REVIEW: Bill McBirnie — Outside the Maze (LP)
My idea of a flute player is Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson so I admit I felt a little out of my depth reviewing Bill McBirnie, Bill Gilliam, and Eugene Martynec’s latest release Outside the Maze. I didn’t need to worry. The improv approaches the aforementioned trio adopts for the album’s ten songs is an unmitigated success thanks to the musician’s willingness to take chances, listen to what their peers are doing, and respond accordingly. These are undoubtedly virtuosos, but McBirnie’s flute, Martynec’s electroacoustic musings, and Gillam’s piano speak directly to listeners without ever sacrificing their artistic self-respect or losing listeners, They, as the cliché goes, play as one and check their egos at the door.
URL: http://www.extremeflute.com/
You’d have to check your ego at the door to pull this off. The title song illustrates how music this esoteric requires each of the musicians involved to be on the proverbial same page with one another or else the experiment falls apart. “Outside the Maze” never settles in one place for long. McBirnie, Gilliam, and Martynec are always searching for new ways to express the inexpressible. I especially enjoy how here, and elsewhere, Martynec’s electroacoustic work acts as a musical exclamation point for the performances that gives each one added flair. He does that here without ever diverting the listener’s attention from McBirnie and Gilliam’s work.
The brief but buoyant “Phosphene Delight” tantalizes me with its suggestiveness. It hits the listener in bursts of McBirnie’s flute with the other two musicians acting as more than capable foes for his playing. “Orbital Resonances” share similarity. I hear a galactic quality, however, underlying the track that’s missing from its predecessors. McBirnie, Gilliam, and Martynec do a superb job invoking the immensity of the moment. Gilliam, in particular, shines and imbues the song with a minor key flavor that enhances its gravitas.
“Cicada Musings” may be the album’s real sleeper. Few, if any, of the other track lives up to the promise behind its title quite as well as this; nature is alive and the three piece fully expand on that moment complete with purported sound fx as well. The sound effects near the song’s beginning help accentuate the mood. “Lucent Dance” finds Martynec taking the initial lead and McBirnie soon follows him down the rabbit hole. Martynec’s musicianship over comes much. He knows when to make his contribitions, step back and Martiniex scattered flashes of color throughout the performance certain to linger for me anytime I hear.
Outside the Maze defies easy description. It isn’t a closed experience, however, as it is clear that no matter, they busied themselves with focusing it toward the widest possible audience without losing them along the way. It isn’t the first time these three have worked together and it will not be the last. They share something that too few musicians ever experience. Their willingness to see how far they can push their ideas of composition before snapping is fascinating to me. It’s a quality that will serve them well in any other project as it does here.
Colin Jordan
