Alfred Jarry is an experimental jazz duo that takes its name from the inventor of ’pataphysics—“the science of imaginary solutions that symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments.” Based in Vancouver, the duo performs its chimerical species of jazz by taking its cues as much from the electronic sound design of Autechre and Pan Sonic as the idiosyncratic stylings of Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus.
Eldritch Priest (guitar, Casino DH-100)
Brady Cranfield (Elektron Analog Rytm, Roland HD-1 V-Drums Lite)
Alfred Jarry’s first two albums, Deep Fauna and Deep Flora, allude to ways of looking at and listening more deeply into communities and forms of life as they might be ordered and expressed apart from humanity’s anthropocentric and exploitative purview. The titles of these works are also metaphors for an aesthetic attitude that aims to swerve from the prevailing genre conventions, mixing free improvisation and composition to develop an approach in which traditional musical elements are rendered not so much irrelevant as decoupled from their usual roles.
Deep Fauna moves between (mostly) highly distended but recognizable jazz standards by Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus and improvised tracks that express the moods if not the forms or “singability” of these songs.
Deep Flora, however, departs more radically from Deep Fauna in its complete abandonment of harmonic material and formal convention with a set of spontaneous sound-gestures.
Eldritch Priest is a composer and improviser. His compositions, which have been performed in NA and EU, are characterized by their ob/excessive approach to melody, not in a systematic or meaningful sense, but in the sense that they don’t stop and are utterly foolish. His improvisations are like this too, but improvised. Eldritch is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Toronto-based experiential music ensemble Neither/Nor and former member of the Ottawa Sun Ra tribute outfit Rake Star. Eldritch is also a professor at Simon Fraser University and a member of the experimental theory group The Occulture.
Brady Cranfield is a sound and visual artist, musician, and writer. His work has been presented nationally and internationally. He was the co-founder and operator of the record store and venue Selectors’ Records, which specialized in electronic and experimental music and dub. He holds a MA in Communications and a MFA from Simon Fraser University.