Psi
1) Peter Evans is an impenitent sonic animal, endowed with an inexhaustible physical force that allows him to maltreat his trumpets without excessive consideration of terms like “pause” or “silence”, even if completely aware of their implications. The kind of squeals, blasts and yelps (yes, he does use the voice) that we get to listen to along the two discs of Nature / Culture demonstrates the inner determination that ordinary men can only fantasize about, ungraceful hymns to the ungodly characteristics of a brute strength that blows away whoever tries to fight it. It’s portentously muscular, impulsive playing that will knock the shit out of reductionism’s pants, more akin to a natural phenomenon or a primeval energy than to the easy-to-read accents chosen by numerous jazz principals. Also, a landslide win over the spineless odes to coughing audiences and outside traffic released by those who leave a fundamental nature lying in a readily forgotten past to embrace the culture of à la mode inconsequentiality. The pun is definitely intended.
2) Peter Evans is a refined practitioner of the art of improvisation, regardless of the means of expression. The proprietor of an extraordinary technique, he’s capable of chewing up and spitting out the remnants of an impractically fast kerfuffle and, at once, maintaining the emitted pitches absolutely intelligible. That trumpet becomes, at the right moment, an outrageous broken mirror refracting every kind of tonal infringement, either sheer instrumental traits or related enhancements via perspicacious – yet never abused – utilization of extended techniques, besides a modicum of processing (through a guitar amplifier, of all things). The man pulses inside, screams remorselessly, narrates a hundred stories in the space of a minute. A maximalist minimalist focusing on the kernel of a single phrase for a long time until that very combination of notes is fed up with us, who keep waiting for it to explode in a thousand shards. Instead we reel as drugged, the skull entirely saturated, quivering from hundreds of impacting vibrations. Just fantastic.
3) Peter Evans is, purely and simply, one of the greatest free – and I mean free – musicians that I’ve heard in almost 46 years. Nature / Culture is merely a pretext, superb as it is, to invite everybody to understand the actual meaning of too lightly employed classifications such as “artist” and “musician”. In front of the mass of amazing sounds this gentleman inundated your humbled reporter with in this circumstance, a “hats off” is not enough. I’d rather kneel at the feet of infinite creativity, lowering my head in awe. Or, at least, what remains of the head. This music comes from the bare soul of a being, symbolizing its deepest aspirations while delineating a positive anger that goes well beyond words - which ultimately is what keeps our personal progress going. A chunky middle finger raised against the presumed equality professed by those unable to accept that there’s someone who’s at the forefront, barely having time to observe cheapness with paternal resignation but eventually establishing what’s best for everybody else, inclusive of the worthless ones. That "best" is located far away from enforced socialization.
Twenty stars for an epochal masterpiece.
