Evan Lipson-Echo Chamber; Public Eyesore Records #152, 2023

 

My oh my, such darkened beauty here from Evan Lipson. On Echo Chamber, the well traveled bass player has presented a threnody for victims of the 20th Century Military Industrial Complex, one that was recorded inside a facility that said complex used to build explosives which killed untold millions. Those countless deaths can and should loom large as one listens, at the very least in terms of supplying the dark side of the very moving experience one could have when hearing this CD. They are not pleasant to ponder, nor should they be. That said, it's imperative that taxpaying Americans start to reckon with them; it's the only sure way to healing the physical and psychic wounds that still permeate so many areas. OK, that's the dark side of Echo Chamber. 

On the beauty side, the attentive listener will find themselves immersed within a fascinating display of extended techniques for the upright bass, all utilized in eminently musical ways, ways that lead the ears from zone to zone of fascinating passages. Pizzicato, arco, con legno, spiccato...these and so many more methods for coaxing new sounds from a well investigated instrument show up on Echo Chamber. Lipson presents three quarters of an hour of focused, present solo playing on Echo Chamber, forty five-ish minutes of deeply engaging investigations, made even more compelling by his astute spacial awareness with an echo chamber. The ways that his tones bounce around the big concrete space of a bunker are damn great. 

For American society to be taken seriously again, it must remove the yoke of Military Industrial Complex. It must also consider cultural moves such as those made on Echo Chamber. It's Disaster Amnesiac's wish that in, say, one hundred years, musicians such as Evan Lipson and their contributions to a truly creative culture are discussed and valued. 

God Bless America.