March 2008

Chris Gestrin
After the City Has Gone: Quiet
Songlines

By Forrest Dylan Bryant

Recorded over a three-day period in 2004, this two-disc set of stark improvisations places pianist Gestrin in ever-changing trio, duo and solo settings with a dozen compatriots from Vancouver’s creative music scene. The pieces are quiet and roomy, suffused with a cool northwestern mist as they roam through soft scribblings, mysterious foreign landscapes and composed-sounding impressionist sketches. Remarkably, the diverse pieces all feel like parts of a planned whole, a freeform Zen suite to be contemplated and absorbed.