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Trance Map (Evan Parker & Matthew Wright): Horizons Held Close
By
Evan Parker
saxophone, sopranob.1944
Instead, the two long cutseach nudging the 25-minute markerunfold not as dialogues but as proliferationsa welter of voices, a sonic strata in constant flux, a mesmeric journey-building, a domain that resists easy mapping. It evokes all manner of parallels: a rainforest insect chorus, a troop of Scottish pipers transported to the Central Asian steppe, spillage from a distant concert, radio interference. What might seem amorphous resolves, with patient attention, into a form of evolving minimalism where even the smallest inflection registers as seismic.
"Ulaanbadrakh" begins in a haze of scratchy off-white noise, through which Parker threads fragile, flute-like figures. Bell-like tolls surface, only to be swallowed by glitchy textures. At times, the chirruping soprano extends into tones so prolonged they suggest more than human enduranceis it accompanied by ghosts conjured from Wright's deft manipulations, or is it just Parker's prodigious technique? A question left unresolved. Cicada-like pulses underpin Parker's switch from plosive quacks to tightly looped staccato, eventually coalescing into an unbroken, radiant stream.
"Bayankhongor" sets Parker's querulous cries against reflective shards, refracted as if by a prism of circuitry. An underlying dull throb suggests a rave in the apartment downstairs, while coded bursts and key pops summon the percussive snap of castanets. Toward the close, Parker unleashes declamatory fanfares that recall the spirit of

John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
Horizons Held Close is less a duo than a hall of mirrors, where human breath and digital process conspire to generate a sound world at once immersive and elusive. Parker and Wright collapse distinctions between improviser and instrument, composition and environment, until what remains is less discourse than atmospheredespite the title, an endlessly shifting horizon that always appears just beyond reach. ">
Track Listing
Ulaanbadrakh; Bayankhongor.
Personnel
Evan Parker
saxophone, sopranoMatthew Wright
electronicsAlbum information
Title: Horizons Held Close | Year Released: 2025 | Record Label: Relative Pitch Records
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