Entomological Reflections

1. Femme 100 Têtes

2. House

3. Drôle de Mots

4. Cardiogram

5. Void

6. Fractions

7. Entomological Souvenirs

8. Château de Cène

9. Fringe

10. Procession

11. Beloukia

12. Air

13. Apartment

14. Sans Mots

15. Shifting Roll

Tracks:

La Femme 100 Tetes
House
Drole De Mots
Cardiogram
Void
Fractions
Entomological Souvenirs
Le Chateau De Cene
Fringe
Procession
Beloukia
Air
Apartment
Sans Mots
Shifting Roll

Customer Reviews:

Something different........2005-07-02

Mephista is a band that is hard to pin down. They are, in many ways, a strong reflection of the New York downtown music sceene-- indeed, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, drummer Susie Ibarra, and laptop electronics performer Ikue Mori are all associated with the downtown scene and John Zorn's extended family. But as a trio, they largely aoid the sort of cliches of the scene-- there's no rampant, free-wheeling improv on this record, nor do the usual personalities of sound come forth.

Instead, what this album is is a delicate, almost minimalist portrait-- Courvoisier plays light-touched lines, avoiding any heavy-handedness (and from aural evidence, occasionally opening the piano up) or any extended statements. Ibarra counters this by eschewing the usual timekeeping or even implied beat in favor of color-- doubling Courvoisier's lines, or fitting in between, or occasionally playing pure highlights around it. On top of all this, Mori's sonic wizardry floats, keeping the whole thing together while never quite making it into the foreground (and yet gathering your attention all the same).

I don't have their first album, so I can't really contrast the two of them-- to discuss the pieces on here doesn't really make sense-- suffice to say the music flows rather organically but that nothing really stands unique from the rest, this is an album statement (or perhaps better still, a sonic statement) rather than anything else. This music transcends genre-- to call it jazz is a bit unfair and limiting, it sounds to have a heavy debt towards improvisation, but improv doesn't make jazz. It is what it is.

Something stops me from considering this a 5-star piece, but its quite a good recording. If you can approach it with few preconceived notions, I suspect you'll enjoy it. If you need your music to have a strong reference point, this isn't for you.

Not a Jazz Disc....but exceptional........2005-06-03

I have to disagree with the reviewer who stated that this is a jazz album. A great one at that. I love jazz...and experimental music, classical, grindcore, metal, and all points inbetween. This is an experimental music album of the highest calliber. Having seen the trio live twice made me appreciate this album even more. Anyone of the members of the trio would be hard pressed to say this is a jazz disc, while they all have backgrounds in jazz and experimental music..this is cetainley in the latter catergory. In addition to this disc, I would highly recommend Ikue Mori's Great CD Hex Kitchen or Garden. more great stuff. Long live the Tzadik label.

Always listen first...........2005-05-17

I am not sure how to categorize this record, but I will say that it is NOT jazz.

Great avant work.......2004-06-14

I don't have much to add to the other review. Brilliant-- exploratory use of all kinds of percussive sounds-- including those on the piano. But also IMO a structure and moving,
strange beauty moments. A very unique trio, very great
music.

The greatest jazz band on the planet........2004-06-01

You're kidding, right? (I hear the naysayers saying).

Isn't it The Dave Holland Quintet?

Or Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio?

Or Dave Douglas's latest band?

Or the Brad Mehldau Trio?

Nope.

It's three women who call themselves Mephista.

This, their second recording, is nothing short of revelatory.

Listen.

This is the whole package. Covering the waterfront from freebop to electronica to avant-freakout, these ladies have thrown down the gauntlet.

Who will pick it up?

No one, I'm thinking: just too much power, res, emotion, and virtuoso playing.

Let's start with Susie Ibarra. Fast becoming THE monster percussion presence on the New Music and Nu Jazz scene, she's the Evelyn Glennie of improvised music. Her two solo efforts, esp. Songbird Suite, her second, are beyond praise.

Ikui Mori may be the most sophisticated and nuanced practitioner of electronics alive. Possessed of an uncanny ability to create the exact right electronic soundscape, she consistently imbues these proceedings with magical, mesmeric, life-giving and -breathing sensibilities. Too often electronics can come across as cold, static, or gratuitous.

Not here. They're an absolutely integral part of the aural palette.

Sylvie Courvoisier on piano (and it sounds like a bunch of prepared piano stylings), a name new to me, stamps these offerings with a unique sound signature that entirely fits in with the wild imaginings of the other two. Sometimes single-note configurations, sometimes cluster chords, sometimes bent sonorities, there's always something interesting--nay, intriguing--issuing from her keyboard.

This music is so glorious, outré, striking, outrageous, and ravishing, that not to encounter it is to find oneself shut out from musical possibilities of the first order.

Talk about serendipity.

Talk about magic.

Talk about advancing the aesthetic.

This splendid music--beyond category, beyond imagining, beyond comprehension--cries out for hearing.

If you somehow land on this site and read this review and don't drop everything and buy this astounding music, you will--I guarantee it--spend the rest of your sorry life and untold years of your afterlife regretting it--

Purgatory bound, that's where you'll be.

And I'm only half kidding.

World Music: