{"id":10972,"date":"2019-03-10T22:43:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T05:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=10972"},"modified":"2019-03-11T20:05:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T03:05:00","slug":"monday-recommendation-dominic-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2019\/03\/monday-recommendation-dominic-miller\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Recommendation: Dominic Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dominic Miller<\/strong> Absinthe<\/a><\/em> (ECM)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Guitarist and composer Miller delivers power and subtlety in equal measure. Abetted by producer Manfred Eicher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s canny guidance and ECM\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flawless sound and studio presence, Miller draws on inspiration from painters of France\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impressionist period. His liner essay emphasizes the importance to his musical conception of works by Cezanne, Renoir, Lautrec, Monet and other impressionist painters. He credits, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the American imagination and vision itself,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for initially recognizing the importance of the French impressionism that began to flower in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the French themselves had yet to recognize the genius and revolutionary nature of the movement. As for the album title, Miller writes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sharp light and witchy mistrals, combined with strong alcohol and intense hangovers must have driven some of these artists toward insanity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

There is no suggestion of drunkenness or insanity in Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music. Rather, he manages with his quintet partners to create music that, for all its exoticism, is stimulating and relaxing. Could that account for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mixed Blessing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d being the title of one of his pieces? It is relaxing music; yes, but chords from Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guitar introduce edginess that contrasts with the floating elegance of Santiago Arias\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bandoneon, that enchanting concertina-like instrument from the South American pampas. The brilliant brushwork-and-cymbals drumming of Manu Katch\u00c3\u00a9 flows beneath, in and around the solo expressions of Miller, keyboardist Mike Lindup and Nicolas Fiszman, a bassist who fashions his supporting lines as if he had tailored them to order for each of the other four. Fiszman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power throughout is remarkable, particularly so on Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153T\u00c3\u00a9nebr\u00c3\u00a8s\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the closing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Saint Vincent.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

When this album showed up, I intended to give it a quick listen. The quick listen became five times in a row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dominic Miller Absinthe (ECM) Guitarist and composer Miller delivers power and subtlety in equal measure. Abetted by producer Manfred Eicher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s canny guidance and ECM\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flawless sound and studio presence, Miller draws on inspiration from painters of France\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impressionist period. His liner essay emphasizes the importance to his musical conception of works by Cezanne, Renoir, Lautrec, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-recommendations","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}