Nicolas Meier walks on stage in un-pressed brown cords, dark weathered trainers and an offensive lime-green checked shirt. His hair spiked purposefully upright, he sports a trimmed metal goatee and a childish grin.

And then he picks up a guitar. A sea of oriental-tinged notes fall effortlessly from his hands as he stands straight, looking up, eyes closed, pensive. He begins to cycle an ethnic, abrasive, metal-mutation of a riff. The band repeats the figure, shifting key, building up a claustrophobic tension that finally breaks when they resolve to a monotonous Asian drone, a platform for the stratospheric improvisations to come.

Moments of serenity follow, and the piece returns to the same brazen, staccato riff. Every composition is a Mahavishnu-inspired metaphysical journey through the corners of the globe; different landscapes, sensations, textures and emotions. Meier approaches his nylon-string guitar like a beast he wants to tame. Aggressive but full of love, he attacks it with forceful pyrotechnic runs; equal parts McLaughlin-inspired fusion, De Lucia-inspired flamenco and ethnic modes learnt from his Turkish wife’s homeland. The virtuoso also uses fretless 6 and 11-string guitars, a three string-Turkish instrument known as a Shaz, and a somewhat out-of-place Fender Stratocaster.

Taking a break from his Orient House Ensemble, sax and clarinet legend Gilad Atzmon joins Meier in the front line. His solos mark the climax of every piece; Coltranes of sound spew out as he finds a theme, builds it up, down, round, contorts it in all directions, his body rocking back and forth like a manic science professor. At peaks he takes the sax mouthpiece off, chanting strange mantras through it like some kind of prehistoric shaman.

And when the piece dies down, he steps back, calm, and makes a joke. Banter flows between Meier and Atzmon all night – at times irreverent and amusing, others oblique and nonsensical.

Drummer Laurence Lowe empowered the music with dynamic rock-tinged energy. Patrick Bettison stepped in to play electric bass an hour before the gig, and layered the pieces with moody octave drones. Playing material from the bands new third album Silence Talks, the music succeeded in drawing on both the stylistic and conceptual facets of ethnic music in an exciting an accessible way. Meier manages the feat of being both technically gifted and audibly enticing, with geeky guitar explorations and complicated compositions rarely sounding this engaging or soulful.

Photos by Bob Meyrick (c)

Nicolas Meier played for Jazz Steps at the Bonington Theatre, Arnold on Thursday 8 May 2008.

Jazz Steps website

 

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