Vijay Iyer

Celeste Sunderland

CD/DVD Reviewer since 2003

Celeste makes pillows for Futopia, her mother's store on Kent Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Recent articles (104 total)

Published: July 9, 2005

"It's just in tune with what time it is. It was created around the time of a very emotional moment in American history which I got very involved in, he explained.

"The Big Almost, track five on the record, refers to the 2004 presidential election. The last tune, "Imagine, is a reinterpretation of the John Lennon classic that bristles and swells with undercurrents of rhythmic instigation.

"I wanted to propose a different relationship to what that song is about, he explained. "It kind of proposes a childlike innocence with regard to world affairs. There are other kinds of hope that aren't so innocent, that are more worldly and more knowledgeable. It's still possible to have hope despite the state of the world, but hope doesn't come for free. It's not just about going back to childlike innocence. It's about really working toward something. [The song] has this kind of '60s-ish mentality, this peace-and-love kind of thing. That's not really what time it is right now. That's not where people are at. It's a little bit harder to assert that kind of ideal in the shadow of everything that we're facing right now.

"I have no control how people receive it, so there's only so much I can load it with. I know where I was when I made the music. I know what it means to me. And as we reperform some of the music. It acquires a new significance every time we improvise our way through these pieces, because every time you do that you're creating a situation that's exploding with meaning, that's very current, that's very now.

Recommended listening:
· Vijay Iyer - Panoptic Modes (Red Giant, 2000)
· Fieldwork - Your Life Flashes (Pi, 2002)
· Rudresh Mahanthappa - Black Water (Red Giant, 2002)
· Roscoe Mitchell & The Note Factory - Song For My Sister (Pi, 2002)
· Vijay Iyer - Blood Sutra (Artists House, 2003)
· Vijay Iyer - Reimagining (Savoy Jazz, 2004)

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