Tracklist

01. Diana's Castle
02. Bad Dream
03. Kary's Trance
04. Aliens Deliberating
05. Ataraxia
06. Vlotte Babbel
07. Eleventhly
08. Big Drunken Bumblebee
09. Sophisticated Lady
10. Before the Commonwealth
11. Love Declaration
12. High Dark Sea

Whoever listens to this CD dives deep into a multifarious world of sound—Joris Roelofs enjoys creating contrast. He says that, “It’s great with this trio, because Matt and Ted are able to achieve tremendous dynamic contrasts. We can switch from a relatively bombastic free piece, like The Drunken Bumble Bee, to a beautiful, fragile ballad. Hopefully the listener never knows what will come next, and will constantly be surprised.” There are similar results with the title piece Aliens Deliberating and the following slow composition Ataraxia, a sequence that one might consider as the heart of the CD. Whereas the bass clarinet produces strange, alien noises through multi-phonics (an overlaying of tones using a variety of techniques) in the title piece,
Ataraxia (named after the old Greek term for imperturbabil-ity and inner peace) offers the trio’s peaceful side through its gorgeous and at the same time tension-filled melodies reminiscent of the magic lines in Ornette Coleman’s classic Lonely Woman. Contrasts such as these are completely organic on the bass clarinet, since “every possible noise emerges,” as Roelofs says about his instrument. These noises continually remind him of “things that are recognizable in our world”, including human sounds. At the same time, melody is important to him; “I always want to have the melody in there.”