(Jazz Fusion, Experimental, Ambient) [WEB] Psychic Temple - Plays Music for Airports - 2016, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Tabor Allen - drums
Philip Glenn - Hammond organ
Danny T. Levin - trombonium, euphonium, marching baritone, valve trombone
Paul Masvidal - electric guitar
Curt Oren - baritone saxophone
Cathlene Pineda - Wurlitzer electric piano
Sheridan Riley - drums & percussion
Chris Schlarb - electric guitar
Kris Tiner - trumpet
David Tranchina - double bass
Mike Watt - electric bass

It’s a great idea to cover Brian Eno’s deathless “Music For Airports 1/1” in the style of Miles Davis’ electric jazz masterpiece In A Silent Way. But does the Long Beach, CA-based collective Psychic Temple actually deliver on this promise? Oh, yes. Led by guitarist Chris Schlarb (and featuring living legend Mike Watt on bass), the group breathes new life into Eno’s becalmed masterpiece, opening it up and unlocking its mysteries, while still remaining faithful to the source. Swirling electric keyboards, shimmering guitar, Miles-ian trumpet and a bubbling, flexible rhythm section all combine for 16-and-a-half minutes of pure sonic bliss. Eno would probably love it. Hell, Miles might’ve loved it too. And the flip, an extended workout slyly called “Music For Bus Stops” is just as solid, a strutting original that suggests Psychic Temple may have nothing but great ideas.

We forget to breathe. So Psychic Temple gives us breathing space.
Music director Chris Schlarb – a Long Beach guitarist whose career has ranged from jazz to video-game soundtracks – prepares Psychic Temple’s open atmosphere for maximum spatial opportunities.
Unrestricted by complex chord changes, the musicians resonate with Schlarb’s own unhurried, carefully articulated mode of improvisation. And Psychic Temple’s special gravity pulls strongly enough to unite such diverse players as progressive metal guitarist Paul Masvidal (Cynic, Death), jamming postpunk bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Stooges) and lyrical trumpeter Kris Tiner (Empty Cage, Wadada Leo Smith).
Schlarb cast the musicians like actors in a film. “I listen. If a director chooses the right players, he doesn’t need to micromanage them.”
Together, they make room for forgetting, room for reflection, so the listener can’t help being drawn into the ceremony. Even the instrument sounds themselves put us at ease in a comfortable womb where a deep-plowing baritone sax (Curt Oren) might remind us of a Supremes hit, or a Hammond organ (Philip Glenn) might recall Jimmy Smith’s soul saturation, or a Wurlitzer electric piano (Cathlene Pineda) might make us flash on a galactic Miles Davis abstraction. Even Schlarb’s preferred mode of sound reproduction, 12-inch vinyl, encourages escape from congestion and routine – we won’t be listening to an LP in our cars.
This Psychic Temple album was recorded in one afternoon, live in the studio without headphones, overdubs, edits or effects, and Schlarb used the second take of each performance. To orchestrate the flow and enhance the mood, Schlarb employed a system of changing lights as the music developed. It’s a tribute to the players’ sensitivity and the music’s balance that despite the simple recording methods, each instrument sounds warm and present.
Schlarb has long loved the first movement of Brian Eno’s 1979 ambient landmark Music for Airports: “It’s like patient jazz improvisation, with a surprising, organic quality that reminds me of the Bill Evans Trio with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro. Unfortunately, like jazz, it has become a museum piece, something to be analyzed by select musicians inside expensive concert halls. I wanted to rescue it from that dark, boring fate.”
Psychic Temple approaches “Airports” from a fresh angle. Where it was hard to imagine tuning in to Eno’s distant, static beauty amid the real-life chaos of check-in, the edgy competition of boarding and the weary tedium of baggage claim, Schlarb brings a more human fugue to the experience. We can feel we’re all in it together, we can make room for one another, and we’re calm.
Schlarb and drummer Tabor Allen conceived their “Music for Bus Stops” as a working man’s counterpart to “Airports.” Yes, the music says, we’re going somewhere. Maybe it’s hot, maybe the traffic’s noisy, but carried along by the brisk groove, the refractive Quicksilver guitar and a mirage of softly massed horn riffs, do we care when the bus arrives?
Not really. The Psychic Temple can remain in our heads wherever we go.
- Greg Burk, November 2015

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