Kevin Finseth with Peggy Lee – The Wounded Quartet

Kevin Finseth is a Vancouver based pianist and the co-owner of the groundbreaking ‘Highlife Records’ shop that has been an institution on Commercial Drive for more than a quarter century.  As a reggae and world music aficionado, Finseth has steered me to dozens of great records and I have fond memories of many discussions about music we’ve had over the years in his shop on busy Saturday afternoons. When I found out that Finseth was also a musician in his own right, my curiosity was piqued.  Preconceptions are funny.  As a ‘world music’ guy, I think I expected that the piano work Finseth cooked up in his quiet hours would sound more like Abdullah Ibrahim or Monty Alexander.  I was ready for deep bass lines and rolling, expansive fills suggesting savannahs and wide-open spaces, but Finseth’s has created his own sound that only rarely touches down in this area. Yet, it is one of the most compelling recordings I’ve heard this year, so sometimes it’s a good thing to have your expectations messed with.

The four piano compositions that make up ‘The Wounded Quartet’ – ‘the distance’, ‘reprieve’, ‘the duel’ and ‘the wounded’ – are subtle, contemplative and have a transformative effect on the listener. Based on repeating themes on the piano that are counterpointed by Peggy Lee’s cello work, each track offers a seductive, relaxing and yet challenging experience.

As I got deeper into to ‘The Wounded Quartet’, I became curious about Finseth’s musical process and the ideas behind the work, so I contacted him and we got together just before Christmas to discuss his new recording.  As soon as we sat down, Finseth opened the conversation with ‘ I have been told that the music on ‘The Wounded Quartet’ crosses a lot of different musical categories.  What genre do you think it falls into?’ A lot of things flashed through my mind – jazz, classical, maybe even new age, but I said ‘trance music’ because of the effect that listening to the EP over and over again had on me.  Sounds, melodies and themes repeat without becoming tedious, and when I told Kevin that I often listened to ‘The Wounded Quartet’ several times in a row without realizing it, he remarked that the whole cycle clocks in at just over twelve minutes.  That surprised me. The whole experience of the music is so expansive and open-ended that I honestly had no idea of how short the recording actual was in dilatory time.  According to Finseth, my listening experience was in no way unique. “People have told me that they put it on repeat and that it takes them somewhere.  I don’t analyze it too much, but if you just let go into this music, it becomes like a deep breathing exercise.  There is comfort in it somehow.”

It’s an interesting concept: making comforting, relaxing spacious music that still maintains compositional integrity and doesn’t slide off into somnambulistic repetitions that go nowhere.  Throughout ‘The Wounded Quartet’, Finseth’s playing is assured and imbued with a pleasing percussive ring that is reminiscent at times of a more committed, less aloof Erik Satie.  With its repeated codas and slight variations on themes, Brian Eno’s ‘Discreet Music’ comes to mind, but it would be misleading to suggest that Finseth’s music is strictly ambient in nature.  The inclusion of bass on some tracks changes the emphasis and sonics, suggesting Abdullah Ibrahim’s solo work or a deeper, less dilettantish Idan Raichel. As Finseth said, “ It’s impossible for me to let go of the reggae influence in my music. I want the comfort the sound of the bass gives to me. At first you may not hear it, but I think that the bass is important on the recording because often with an acoustic bass piano combo, you don’t get the dub effect that I can hear. Usually this kind of recording would be more classical sounding and trebly.”

When I asked Finseth about his musical influences and how they shaped this recording, he was forthcoming.  “I spent a lot of years trying to be as good as Herbie Hancock or Chick Corea on piano.  I wanted that level of complexity.  Those were my heroes.  I’ve been playing piano since I was 8 years old, but around the age of sixteen I became crazy about it and I tried to play like them.  At a certain point, one realizes that you’re not able to be in that league, so I’ve come to an acceptance of my limitations as a player, and try to find the beauty in what I actually can do rather than lamenting what I can’t do.  This was an important discovery to me.”

As crucial as Finseth believes the bass to be to the overall sound of ‘The Wounded Quartet’, it is Peggy Lee’s cello work that soars, floats, grabs, grinds and saws its way through each track that really takes the recording to another level.  I was curious about their working relationship and what part Lee took in the compositional process. “I wouldn’t suggest anything to Peggy.  I had made a whole record with her before this called ‘The Captive Road’ and my original idea was that I had a lot of songs I wanted to record and I wanted to get a prominent soloist on each piece.  I was thinking of Gordon Grdina, Paul Pigat and Francois Houle as possible collaborators.  I know some very good musicians and because of the store I have a kind of musical relationship with them. The first person I had in mind was Peggy, but as soon as I heard the sounds she created based on what I had, I thought ‘that’s what I want.’  I want her to play on every track.  Everything she did just lifted the music off of the ground.  So, this piece that became ‘The Wounded Quartet’ was done at the same time as ‘The Captive Road.’  I got into a nice routine of going into this studio in one of the old bank buildings downtown, and I’d go down and do a three hour session once a week for a year.  It was like going to see a therapist.  That’s what I did instead of therapy.  It was soproductive.  I got into this wonderful routine where I’d improvise with the tape rolling and I’d get a sense of whether I had something I wanted to work with more or not. Sometimes I would go into the studio with a theme in mind.  That was the beauty of going in once a week, you’d have time to think and listen to what you’d done. ‘The Wounded Quartet’ came out of a thirty minute long set of variations on a theme that were improvised.  We edited the whole session down to those four pieces.”

As a reviewer, it’s easy to get jaded and become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of music that is sent to me every day.  As good as some artists and their songs are, at times everything blends together and I hear nothing clearly.  Something about the purity and simplicity of Kevin Finseth’s approach to music has cut through all of that, and ‘The Wounded Quartet’ for all its modesty has become a recording I return to over and over again without any diminishing of enjoyment.  Finseth hinted that it is perhaps this very modesty that makes the whole project so appealing. “At this point, I’ve begun to realize what I can do that might be unique in some way to me and I really enjoy doing it.  I made five hundred copies of this disc, so my market is small.  I’m happy and comfortable with that number because I don’t have to spend a lot of time getting my music out into the world any other way than hand by hand.  Also, at this point in my life, I can only take so much indifference, so I’d be quite happy if five hundred people in the world get to hear and enjoy this music. That’s enough for me!’

The world would be a much better place if everybody felt and acted that way.  ‘The Wounded Quartet’ is a beautiful, personal music offering that you will likely never tire of.

‘The Wounded Quartet’ by Kevin Finseth featuring Peggy Lee is available at: itunes, CD Baby, and at Highlife Records in Vancouver. (www.highlifeworld.com)