Simak Dialog - Live At Orion (2015)

Desde Indonesia llega este jazz-rock instrumental con fuertes sonidos de su lugar de origen. Los invito a conocer un grupo distitno, con una música perfecta para dejar sonando en el ambiente mientras uno se deja llevar por el clima sonoro que reina en este disco doble. Para todos los fanáticos del jazz-fusión, les dejamos una propuesta de calidad y sumamente exótica, en un jazz rock indonesio en estado puro.

Artista: Simak Dialog

Álbum: Live At Orion
Año: 2015
Género: Jazz rock / World Fusion
Duración: 1:51:28
Nacionalidad: Indonesia

Lista de Temas:
CD 1:
1. Throwing Words
2. Stepping Inn
3. For Once And Never
4. One Has To Be
5. Lain Parantina
CD 2:
1. This Spirit
2. Kemarau
3. Disapih
4. 5, 6

Alineación:
- Riza Arshad / Fender Rhodes Electric Piano, Acoustic Piano, Synth, Sounds-capes
- Tohpati / Guitar
- Adhithya Pratama / Bass
- Endang Ramdan / Sundanese Kendang Percussion (Left)
- Erlan Suwardana / Sundanese Kendang Percussion (Right)
- Cucu Kurnia / Assorted Metal Percussion
Guest:
Beledo / guitar, track 4, disc 2

El grupo de jazz fusión indonesio Simak Dialog se formó allá por 1993, cubriendo una gran variedad de estilos incluyendo jazz, prog rock y músicas tradicionales del mundo, mientras que las influencias de pioneros del jazz y la fusión como Miles Davis, Pat Metheny y Weather Report se pueden descubrir fácilmente en su música, la singular mezcla estilística del grupo también se basa en la música propia de Indonesia, pero no solamente de su país, siendo éste un un componente clave del sonido de Simak Dialog.

En septiembre de 2013, con mucha experiencia en sus espaldas y seis o siete disco en su haber, la banda se embarcó en una gira por la costa este de EE.UU. A partir de esa gira nació "Live at Orion", una grabación de dos discos registrado en su show en Orion Studio.

Simak Dialog sigue en sus trece. Sigue ofreciéndonos jazz rock indonesio en estado puro. Aquí ya habíamos dado fe de alguna de sus anteriores aventuras sonoras. Ahora lo que ocurre es que nos lo ofrece en directo y en doble ración.
Esto es Live at Orion, dos cds de jazz rock del de toda la vida, jazz rock del de Return to Forever o de la Mahavishnu Orchestra y si me apuras un poco con algo de Weather Report, todo ello aderezado con percusiones étnicas propias de Indonesia que dan algo de personalidad al proyecto presentado.
El grupo sigue liderado por el guitarrista Tohpati y el teclista Riza Arshad, fundadores del la formación en 1993. Para esta ocasión hay cambios en la formación. Aparte de que Riza Arshad se olvida de los teclados acústicos y solo le pega al Fender Rhodes nos encontramos con un nuevo bajista, Rudy Zulkaren; mientras que el trío percusivo se mantiene: Endang Ramdan y Erlan Suwardana siguen dándole a la percusión kendang, originaria de Bali, que es marca de la casa, y Cucu Kurnia sigue haciéndose cargo de variadas percusiones metálicas entre ellas algún gong gamelan.
Como otras veces apuestan por largas composiciones firmadas por Riza Arshad donde todos los musicos pueden demostrarnos su virtuosismo y calidad pero, a mi parecer, continúan adoleciendo de modernidad y atrevimiento.
Live at Orion es una recopilación de temas de toda la carrera de Simak Dialog grabados en Baltimore en septiembre del 2013 y puede ser una buena tarjeta de presentación para los amantes de la denominada modernamente fusión o séase el jazz rock de de toda la vida con añadido de algunos toques étnicos indonesios.
Poco más se puede añadir a esta racion de jazz rock marcada por continuos cambios y despliegues de refinada ingeniería musical que sabe a ‘viejuno’.

I. Ortega

Un aspecto armónico elegante es lo que Simak Dialog nos ofrece en este álbum en vivo titulado "Live at Orion", con un buen equilibrio entre las actuaciones bien controladas y aquel material en el que abren el espacio para una entrega más suelta y expresiva de cada ejecución. Todos los músico son buenos instrumentistas, y ​​la calidad de la grabación no deja nada que desear. Un fuerte doble disco en vivo, que seguramente será de interés para los fans del jazz rock instrumental pero con la característica distintiva que esta fusión incluye un toque de música del mundo en su seno.
Aquí hay una banda donde cada uno es un maestro de su instrumento y sabe exactamente lo que cada uno de ellos necesita para complementarse con el grupo, pero la unión de estilos occidentales e indonesios y otros sonidos étnicos les permite sonar increíblemente particulares y sueltos al mismo tiempo. Este álbum es una introducción perfecta para conocer a esta gran banda.

