Guillermo Gregorio is a visual artist, musician, and composer who established his reputation in the avant-garde in Argentina before emigrating to Europe, and then America, after his career was well along already. American music, particularly jazz and improvisation, has always remained an integral component of his work no matter where it was based, but
Gregorio's work remains grounded in the experience of the Argentine avant-garde, an entire genre of activity that remains unknown in America, even to those who consider themselves well versed in twentieth century art. A "Coplanar" is a type of non-representational, non-metaphysical art object devised by the Argentine avant-garde school of visual artists in the 1940s, and
Gregorio has drawn upon this visual stimulus in order to create the eight pieces included on his New World Records release Coplanar.
Of course, we cannot see the mobile and fixed forms of the visual art that is behind this music, although an attractive reproduction of an early example of this work by artist Juan Alberto Molenberg is included on the front cover. Nonetheless, to realize the coplanar,
Gregorio presses into service a handpicked group of improvisers who understand and communicate the concepts very well; among them are such known quantities as Ken Vandermark and pianist
Steffen Schleiermacher. Although
Gregorio employs some unusual instruments, such as a synthesizer and "cracklebox," he seems to favor chamber groupings as one might regularly encounter in Brahms, Mozart, or Schoenberg. Nevertheless, these groups do not play like that -- this is virtually a celebration of silence as a structural element, sounds are precious and applied sparingly, and only seldom are linear, or for that matter, abrupt gestures played by any one instrument at a time.
Gregorio's Coplanar results in a very delicate and rich music that has a strong sense of balance in space and a mischievous, almost Mozartian sense of humor. To say that Coplanar would be appealing to a mainstream audience would be going too far, but for those open-minded individuals who like a lot of space in their music, and not a lot in the way of confrontation, this will be extremely satisfying. Coplanar also contains thoughtful and informative notes, in addition to being carefully and beautifully well recorded, a critical aspect in transmitting music of this kind.