Stillpoint

Chris Gestrin is a great new talent, a Vancouver-based pianist, keyboardist and composer who might occasionally put you in mind of Bill Evans or Keith Jarrett, if either of those masters were young today and equally at home with the acoustic and the electronic, jazz and ambient. His handpicked, versatile quintet, featuring trumpeter Brad Turner (of the Canadian band Metalwood) and masterful drummer Dylan van der Schyff, creates rich images in sound. From a tender solo piano improvisation to swirling group inventions, a "narrative" of almost cinematic sweep unfolds. Gestrin's compositions range across jazz, experimental music, new age and world music for their ideas, but this is not "fusion" in any ordinary sense, there is too much originality and panache for that. The sessions were recorded in 24-bit/96K sound and mixed in analogue; the stereo version is a thing of beauty, while the multi-channel remix to Direct Stream Digital opens on an imaginary environment that connoisseurs of surround sound, whether jazz fans or not, will surely appreciate.