Rob Mazurek “Scattered Amplitudes”, Milano, Intermezzo 11, 09.08.2022

Rob Mazurek is for sure one of the emerging instrumentalists and composers of contemporary jazz music, but not only. Famous at the end of the 1990s and at the beginning of 2000s for his collaborations with musicians related to post-rock as Tortoise or Jim O’Rourke, after a while Mazurek started becoming involved in improvised combos like the Chicago Underground Duo and Trio, with fellow drummer Chad Taylor and guitarist Jeff Parker.

At the same time his love for electronic composition and large ensembles gave shape to the Exploding Star Orchestra. But his love for contemporary composers led Mazurek to pay hommage to, only to make a name, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris and his music in a solo performance held in 2015 at the S. Anna Arresi Festival “Ai Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz” where he played trumpet, piano and electronics alone in an intriguing and intimate hommage to one of the greatest conducers of all times.

But this evening the little gallery Intermezzo 11 in Milano, instead of offering a live set by Mazurek opened up the doors to an exhibition of sculptures made of fabric by Mazurek himself. In his own words: “Amplitudes in space time continuum. Pieces of material. An arc equals hotizontal/latitude. Another arc vertical/longitude. Pure color space. Layers. Amplitudes. Combining and shapeshifting we realize a place in pure space.

Layers. Amplitudes in the astronomical sense. These lines or arcs are not a boudary but demarcations in a pure space. As we discover more and more galaxies the idea of boundaries become even more absurd. We are beings on one on millions of planets in this pure space. Discovering my own limitations through the medium of physical making, I try and conjure thoughts of the infinite with these pieces that have no beginning nor ending.

It is these places between thought and the action I am interested in”. As you can see by the photos accompanying this post, the fabrics are a space between another space, where different lines and shapes intertwine themselves without limits nor end. The same space between them is a continuation of the works. This way, we are compelled to experience visually – but almost tactily – this absence of boundaries Mazurek talks about in his small writing.

In a way this fabric sculptures are not quite dissimilar to his own music. If you listen to it carefully, in effect, you can feel the same sense of continuity from one instrument to the other, both in solo and in group performances. Being in between the thought and the action means possibly that while you play, you are compelled to feel yourself and transmit yourself under shape of music. This gives you this sensation of being without borders because borders happens, even if under an illusion, because of yourself being disrupted, forced to belong to the realm of thought totally, or to that of action.

If you belong to the first realm, you are closed into your own mind. If you act without the thought, you possibly do mistakes, or something not related to yourself and what’s behind you at the same time. Being in this place in between the twos is the only opportunity to unite the two realms and ... flow. Flow as a person, or let the music flow if you are a musician. In any case, don’t miss the opportunity to see this exhibition while in Milano this week.