Roller Trio - Promise/Threat (2016)

Il gruppo jazz Roller Trio, di cui vi avevo parlato qualche mese fa, ha appena realizzato un progetto singolare legato a ciò che si potrebbe definire un mediometraggio. In pratica Promise/Threat è il frutto di una serie di improvvisazioni che fanno da colonna sonora al film omonimo diretto dall'artista Ray Kane e presentato con queste parole:

Promise/Threat is rooted in the belief that everything in life can be one or the other, dependent on perspective: a job for life, till death us do part, you can’t take it with you. A series of events and abstractions, experienced, overlooked and passed into memory. This is a journey from birth to death and light to dark, devoid of special effects, in a bizarre found reality. 

Northern Irish writer/director/artist Ray Kane explores the hidden and disregarded - the dark corner in a bright room - with a fascination for the imperfections of life. Shot largely in Dublin, a huge dilapidated art studio became both backdrop and canvas. Filming on a daily basis for six weeks, countless hours of footage were captured and discarded. Scenes with Sarah Jane Seymour, an emerging talent in Irish television, were largely improvised and shot at night. Passing through an industrial wasteland as an ethereal presence, she is mother/daughter/lover/dream and nightmare. Towering figurative paintings by Irish artist Daragh Hughes provide a tangible timeline of ageing, while the endlessly inventive sculptures of fellow Irish artist John Coll augment the reality with a series of lurid and beautiful visions. 

A deeply moving soundtrack by Roller Trio and producer Tim Thomas was edited out of four improvisations performed whilst watching the film. The film took saxophonist James Mainwaring, guitarist Luke Wynter and drummer Luke Reddin-Williams to musical areas they had never found themselves in before - following the imagery to the most joyous, fun, terrifying and exciting edges of their playing while keeping the signature riffs and textures within Roller’s collective musical vocabulary.

La versione su YouTube è suddivisa nelle 12 parti o tracce che costituiscono l'album, mentre la versione presente su Vimeo è quella integrale senza tagli della durata di 50 minuti. Inutile dire che qui troverete un Roller Trio differente da Fracture e molto, molto più sperimentale e inevitabilmente dedito al free jazz.




PROMISE/THREAT from Lamplight Social on Vimeo.