりとなる第2作目のコラボレーション・アルバムをリリース!
ベーシストのピノ・パラディーノ(ディアンジェロ、ナイン・インチ・ネイルズ、エリカ・バドゥ、ジョン・メイヤー)とギタリスト兼プロデューサーのブレイク・ミルズ(アラバマ・シェイクス、ボブ・ディラン、フィオナ・アップル、パフュームジーニアス)が再結成!
2021年リリースした『Notes With Attachments』で初めて探求した深いケミストリーを土台に、4年ぶりの本作では瞑想的で境界を押し広げる音の世界へと拡張している。作曲と即興、メロディと抽象の境界線が曖昧になっている。曖昧さ、抑制、そして耳を澄ますことの根本的な美しさによって定義されたプロジェクトである。
前作がスタジオや都市をまたいでレコーディングされたのに対し、本作は、ミルズが2018年から指揮を執るサウンド・シティ・スタジオの伝説的なスタジオAで2カ月にわたってレコーディングされた。このセッションには新旧のコラボレーターが参加し、特にサム・ゲンデルは『ノーツ・ウィズ・アタッチメンツ』を通して演奏し、『ザット・ワズント・ア・ドリーム』のほぼ全トラックの仕上げに貢献した。
しかし結局のところ、このアルバムは、パラディーノとミルズとの核となる関係を深めたように感じられるものとして完成。
2021年のデビュー作『ノーツ・ウィズ・アタッチメンツ』に続くもので、ピッチフォーク誌は 「リード・パフォーマーなど存在しない世界を想像する、完璧なコラボレーターのサウンド」と評している。
Sam Gendel、Abe Rounds、Steve Jordan、Abe Rounds、Chris Dave、Rocco Palladino、Chris Dave、Dory Bavarskyなども参加。

The partnership of guitarist Blake Mills and bassist Pino Palladino continues four years after 2021s Notes with Attachments, and That Wasnt a Dream is markedly different. Wherein the former album was cut in several cities and studios, this one was recorded entirely at Studio Citys Studio A. Further is the introduction of the fretless baritone sustainer guitar, which Mills developed with luthier Duncan Price in 2021. Hes used it sparingly in sessions, and on the road with Joni Mitchell, but never on an entire project. Given its physical construction, the fretless instrument is a challenge to control -- its quite difficult to form consistently pitched chords, for instance. Its sound, according to Mills, is "between a woodwind, brass, and bowed string instrument." Guests -- drummer Chris Dave and saxophonist Sam Gendel, who make up their touring band, and Rocco Palladino -- assist in weaving and winding a markedly adventurous music that cuts across modern jazz, international folk forms, funk, groove, and textured ambience in a minimal, melodic, warmly dissonant, atmospheric whole. Opener "Contour" could easily have appeared on Elements (bassist Mark Egan and drummer/percussionist Danny Gottlieb) 1988 album Illumination, save for its loosely architected harmonic interplay and layered rhythms from contemporary jazz and Brazilian MPB music. The strange second half of "I Laugh in the Mouth of the Lion" finds Gendel weaving in wind harps and synth pads. "Somnambulista" begins with contrapuntal exchanges between the pair, alongside barely audible, wordless vocals in an emergent jazz melody that then employs a vamp from Andean folk music, as well as aggressive, syncopated tom-toms. Palladinos solo takes it to another harmonic level. "Taka" is introduced by electronic buzzes, slapped bass, and mysterious funk vamps. Palladino and Mills twin on the tight vamp, then build a groove-laden tension that is never released. The albums centerpiece, "Heat Sink," is a 14-minute fantasia that plumbs the depth of modern jazz, post-bop, South American and Latin folk styles, and sophisticated improvisation. They are aided by Rocco playing bass. A layered, two-note bass vamp is at the tunes core as Mills offers a painterly solo. Basses and twinned guitars mirror one another while hovering on the vamp before they begin to delineate with counterpoint, gentle dissonance, tension, expansive harmony, and slippery rhythms. As the dynamic increases, the vamp is a supportive undercarriage for war, quirky guitar, electric piano, and bass interplay. There are funky and bluesy asides that fold into the primary, labyrinthine composition; its shifts and changes offer striking fluidity in a canny melodic sensibility that ultimately transforms into a hushed, dissonant lullaby. That Wasnt a Dream is an unexpected, welcome surprise. Its ambitious tonal, textural, and harmonic palettes are intricately tied in a series of sonically sophisticated compositions reflecting the endless possibilities for 21st century jazz in improvisation, aesthetic inclusion, and production. ~ Thom Jurek