Recorded during simakDialog's 2013 tour which culminated with the gig at Orion Studios, in Baltimore, this two-disc set finds the Indonesian progressive icons in top form: serving up their own brand of inspired and spirited music which listens as much as it speaks. Touring in support of their most recent studio effort, 2013's highly-praised The 6th Story (MJR056), the group delivered a set inclusive of some of its best material, as well as other great songs spanning their twenty-plus-year career.
Composer and (Fender) Rhodes scholar, Riza Arshad, possesses one of the most capable sets of hands ever to grace a Fender Rhodes. His manipulation of this classic keyboard, whose warm and slightly rounded metallic voice has helped define modern jazz, brings out the very best it has to offer as he charts out new territories of sound. Arshad’s wonderfully sophisticated compositions form the perfect armature for the musicians to flesh out the sound in a very organic way that compels the listener to deeply take it all in.
Tohpati’s guitar work is the perfect dance partner to Arshad’s keys, as he alternately leads or follows, depending on the needs of each composition. His subtle atmospherics bring to mind David Torn, Terje Rypdal and Nels Cline, while his leadwork can possess both the fluidity of Holdsworth and the aggressiveness of Jeff Beck. Though there is no shortage of acrobatic axe-wielding on “Live at Orion”, Tohpati’s democratic interplay with Riza’s gorgeous Rhodes is the real star here – creating a powerful synergy that gives voice to the whole of the music over its parts.
The rhythm section of Endang Ramdan and Erlan Suwardana, each on Sudanese kendang percussion, along with Cucu Kurnia on assorted metal percussion and the understated and convincing “Bitches Brew” funk groove of bassist Rudy Zulkarnaen, creates a formidable foundation of one of the most original and innovative progressive electric jazz artists today. The band is joined for an encore number ("5, 6") which features a guest appearance by fellow MoonJune recording artist Beledo, as he and Tohpati push each other to new heights for the show's impacting climax.
... and they were not disappointed: the band delivered a rivoting performance for the ages. They even brought along a special guest for the occasion: fellow MoonJune artist, maestro guitarist, Beledo! (... who joined the band for the closing number, "5,6.") It was a night of pure magic, as the band's "musical ESP" was clearly in evidence -- inspiring both band and audience alike, and pushing their music to plateaus that precious few bands could ever attain.
This is a superbly-recorded and -produced album, documenting a monumental performance that none in attendance will ever forget!

Moonjune Records

Releasing a double album is always a risk, being that sometimes you have to add some fillers to make the time required for such large enterprise, fillers that lower the overall quality of the album and rest merits from the great songs, but a live double disk is also an opportunity to demonstrate real versatility, being that you are not limited by the studio engineers and the capacity of a disk, allowing the band to add some features that don't appear in the original records.
Despite this is not the case of Live at Orion because all the tracks are superb in quality, the first album seems to lose that naive folksy sound from the original releases, probably because an American audience want to listen more traditional arrangements. The Kendang percussion ceases to be the center of the Indonesian style to be more an enhancement for traditional virtuoso performances by Tohpati and Riza Arshad.
But this is good, because it demonstrates the ability of the band to adapt themselves to the circumstances and shows a great degree of versatility that few bands can't achieve. Even when I already commented most of the tracks in their original studio environment, I appreciated some of the new arrangements, especially in tracks as Throwing Words in which the band tries to keep the original atmosphere but manage to create a more sober sound ideal for a public performance, and the solid bass provided by Rudy Zulkarnaen is simply impressive.
Another track that impressed me is the extended version of For Once and Ever, which allows Riza and Tohpati to create some magical moments with the Fender Rhodes and guitar, even more impressive than the studio version.
Also Lain Parantina and the sober arrangements plus the vibrant keyboard solos (that remind me of Chick Corea) show a great degree of virtuosity and adaptation capability for a band playing in front of people from another country.
In Disk 2 the guys of DIMAK DIALOG take more risks and are rewarded by the obvious excitement of the audience.
I always said that we discover the music in the studio albums, but can only find the real capacity of the musicians when they play outside of their comfort zone and in an uncontrolled environment where you don't have a second take to repair a false note or a mistake, and SIMAK DIALOG passed the test with excellent grade?Four solid stars in my opinion.

