LEVEL by Eric Hofbauer & The Infrared Band

LEVEL is Boston-based guitarist/composer Eric Hofbauer’s second recording with his quartet, The Infrared Band. Like its predecessor, 2008’s Myth Understanding (Creative Nation Music), this release revels in Hofbauer’s penchant for wit and wordplay (the title is a palindrome), but the primary concept behind his newest compositions is a thematic exploration of balance and duality.

“The music on LEVEL, like most of my work, explores the human condition using sound to tell stories,” writes Hofbauer in the liner notes. “Historian and writer Joseph Campbell believed the new myths of the 21st century would be written in music. LEVEL embraces that idea, and offers nine mythology-themed pieces about duality in the universe and in life—two sides trying to find balance.”

Inspired by the universal dichotomies of good vs. evil, fate vs. chance and conflict vs. resolution, these pieces also reference such narrative examples as the mythological twins Castor and Pollux, Act II, Scene I of Julius Caesar and the W.B. Yeats poem, “The Second Coming.” On a musical level, Hofbauer draws on styles ranging from the blues to bebop to free jazz to a 12-tone row, while also making allusions to Albert Ayler and Jelly Roll Morton among others.

“Hofbauer brings a wealth of historical antecedents to his playfully inventive compositions,” wrote AllAboutJazz.com’s Troy Collins in his review of Myth Understanding, which he called “a sterling debut.” The Providence Phoenix’s Jim Macnie adds, “the leader bounces through an array of swinging originals that aren’t afraid to look around corners and investigate odd areas. Like most jazz, the music is based on nuance—careful listening is rewarded in numerous ways. Saxophonist Kelly Roberge is an able foil for Hofbauer, and their rhythm section is terrifically agile.”

Press Quotes
LEVEL is an impressive contemporary jazz record full of space and fierce intelligence.
—Colin Buttimer, BBC

Here’s the tension between structure and freedom that defined that first album (Myth Understanding, 2008) and so much of the best post-’60s avant-garde. But here’s the thing: Hofbauer has developed a hard-bopper’s skill with hooky song forms. Wherever these guys roam, the thematic material is never far from sight, and there’s always deliberation in what they do. If you’re going to experiment, do it with authority. Somewhere, Charles Mingus is smiling.
—Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix

Back in 2008 this band—the only change here being bassist Sean Farias in for Michael Montgomery—produced one of the best albums of that year. In 2011, they’ve gone and done it again. Like Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols and Andrew Hill, guitarist Eric Hofbauer’s music benefits enormously from having the right musicians to bring it to fruition, and in this instance he’s blessed…with the extraordinary depth of empathetic interplay that clearly comes quite naturally to these players…a band with no agenda other than that of making highly distinctive music.
—Nic Jones, AllAboutJazz

Eric Hofbauer & The Infrared Band’s LEVEL might be trying to conjure up modern day mythology, but the sophistication and virtuosity that went into making these recordings is no made up story. No, these guys are for real.
—S. Victor Aaron, Something Else!

"The Infrared Band proves the thesis that Hofbauer and his band embrace modernity over tradition, that very particular post-bop modern that can be traced from the Second Great Miles Davis Quintet and its offshoots " - Colin Buttimer, BBC