It should come as no surprise that some of the most
viscerally exciting music should come from parts unknown – not just as far
removed as Southern India and Azerbaijan, but more and more lately, from the
even more remotely located Indonesia and Thailand. There is ample proof on the
nine-track-long Regards to You II by a
guitarist – from Thailand – the prodigiously talented Julphan Tilapornputt. The
quality of his musicianship – both as a composer as well as an instrumentalist
– is quite beyond category and in a word: flawless. To start with, Tilapornputt
conveys a very strong and individual sense of tonal individuality. To say that
this comes from imbibing the traditional music of his respective cultural
surroundings would be telling only half the story. It may be a fact that Mr
Tilapornputt’s compositions suggest a melting in the air of Thailand where
Indian, Chinese, and even Persian musics collide, but in performance,
suggestions of the esoteric soon dissipate and are replaced by a thoroughly
modern sensibility.
Julphan Tilapornputt’s music, especially his instrumental
voice has a distinct personality and this helps to underscore the music’s
dramatic qualities, which are a mélange of western counterpoint suffused with
the plaintive lyricism and strutting bravado of the music that the guitarist
grew up with. Interpreting the proclivities of the form and function of each Mr
Tilapornputt makes his trills into mischievous flourishes played on radiant
strings as well as to the rich variety of articulation and dynamic gradation throughout
this fine programme. The flawless performance continues from the opening bars
of “Bricks,” through “Resurrection” and “Number One.” The guitarist is fond of
using tenderness as a floating motif embedded within intangible harmonies like
disappearing smoke. His counterpoint on “Galleria,” for example, is absolutely
eternal and primeval. And it is
fascinating how on “Number One,” the opening solo guitar appears to reflect the
contrary motion of the instrument’s mechanism while still constituting ‘music’
strong and interesting enough to be rendered on the tenor saxophone, bass and
superbly brushed drums that follow. Impressive, too, is the way that small
details are given expressive import from the time the bass begins soloing until
the time that Mr Tilapornputt’s guitar takes over once again.
The sheer gifted nature of the young guitarist’s playing,
his ingenuity and beguiling sound-world of vocal-like phrasing that coaxes the
saxophone, the bass and the drums to follow suit and his redistribution of the
musical parts and roles of each musician are most ingenious to the point of
being almost bold. The whimsy of his strummed lines, broken up by single notes
and block chords ensures that the rhythm of his music is nicely etched into the
languid melodies that dance across the music on this disc. Add to everything
else Julphan Tilapornputt’s eloquence and passion and it all adds up to
something truly rewarding for the connoisseur of guitar enthusiasts.
Tracks: Bricks;
Songs For My Uncle; Regards To You II; Up To The River; Milky Assembling;
Resurrection; From The End Of Tales; Galleria; Number 1.
Personnel:
Julphan Tilapornputt: guitar; Joe Wagner: tenor saxophone; Jeong Hwan Park:
bass; Ken Ychicawa: drums.