Aspiration is one of the mostly aptly titled recordings in
Bill Laswell's vast catalog. While he is the constant in each of these six tracks as producer, player, and often remixer, the concept as articulated in the press release states that: "Each artist (here) has created a track that was inspired by another artist or higher concept that they aspire to." "Aspiration" is a key word; in these proceedings it is very different from "attainment." The set begins with
Laswell's bass,
Nils Petter Molvaer's trumpet, and
Zakir Hussein's tablas creating a seamless, amorphous, yet rhythmically and melodically beautiful meditation.
Molvaer and
Hussein give the impression of
Miles Davis and
Badal Roy playing together with a much more static bassline. Only at track's end does the sampled chant from
Sri K. Pattabhi Jois appear. This is followed by one of
Laswell's "reconstructions" featuring a recording from
Alice Coltrane and
Carlos Santana that feels like a leftover track from the producer's
Divine Light: Reconstruction & Mix recording. Likewise, His Holiness The Dalai Lama XIV's praying is sampled for
"Time" (bizarrely called an "interview" by
Toshinori Kondo in the sleeve notes) with
Kondo and
Laswell adding electronics, trumpet, and a dubwise bassline layered over everything.
"Searching for You," one of the more successful moments here, adds
Sussan Deyhim's iconic multi-tracked vocals and
Laswell's bass to
Mark Nauseef's meditation bells and
Kudsi Erguner's ney. It feels perfectly alien and strange, aspiring to something outside of this earthly realm.
"The Hidden Garden/Naima," with
Simon Shaheen,
Nicky Skopelitis,
Aiyb Deng, and three basses played by
Laswell,
Jonas Helborg, and
Bootsy Collins, with keyboards by
Bernie Worrell and synths by
Jeff Bova, may aspire to pay tribute to
John Coltrane, but sounds like little more than an amorphous mess. Things end beautifully, however, with
Pharoah Sanders playing his tenor largely unaided on
"Peace in Essaouria" for five of the cut's seven minutes; the last two minutes offer only some echo bells and percussive textures by
Skopelitis and
Laswell. The bottom line is simple, while this recording may "aspire" to pay tribute to artists and ideas, at least half of this sounds like a muddle of old tracks remixed with only a couple of exceptions. ~ Thom Jurek
