Alex Varty
Benoît Delbecq and Andy Milne are tired. The two pianists woke up in Nova Scotia after playing a pair of shows at Halifax’s Dunn Theatre, then headed south by air. The trip involved an extended stay with U.S. Customs, where armed guards looked skeptically at Delbecq’s French passport before giving him a thorough going-over. After picking up a car in New York City, they spent another two hours on the freeway before grabbing a quick meal. By the time we talk, it’s near midnight.
But within seconds of picking up the phone at Milne’s Pennsylvania abode, the two collaborators are audibly beaming: while they’ve each performed with many brilliant musicians, their Crystal Magnets duo is clearly something special. And, as they happily explain, it’s been some 20 years in the making.
The two first met at the Banff Centre in 1990, where saxophonist and composer Steve Coleman was directing the summer jazz program.
“I remember thinking, ‘This guy has got so much shit together,’ ” the Hamilton, Ontario–born Milne recalls, with Delbecq listening on the other line. “I was very inspired by the clarity of vision that you had—and at that age too.”
“I was digging Andy’s playing from the first minute I heard him,” Delbecq concurs, noting that he and Milne actually had a three-way mutual- admiration society going on, the third member being Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson.
“It was pretty incredible, that summer in Banff,” Delbecq continues. “So when Andy called me three years ago to propose this project, I thought, ‘Yeah! Yeah, of course.’ I remember putting down the phone and going, ‘Wow! Playing with Andy Milne!’ It was quite a challenge because I’ve really been digging his playing for years.”
The two returned to Banff in the winter of 2008, where they spent three weeks writing, rehearsing, and recording Where Is Pannonica? for release on Vancouver’s Songlines label.
The album has clearly benefited from what, for a “jazz” project, was an unusually long gestation. And what I haven’t heard of it is presumably even more enticing: the disc is playable in both stereo and five-channel surround-sound formats, with the latter including two bonus tracks. Surround sound is an obsession of Songlines owner Tony Reif, and both Delbecq and Milne agree that it offers some intriguing options for the creative musician.
“I usually mix in stereo first, to create a nice soundscape,” Delbecq says. “And then of course once you’ve done with the stereo mix and you switch to the multichannel mix, you’re kind of playing, like it’s a toy or something. You’re just like a little kid: ‘Oh, can we have this resonance come from behind, or come from the top?’ So it’s kind of playful to mix in multichannel, and it’s playful to listen to, also.”
Milne adds that working in the multichannel format has given him some fresh ideas about how to approach the music in performance—which should prove interesting, given that Crystal Magnets’ otherworldly mix of fluidly improvised melodies and percussive prepared-piano textures is already an entirely unique and fascinating sound.
Crystal Magnets plays a free Performance Works showcase at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday (February 27) as part of the Winterruption festival.