Montreal jazz club Dièse Onze sometimes transforms itself into a record label, and that’s what it’s doing here with this new opus by Californian saxophonist David Binney. I say saxophonist, but he’s also a keyboardist and electronic hacker, which is particularly important on this album, In The Arms Of Light, where he concentrates on the latter and not the former. No sax, then, just keyboard synths, like Brian Eno and Wendy Carlos fused into a single stylistic matrix. For those who heard Binney live at Montreal’s Anti-Jazz Police Festival (read my review HERE), the shock will be violent. It has nothing to do with the biting groove and free saxophone flights we heard at Ursa. For those of you a little more familiar with his discography, In The Arms Of Light is more reminiscent of Where Infinity Begins. Like its big brother, In The Arms Of Light creates steamy atmospheres with a few colourful punctuations here and there. Neo-New Age? In any case, in addition to the influences mentioned above, there’s a hint of other sources such as David Lanz or Tangerine Dream, but in a version totally devoid of the slightest beat or pulse. Nothing but soaring, weightless floating.
