In 1979, Alex & Nels Clines, Eric von Essen, and Jeff Gauthier formed Quartet Music, a group that enjoyed continued success in its performances and four recordings over an eleven-year period and was awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council.In summer 1989 Quartet Music performed its music for two consecutive evenings together with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
from http://www.cryptogramophone.com
In 1979, Gauthier, von Essen, Nels and percussionist Alex Cline formed Quartet Music. This group marked the most extensive fusing of chamber and jazz elements in Eric’s career. The large majority of the group’s pieces were written by the bassist. “Eric said school ruined composition for him,” Alex Cline said. “But once Quartet Music got started he wrote a whole salvo of music.” The songs are characterized by numerous melodic shifts, rhythmic and harmonic modulations and odd time signatures. Considering the effect this group had on the artistic lives of its members, the pieces recorded by the reunited Quartet Music hold a special place on the recordings. Remembering the sessions, Gauthier says that these were “the most intense for me, not only because I was performing, but because none of us had played some of that music in over 10 years. It was surprising how well we all remembered it, and at the same time how difficult it was. Also, it has since become apparent how much we had all improved as musicians.”
The first volume closes with the darkly lilting “Departure,” the first song Eric wrote for Quartet Music. It has the same sense of indeterminacy that much of the music von Essen wrote for Quartet Music has, the same play of darkness and light and the bittersweet melody rising over the steadily shifting harmonies.
from http://www.dustedmagazine.com
