LAND is in the vanguard of music groups whose work transcends cultural and stylistic boundaries. Distinctive inst rumentalists with a keen sense of sonority and dynamics, the members of LAND skillfully interweave elements of jaz z, rock, and ambient musics with driving rhythms to create a unique blend of composed and improvised music using b oth acoustic and electronic instruments. LAND successfully combines the electric with the organic to produce musi c that is at once strikingly modern and imbued with primordial mystery.
Formed in 1993 by world-renowned ambient composer Jeff Greinke, LAND adds a new dimension of rhythmic energy and i nstrumental color to Greinke's richly textured atmospherics. The Seattle-based group quickly earned critical accl aim for its innovative live performances and its first CD, released in 1995 on the Australian-based Extreme label. In November 1996 LAND performed at the Beijing International Jazz Festival and in Hong Kong, Macau, and other cit ies in China. Their second CD, Archipelago, on Seattle's Periplum label, was released in July 1997.
Road Movies, released February 2001 on First World (FWD), is a collection of nine compositions primarily recorded live in the studio. It is the first release featuring the powerful rhythm section of Bill Rieflin and Fred Chalen or who lend a more propulsive, focused, and dynamic element to the group. Hence, Road Movies is sometimes intense, other times playful, often beautiful, and always a fascinating listening experience.
Selected Reviews of LAND's recordings:
"LAND breaks the barriers on the obstacle course of East-meets West fusion...exotic and liquid quicksilver improvi sation...a revisioning of Fourth World rhythmic shibboleths upon which found sounds are cleverly flourished."--The Wire (UK)
"To listen to LAND is to imagine what the product of a collaboration between Brian Eno and Miles Davis would have sounded like. This is a truly beautiful record not to be missed by those unafraid to hear new directions in jazz and experimental music."--Detroit Metro Times
"Intriguing electro-acoustic music... LAND works because it takes chances--smart experimental music that avoids in tellectual trappings, possessing a strong sense of identity and cohesiveness."-- Alternative Press
"The music LAND creates is at once dreamily vaporous and soulfully rhythmic."--Seattle Times
"Exotic, trans-global soundscapes...sounds like Spike Jones meets John Cage at a rave party."--Echoes
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