Timeless Flow

Tracklist

1. The Shadow And The Light6:17
2. Monk's Frock4:07
3. Una Storia Italiana7:19
4. Two Windows3:28
5. Timeless Flow6:47
6. Ladina Randulina5:31
7. Cecile's Chant5:02
8. Malaga5:23
9. Hymn For Peace8:29
10. 711 Olokele Avenue6:20

Personnel & credits

• Patrick Sommer (2)Bass
• Tony RenoldDrums
• Michael Bucher (2)Guitar
• Michael GassmannTrumpet

About this record

Genre

Jazz

Style

Contemporary Jazz

Discogs

View on Discogs ↗

Press

“Wo die Welt ihre scharfen Konturen verliert, die Linien sich in Silhouetten aufloesen”Herbst in der Helferei (artist/festival page, quoting critic Christoph Merki) ↗

“A soothing, partly meditative album with floating and lyrical sounds at a high level.”CeDe.ch (Swiss retailer, customer/editorial description) ↗

“Renold se presente aussi parfois comme un chef d'orchestre style”stephanathanas.ch (Tony Renold biography page) ↗

Reception

"Timeless Flow" (released April 18, 2005, Universal Music Switzerland, cat. 476304-0) is Swiss drummer Tony Renold's debut as a leader, presenting his own compositions for the first time after roughly two decades as a sideman. It was recorded September 17-18, 2004 at Radio Studio Zürich. The quartet is Tony Renold (drums), Michael Gassmann (trumpet), Michael Bucher (guitar) and Patrick Sommer (bass), with ten Renold originals (Shadow And The Light, Monk's Frock, Una Storia Italiana, Two Windows, the title track, Ladina Randula, Cecile's Chant, Malaga, Hymn For Peace, 711 Okolele Avenue).

Dedicated critical reception is sparse. The most substantive press trace is a line attributed to Swiss jazz critic Christoph Merki, framing Renold's music as beginning where the world loses its sharp contours and lines dissolve into silhouettes — i.e. a soft, atmospheric, lyrical aesthetic. Retailer/database descriptions (CeDe.ch, Radio Swiss Jazz) consistently characterize the record as an even, harmonically and melodically refined quartet date that gives strong soloists ample improvisational space, with a soothing, partly meditative, floating and lyrical quality. Biographical pages cite "Timeless Flow" as evidence of Renold's poise as a bandleader-composer alongside his later albums "Places" and "Cycle of Life."

No full-length reviews from major jazz outlets (AllMusic, All About Jazz, JazzTimes, Down Beat, Musica Jazz) were located. AllMusic returns no entry for this title; All About Jazz's Tony Renold Quartet tag page returned HTTP 403; the album is now out of print. On Discogs the release carries a single 5/5 user rating but no written review text. Caution: a separate classical musicologist also named Michael Gassmann exists online; none of the praise here is generic — it pertains to this specific Renold quartet recording.

Background

Tony Renold (b. 1958, Brugg/Aargau, Switzerland) is a Swiss jazz drummer-percussionist who studied with Pierre Favre, at the Swiss Jazz School Bern, and in the USA (Boston/New York), and taught for years at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). "Timeless Flow" is his first album as leader and the first time he presented his own compositions, a body of writing accumulated over about twenty years. Recorded September 17-18, 2004 at Radio Studio Zürich and released April 18, 2005 on Universal Music Switzerland (476304-0). Michael Gassmann's credited role is trumpet (Discogs lists his contribution as Appearance). The same core quartet (Renold, Gassmann, Bucher, Sommer) continued to perform years later, e.g. at Sternensaal Wohlen on May 17, 2014. Renold's later leader dates include "Places" (Unit Records) and "Cycle of Life" (Babuns Records). The album is now out of print.