Zen Widow Zen Widow IV - (from one dark age to another) 180g LP

TAS Rated 5/5 Music, 5/5 Sonics in the April 2024 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Michael Fremer Rated 8/10 Music, 11/10 Sound!

Intervention Records presents a special collaborative distribution effort with Italian objet-a records, Zen Widow IV – (from one dark age to another). This AAA 180G vinyl release is the fourth recording of Zen Widow, and it places an emphasis on highly melodic, spacious, and engaging treatments of medieval compositions ranging from Gesualdo Da Venosa, the Burana and Chantilly Codex, Welsh Gower folk melodies and texts, as well as the Bach Cello suites. These rich compositions are then reimagined through the lens of a highly accomplished and adventuresome jazz-improvised music trio.

Zen Widow is an international improvisational music-jazz super group. They have recorded and performed in clubs and festivals throughout the United States and Europe for that last 20 years. The trio consists of Gianni Gebbia (Bb soprano saxophone – cornettophone ) from Sicily, Italy, Matthew Goodheart (grand piano – transducer-actuated gong) from New York, Garth Powell (drums, percussion, and gongs) from Los Angeles, and is joined by special guest Dwight Trible (vocals) for this recording. Their previous release featured trumpet and jazz master Wadada Leo Smith, and like this recording was produced by Joe Harley (Blue Note – Tone Poet Series, Charles Lloyd, and Music Matters Jazz).

Garth Powell is also an audio industry legend, and AudioQuest's Sr. Director of Engineering. Garth is the driving force behind the company's multi award-winning line of Niagara series power conditioners and its Mythical Creatures ultra high-performance cables.

As powerful as these performances are, the sonic results created by this production/engineering team is equally stunning – a truly reference quality analogue experience.

This recording is captured live-to-two-track analog, 30ips tape at Capitol Studios (studio "A") by Mike Ross and Steve Genewick. Seven of the eight tracks are AAA, while the last track alone is finished high-res digital to accommodate the vocal track. Mastering and lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at CoHEARent Audio, with 180-gram pressings by RTI (Camarillo, California).

The single-gatefold jacket is a deluxe Old Style "tip-on" from Stoughton, designed by Intervention's longtime Art Director Tom Vadakan.

The Zen Widow Trio is a marvelous construct. Blessed with real character and always just the next moment away from creating more delicious riddles. They marshal an incredible diversity of sounds, both real and implied, into tightly focused gems which are never less than fascinating and strangely perfect. Possessed of a natural fire and remarkable sense of intuition they are a testament to the virtues of deep listening and the practice of instant composition when in the able care of three master improvising musicians.

This band has grown immensely in the awesome breadth of their collective power. Though separated by great distances, the efforts of these three to continue to work together on a regular basis has really paid off and is reflected in music, which is real, rich, and meaningful. Their possibilities as a unit appear boundless.

The sonics on this record are stupendous—they push every audiophile button: enormous dynamic contrasts, spectacular transparency, three-dimensionality, soundstaging glory, transient perfection, low bass to test any subwoofer system... Take a chance on this exceptional well-played, well-conceived and reference disc quality recording.

A better-sounding LP might be hard to find, and the unusual music deserves the amazing 3-D sonic staging and detail. The trio takes flight from medieval compositions, the Bach cello suites, and early Welsh folk melodies. Gebbia and Goodheart can bring Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor to mind. But when they flex their extended techniques, and Powell scatters drumkit rumbles and splashes, small percussion ticks, and echoing gongs all around the mix, the soundscape envelops you with dancing melodies, dense hums, smoky vapors, and swirling clouds. Some records you listen to from a distance. The best, like this one, draw you deep inside their unique sonic worlds.