Despite the obvious obstacles, this singular San Francisco Bay Area band is staying on mission, moving forward. Over its four-plus decades, the quartet has defined itself by applying an array of improvisational strategies to an ever-expanding body of new music.
The Circumference of Reason includes six tracks composed or, in the case of the piece "NC17," designed between 2011 and 2016. Then – in typical ROVA fashion – the pieces were worked over and performed by the quartet in rehearsals and concerts until perceived to be ready for recording. They include an arrangement of a Glenn Spearman piece as well as a piece by Steve Adams dedicated to Glenn; the playing on both inspired by that expressive saxophonist’s spirited personality and playing.
As well, this recording features two distinctly different versions of NC17, another in the series of ROVA’s structured-improvisations, all of which have been designed using an ever-expanding set of visual and aural cues that the quartet has invented, or borrowed and adapted. On its face, "NC17" is simply a specific set of conceptual options to cue in, in any order, and to then explore, populating the spontaneously chosen series of cued events with immersive music/sounds/energies etc.
The group creates a palpable sonic architecture for each new performance of the piece. Even as we write this, we can say that the takes of "NC17" you will hear on this CD are unique; no one take of "NC17" can be exactly the same as any other take of "NC17."
“ROVA performances can reach the soaring lyrical intensity of bel canto, the rough-and-tumble tumult of a garage rock band, or the insistently patterned matrix of a minimalist chamber work.” So wrote Andrew Gilbert in 2018. The piece from which the CD’s title comes, "The Circumference of Reason," is a good example of a minimalist piece when penned by a ROVA composer, in this case Steve Adams.
1. The Extrapolation of the Inevitable
2. NC 17, Version 1
3. The Circumference of Reason
4. Xenophobia
5. NC 17, Version 2
6. The Enumeration
Bruce Ackley – soprano and tenor saxophones
Steve Adams – alto and sopranino saxophones
Larry Ochs – tenor sax
Jon Raskin – baritone sax
Recorded on 6/22/18, 9/23/18 and 7/1/19 at New Improved Recording by John Finkbeiner.
Mixed on 1/16/19, 1/23/19 and 8/2/19 at New Improved Recording by John Finkbeiner and Steve Adams.
Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha Labs.
Produced by Steve Adams.
