Milesdavisquintet has very little to do with Miles Davis, and it isn't a quintet at all. The trio consists of Xavier Camarasa on piano and piano-percussion, Valentin Ceccaldo on cello and Sylvain Darrifourq on percussion and zither. However, the piano rarely sounds like a piano and the cello rarely sounds like a cello. These guys handle their instruments in a totally different way, reminding me more of acts like Zoviet France or O Yuki Conjugate than Dave Brubeck or Duke Ellington.
There's two tracks on this album. The first one, 'Tap' is an ever evolving, hypnotic piece of avant-garde music, mostly driving on instrument percussion. The intensity of the song continuously rises, by the end even becoming something oddly heavy. 'Rub', the second track, takes on a more contemplative approach, although it still is quite a dark, creepy track, reminding me of some experimental dark ambient acts. Here, eerie sounds seem to come from everywhere, haunting the listener.
In all, this is a very interesting album by three adventurous musicians. Their vision on jazz is way different than that of most people in the scene and in a way they clearly cross borders between jazz and other experimental music styles. So no, this album does not make me nervous. It makes me glad I started this webzine and it definitely provided something new and fresh in my collection.
Serge