Articles
Adrian Lane
Asaf Sirkis
Zen Land

Albums
Aerosol
A Guide For Reason
Bang On A Can All-Stars
Hafdís Bjarnadóttir
David Chesky
Alex Cobb
Container
Max Corbacho
Crisopa
DJ Cam
Döring & Korabiewski
Emißatett
Benjamin Finger
Fink
Fjordne
Gore Tech
Rachel Grimes
Hollan Holmes
Hosomi & Hatakeyama
Human Suits
Ayn Inserto
Terje Isungset
Adrian Lane
Valentina Lisitsa
Branford Marsalis Quartet
Multicast Dynamics
Naph
Networks
O'Donnell with Kent
Yui Onodera
Onodera & Bondarenko
Paniyolo
Petrels
Prefuse 73
Steve Roach
Rothenberg and Erel
R. Schwarz
Shiggajon
Stetson and Neufeld
Satoshi Tomiie
Gareth Whitehead
Zen Land

Compilations / Mixes
Francesco Tristano

EPs / Cassettes / DVDs / Mini-Albums / Singles
Four Hands
Heights & Worship
My Home, Sinking
Neveready
Prefuse 73
RSD

Zen Land: Zen Land
Warped Records

The five musicians that make up Zen Land—Michael Zentner (violin), Dean De Benedictis (keyboards), Tim Young (guitar), Doug Lunn (bass), and Vonette Yanaginuma (harp)—bring an eye-opening list of credits to their collective venture. By way of background, Zentner has worked with members of The Who, Yes, Sting, Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, Gong, and others; Young plays in the Seattle trio Thruster (featuring Pearl Jam/Soundgarden drummer Matt Chamberlain) and has worked with Wayne Horvitz, David Sylvian, Beck, Bill Frisell, and others; De Benedictis (aka Surface 10) has played with The Stratos Ensemble, Brand X, Ian Boddy, and Nels Cline; Yanaginuma's worked with Nelly Furtado, Seal, and Solomon Burke; and Lunn boasts an impressive CV that includes recording dates with Mark Isham, Andy Summers, David Torn, and countless others.

Zentner would appear to be Zen Land's guiding force, given that the album was produced by him and appears on his Warped Records label. Yet while his violin often functions as the lead voice, the others are equally critical parts of the whole. On paper, the instrumentation (with one exception: the harp in place of a drummer) might suggest a jazz-fusion outfit, but Zen Land, in keeping with its name, plays a wholly different kind of music, specifically meditative music of an understated and inordinately soothing kind. The hour of music presented on the group's self-titled release isn't static; instead, the music unfolds with a natural and organic grace. Each piece gives the impression that it was executed live, with each player listening and responding attentively to the others in the moment. But the material doesn't sound like the product of pure improvisation either, as there are melodic phrases that recur throughout a given piece to lend it identity and differentiate it from the other settings.

Though the musicians don't generally solo per se (Zentner comes closest to doing so during “Zong”), there's a sense in which they're always soloing. That said, the playing primarily centers on texture, not soloing, with each helping to build a dense, multi-layered totality. De Benedictis, for example, doesn't play conventional keyboard melodies or patterns; he instead provides a backdrop of atmospheric effects, similar in effect to the sitar-like drone that persists throughout an Indian raga. Young and Yanaginuma likewise contribute flourishes that complement the whole, while Zentner does much the same in using what sounds like a customized electric violin to thread brief phrases into the music. Lunn's fretless bass playing is as stellar and tasteful on Zen Land as it is on the other recordings he's appeared on. His unerring sense of time confidently guides the music along as it wends its lulling way through the album's six settings, the prettiest of which is “Song,” a stirring moodscape whose hypnotic, dream-like lilt makes the strongest argument on the project's behalf (it appears in two versions, by the way, one eight minutes in length and the other twelve).

June 2015