Iván Melgar

On 2015's double-disc Live at Orion, Indonesian jazz fusion sextet simakDialog stretch out across their lengthiest recording yet, opening new avenues of exploration for their grooves, improvisational fire, and often astoundingly telepathic interplay. The album was cut live before a deep-listening audience at Mike Potter's prog-centric Orion Studios in Baltimore, Maryland during September 2013, the same month that simakDialog's third MoonJune album, The 6th Story, was released. Naturally, the live set includes several numbers from their concurrent studio outing, but while both The 6th Story and Live at Orion consist of nine tracks, the former was one hour in duration and the latter sprawls out to nearly two. Only the Canterbury-esque "For Once and Never" falls below the ten-minute mark; at the other end of the scale, the 18-minute monster "This Spirit" provides plenty of time for probing investigations of sonic space. Yet simakDialog never lose focus across Live at Orion -- and indeed use the extra minutes wisely to amp up the energy and push past the already high quality of their preceding records. While Fender Rhodes player Riza Arshad writes some of the most memorable melodies and riffs in 21st century fusion, performing them deftly in tandem with Tohpati on electric guitar, the two men's agile soloing here, cutting across simakDialog's insistent circular rhythms, should command particular enthusiasm from fusion fans. And those rhythms remain unique in the idiom, arriving courtesy of Sundanese kendang drummers Endang Ramdan and Erlan Suwardana, with embellishments from Cucu Kurnia's metal percussion and electric bassist Rudy Zulkarnaen providing a solid yet responsive foundation.
As simakDialog listeners have come to expect, the kendang players' often steady clip-clop provides forward momentum but also a sense of understatement that makes standard-issue fusion drummers, playing conventional drum kits, seem like bombastic bashers in comparison. Ramdan and Suwardana lock into the group's abrupt stops and starts, while the heart of the music finds the percussionists cruising freely forward as Arshad and Tohpati subtly push and pull against the hypnotic beats. With expert pacing, the ensemble begins this set with propulsive yet compositionally multifaceted groovers like "Stepping In" -- which finds Tohpati startlingly inventive in his mastery of effects and impossibly fast in his wide interval-leaping phraseology -- and gradually opens up to freer modes of collective exploration on second-disc numbers like "Kemarau" and the aforementioned "This Spirit." Growling, wailing keys and guitar burst from Arshad's initial compelling world fusion theme in "This Spirit" before an interlude of beautiful lyricism provides a gateway into skittery improvisations that coalesce with rising energy, navigating pointedly back to the tune's thematic motifs, and the bandmembers are likewise collectively outré after the fractured funk-jazz intro to "Kemarau." But by the concluding "5, 6" the percussionists are once again holding the groove, despite the shifting time signature and incendiary riffage traded off between Arshad, Tohpati, and guest guitarist Beledo. The percussionists don't resist the urge to shout during their break, and after all their earlier steady-handedness, who could blame them?

Dave Lynch

There's a lot to be said for possessing a signature sound and style these days, regardless of genre. But the cunning Indonesian jazz fusion outfit simakDialog have gradually imprinted a deep-rooted mark of authenticity on the global fusion and progressive rock circuits. Recorded during the band's 2013 US tour which concluded at Orion Studios in Baltimore, a distinguishing factor pertains to percussionists Endang Ramdan and Erlan Suwardana's use of the Sundanese kendang drums, which are conventional staples employed in Southeast Asian gamelan ensembles. However, Cucu Kurnia augments the flows with assorted metal percussion implements. Thus, a simmering heartbeat sans a traditional drum-kit prevails.
Tohpati is an emerging guitar hero, based on the output of his work with this band and solo outings, all produced by Moonjune Records. Meanwhile, Riza Arshad masters the Fender Rhodes with aplomb and a truly impassioned mode of expressionism. And from an improvisational standpoint, the musicians afford themselves generous space to stretch out and reformulate the melodies and hooks, often articulated with searching and soaring thematic qualities. Moreover, bassist Rudy Zulkarnaen's pumping notes help interlock the bristling pulses with the frontline during these extended workouts.
This 2-CD set matures rather nicely on repeated listens, primarily due to the tuneful licks and motifs that are understated or subliminally portrayed, becoming more conspicuous over time. For example, on "Throwing Words," the band underscores a harmonically attractive theme with a sense of urgency, featuring Tohpati's infusion of a little grit and grizzle via distortion techniques and budding improv segments with Arshad. And during various passages the percussionists' twirl through bracing unison lines with the soloists, complemented by indigenous folk statements and jazzy breakouts.
Arshad's fluently ascending single notes and percussive block chords serve a dual purpose, where he overlays a bouncy vibe atop the rhythm section and trades fours with Tohpati, while building up steam along the way. And the guitarist goes for the gusto with scathing upper-register licks and rippling flurries on "Stepping In," whereas the band explores hallowed vistas on the stately piece, "For Once and Never." In addition, the album's lengthiest track "This Spirit (18:01)," is engineered with inward-looking subplots and a burgeoning improvisation-based voyage, amped by Tohpati's feedback and volume control manipulations and Arshad's pumping chord clusters. Ultimately, the artists introduce a veritable Jetstream of novel concepts amid a stylishly depicted set of propositions. (Strongly recommended...)

Glenn Astarita

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