The Sound Convincer, States of Transmigration, Dimitar Pentchev

When a classically-trained pianist turns to improvisation, one can expect something different than when a jazz or avant jazz pianist goes about it. How different and how convincing of course depends on the artist involved, no less than in the realms of jazz.

With this in mind I turn to an album by The Sound Convincer, aka the Canadian pianist Dimitar Pentchev, and the album States of Transmigration (self-released). It is basically a solo piano outing with the addition of percussion and/or electronics, voices and various sonic backdrops as needed.

Dimitar sees this music as related to the cadences and rhythms of human speech, and you can certainly hear inflections that reference back to the spoken word.

We get 13 improvisation-compositions in all, each of which shows a different aspect of Dimitar's approach to musical sound. Some have minimalist repetitive thrust, some are balladic musings, some have an openness coupled with speech-like rhythmic drive.

Atmospheric, structured, sometimes cadenza-like, sometimes nocturnal, all the music comes at us in pleasing ways, but does not make use of the jazz or free jazz vocabulary, and in this way Dimitar evokes his own roots (classical and modern classical) with poetic, personal expression. He utilizes inside-the-piano and prepared modes at times to extend the sound available to him, all to good result. And so ultimately he gives us another way to express an open style, different than what you might typically hear from a jazz practitioner.

Most importantly the music captures moods and ways of expression that ring true as they bring us to a variety of places. It is never dull, continually enlivening and provides us with a music that is interesting and prosaic-poetic. If you are pianistically inclined and look for something different and out of the ordinary, here is a place to find it. Well done!