Review by Des Cowley.
KYM ALEXANDRA DILLON – VENDESTINY (Amica Records, CD, vinyl and digital release).
Amica Records is a newish label founded by Melbourne pianist Nat Bartsch. It was initially created as a vehicle for her own music, but has since branched out to release music by a small group of like-minded artists. Bartsch classifies her music as residing in the nexus between jazz and classical (or neo-classical), a cross-genre approach that provides her plenty of latitude when it comes to Amica’s direction.
Little wonder then she has signed pianist Kym Alexandra Dillon, who now joins label stablemates like composer Cassie To, or saxophonist Jonathon Crompton. Like Bartsch, Dillion is a fellow genre-hopper, comfortable straddling jazz and classical. She’s been a finalist in the Australian Art Music Awards, been commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, garnered the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music/Recital Centre composition prize in 2023, and performed at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
Such crisscrossing is, of course, nothing new. We could point to Chick Corea’s or Brad Mehldau’s forays into the classical cannon, Stravinsky’s occasional dabbling in jazz or, closer to home, Mark Isaacs’s six-decade-long career switching back and forth between classical and jazz. But it does strike me that it’s an increasingly frequent phenomenon, especially in the local jazz scene, perhaps fostered by a greater teaching emphasis on original composition and improvisation.
But first things first – what does Dillon mean by her mysterious album title? Try googling Vendestiny and you’ll be directed straight back to Dillon. It’s a made-up word, she says, “that came to me to stand for how our own individual stories intersect with the stories of those around us, how a person possesses many different sides and ways of being.” Seen in that light, it’s possible to view the multi-strand lines and melodies weaving through her music as potential connections, or the branching out of possibilities.
Vendestiny presents eight new compositions for solo piano. What connects these pieces is Dillon’s exquisite touch, which seems to float – airily and seamlessly – across the album’s thirty-six-minute runtime. Recorded on a Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano, her playing resonates with warmth and sentiment, attuned to the same subtle gradations of sound and silence we associate with ECM recordings.
Opener ‘Vanishing Act’ presents as a romantic overture, though Dillon’s lush, cascading flurries ultimately steers the piece into deeper waters. ‘Bells Across the Hills’, on the other hand, is highlighted by Dillon’s languid oscillation between upper and lower registers, its glacial progression rife with deep-rooted feeling. ‘Travelling Tune’ and ‘Three Two One’ both possess a jaunty, improvised air, their sunny and optimistic melodies veering into Keith Jarrett territory. The album’s most patently beautiful track, ‘For Honour’, manifests a minimalist approach ingrained with the simplicity of a Satie miniature; while the swirling figures at the heart of ‘Connexions’ are endowed with a filmic quality. Closing the album is ‘The Waves’, a serene and tranquil piece filled with Dillon’s swarming notes, lending the piece an austere and graceful character.
While Vendestiny deviates markedly in style, cherry-picking from classical and jazz idioms, I came away with an impression that these were thoroughly composed pieces. But it turns out the reality is far more complex. Dillon has acknowledged (in an interview with Rhonda Rizzo) that her compositions grew out of an improvisatory process, whereby she’d toy with material, and record whatever she came up with. After listening back, she’d refine the process, time and again, until she’d gradually memorized each piece via repetition, without ever having written the music down. In short, says Dillon, “I was never worrying about exactly how to notate things, I just made happen whatever my imagination was hearing, whatever I could get my hands to do.” Such a bold and unconventional compositional process testifies to Dillon’s imaginative approach. Vendestiny is a strikingly mature debut that traverses a wealth of musical terrain in a short space, its underlying richness and complexity unlocked with repeat listening.
I admit that I thought the album had something to do with how our destinies touch in Venn diagrams.