Vijay Iyer & Hermes Ensemble & e-XXI

Vijay Iyer is entirely self-taught. He belongs in the highest ranks in the small world of jazz pianists. Audacious, original and with mild irony, he manages to dazzle his listeners, by means of the smallest sound that can lie between two notes. He creates magic, hypnotic zones where Carnatic music merges with jazz, where Beethoven and Ligeti run into 'Prince' and 'The Police'. What results is a provocative, hybrid soundscape. Rhythmically complex, mysteriously orchestrated and with an innovative texture. Iyer wrote 'Interventions' on commission to Russell Davies' American Composers Orchestra. The work alternates between scored sections and group improvisation. The performers decide in real time on actions that are contrapuntally related. 'Mutations' is a suite in ten movements for string quartet, piano and laptop. As a soloist, Iyer delivers commentary from the sidelines, in the style of Ellington: the pianist is, on the stage, a stand-in for the audience. To paraphrase Truman Capote, Iyers' music cunningly pushes itself 'into a little corner of your soul'.