CD REVIEW: Mark Turner Quartet - Lathe of Heaven

To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven.” So goes the beautiful quote at the heart of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1971 novel which inspires acclaimed saxophonist Mark Turner’s first release as leader on ECM.

The quote evokes the rich web of allusion and mystery which permeates this record, full of compositions crafted with great care and acute sonic sensitivity. With Avishai Cohen on trumpet matching him step for step, Turner gracefully spins out long lyrical phrases of finely wrought counterpoint, which lie in suspended animation above Marcus Gilmore’s fluid drumming and Joe Martin’s cool, understated bass. In this quartet without a chordal instrument there is plenty of space for Turner and Cohen’s delicate polyphony, and as the lines unfold, each consonance and dissonance feels perfectly judged. Nothing is overwrought: as Turner himself says, “I like when things are defined by negative space. It creates mystery when things are left unsaid”. 

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