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DOT 001 - Live At The White Room

by Gord Grdina's Square Peg

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Online exclusive deluxe edition of the LP, only 50 copies, each copy autographed by Gord, with liner notes by Byron Coley, 11x17 poster from the show this was recorded at, MP3 download card, with OBI insert, in a resealable PVC sleeve!! Black vinyl. Super limited!!

    Includes unlimited streaming of DOT 001 - Live At The White Room via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 4 Black Dot Records releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Gordon Grdina & The Twain, DOT003 - oren ambarchi & crys cole "gallivant", DOT 002 - Wantlist In The Black Dot World Of Adventures, and DOT 001 - Live At The White Room. , and , .

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Encore 05:45

about

GORD GRDINA'S SQUARE PEG, by Byron Coley

Gorgeous live debut LP by an extremely flexible quartet put together by Vancouver based string-monster, Gordon Grdina. Grdina plays both electric guitar and oud. His guitar work here recalls a couple of very different players -- the clean angular scramble of Boston's Joe Morris, and also the more lyrical passages played by the master of power-distortion, Sonny Sharrock. On oud (an instrument most often associated with traditional music of Northern African and Western Asia) he creates a new approach to the instrument, perhaps parallel to what Chicago's Joshua Abrams is doing with the guimbri.

Grdina's fellow travelers in Square Peg are all similar in their multi-directional tactics. Players unafraid to go deep into uncharted territory, with wide discographies on which they play with legends and neophytes with equal power.

Brooklyn-born violinist Mat Maneri has collaborated with everyone from Cecil Taylor to Robin Williamson, and is known for his totally open approach to both violin and viola. Maneri’s playing here most often reminds me of '70s Leroy Jenkins, shifting from dark sonorities to light-drenched obliquity in the blink of an eye. New York-based Shahzad Ismaily plays bass and synth here, although I've seen him at festivals where he played six different instruments in six different groups. Ismaily can pretty much do anything, but here he creates a flowing, near-constant foundation effectively holding everything together. German drummer, Christian Lillinger, has also played in myriad formats, generally jazz-based, but also those involving avant-garde rock and experimental composition. His playing here is tightly focused and highly propulsive. Not unlike what Chris Corsano does when he goes right down the middle.

The pieces on this album are numbered rather than named, but they are not lacking identity. From the first burst of bent notes, Square Peg is boiling. Without horns or reeds or even prominent keys to hang melodic laundry, the music feels like blocks of harmonic interplay shifting around like tectonic plates. Some of the parts where Ismaily plays synth make me think of the communion between Larry Young and John McLaughlin in Tony Williams Lifetime, but the when Grdina is on oud, the sound is unlike anything I've heard. And it is cool as hell, way beyond what little I know of non-trad oud players (Sandy Bull, John Berberian, Solomon Feldthouse). The textures the ensemble creates are hard to give name to as well. Some parts are definitely jazzoid, others are more like free-rock, still others have an almost avant-folk heft (not unlike the Wall Matthews-led Entourage LPs on Folkways).

In all, it's a great LP on a great new label. And I'm looking forward to what everyone comes up with next.

--Byron Coley 2019

credits

released February 12, 2020

Gordon Grdina -guitar, oud, Mat Maneri- Viola, Shahzad Ismaily- Bass, Synth, Christian Lillinger- Drums

All compositions G.Grdina (socan)

gordongrdinamusic.com

Thank you to Genevieve Monro, Nayeli and Gabe Grdina, Rainbow Robert, The Black Dot: Jack Tieleman and Dave Read, Chris Thompson, Lee Hutzulak, Colin, Cole & Jen and everyone at the China Cloud, and CreativeBC

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Black Dot Records Nanaimo, British Columbia

Since its inception the White Room has hosted musicians, artists, dancers, writers, markets, parties and a host of other art inspired events.
These recordings are a reflection of what happens at the space. The shows are intimate and unique.

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