[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1308921412 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]
Tony Passarell gathers a quartet on the album when that isn’t his usual jazz outing. It’s pure outing, as in outward bound — and like much outward bound music, inward as well. The record’s title suggests both a manner of being and a rhetorical question. The music is peaceful, languid, and somehow also unnerving. It has the vibe of snippets left behind by the late legendary producer Teo Macero after a long overnight fusion session: pure mood, pure tone. Building blocks to be admired and experienced rather than employed as mere elements of construction. Chords hang in the air, as does time itself. The group features Passarell on keyboards and percussion, instead of his usual horns, along with Kim Nguyen (flute, voice), Robert Kuhlman (guitar, effects), and Tim Onorato (bass, effects). A times, as with the ceremonial crashing cymbals at the start of “shins to orion,” there is a consciously vexatious quality, but in general the music here is more harmonic than rhythmic, more static than active. From the slow vamp of “galaxy blues,” to the meandering flute line of “whats that up there,” to the feedback-edge guitar on “resolve,” the album is track after track of slow exploration, and a testament to the group’s mutual attentiveness. Get when on Bandcamp.