Peuker8: Radiance
WhyPlayJazz

An engrossing fusion of jazz and classical elements, Radiance is guitarist Paul Peuker's third Peuker8 album. The guitarist ambitiously weaves violin, viola, and cello and, on two pieces, the stentorian voice of baritone Konstantin Ingenpaß into modern jazz-styled compositions whose notated passages retain space for individual expression. It helps greatly that Peuker surrounded himself on the date with musicians so clearly sympathetic to his goals for the project: pianist Marius Moritz, saxophonist/clarinetist Mark Weschenfelder, bassist Eugen Rolnik, drummer Florian Lauer, and the aforementioned string players, violinist Alina Gropper, violist Filip Sommer, and cellist Elisabeth Coudoux.

In its carefully considered sequencing, Radiance creates the impression of a song-cycle or even concept album; bolstering that impression of connectedness are leitmotifs. A powerful urgency pushes the album forward, the music swelling in force and dynamism as each piece advances into the next; consistent with the concept album design, the opening “Radiance I” functions as something of an overture, and there are moments during the eleven-track set when the character of a piece shifts smoothly between classical and jazz (witness the segue from classical to breezy swing that occurs within “The Core,” for instance).

On the classical side, Górecki's Symphony No. 3 and Mahler's second symphony are invoked as references (in fact, in the two vocal settings, Peuker, like Mahler, includes modified versions of texts from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”); in jazz terms, a few cuts seem cut from the M-Base cloth, with Peuker replicating Steve Coleman's penchant for complex rhythms, bold key changes, and intricate polyphony (even if Weschenfelder's mellifluous contributions to “Radiance II” evoke Greg Osby more than Coleman).

As the sole composer, Peuker is clearly in charge; as a player, however, he largely treats himself as a group member of no greater importance than the others. That said, there are a few tracks where his electric's front and center (e.g., the delicate solo meditation “Is This The End?”), even if Radiance largely impresses as an ensemble presentation. It also should be mentioned that the string parts aren't mere add-ons; sequences arise where the three solo as much as their non-string counterparts and spotlights are also granted to the string players, such as the unaccompanied one by Coudoux that introduces “A Sorrowful Song.” Each player, it seems, has at least one extended solo moment, with Moritz, for example, dazzling during his in “Onto the Wild Bright Future.” Ingenpaß's singing in “The Core” makes an already heavy piece all the more dramatic; his comparatively restrained presence in “Requiem (Radiance III),” on the other hand, complements the gentler tone of the composition.

Environmental concern is conveyed, obviously, in the title “Rage Against the Plastic Waste,” and the piece itself, while not necessarily angry, is certainly impassioned, powered as it is by Lauer's aggressive attack, squeals from Weschenfelder, and a few well-placed roars by the leader. Slightly less intense is “Framework II,” whose jazzy swing is amplified by an acoustic arrangement, Peuker on acoustic and the melodic lead shared by Gropper and Weschenfelder.

December 2019