Odysseus by George Winstone

Spontaneously composed from beginning to end, instrumental album "Odysseus" is a striking duo venture between progressive saxophonist George Winstone & iconic guitarist Ben Monder.

On this recording mixed by GRAMMY-winning engineer Joseph Branciforte, Monder’s enormous sound is like an impossible hydra: a dark, formless, and holy beast roping a thousand shimmering necks around mountains and clouds. Saxophonist Winstone plays the hero’s part: wandering, climbing, searching, pondering, and fighting.

George Winstone - Alto Saxophone
Ben Monder - Guitar

Audio in WAV 96KhZ

Recorded January 3rd 2022, Big Orange Sheep Studios


Liner Notes:

The idea for the title Odysseus came far after the music for the album had been recorded. All the music on this album was fully improvised in the recording session. We recorded around nearly two hours of improvising, broken into 20-30 minute segments each. I’d already performed for the first time with Ben the month prior, and there similarly we improvised the whole set. I knew Bens ears, harmonic inventiveness, and sonic palette were so developed and deep that, I trusted the music would sound more ‘composed’ rather than ‘free’ when we came to improvising together.

With all the material recorded, I listened back and found my favorite moments of the recording session, and organized them in a way that felt natural. Listening back to the music, the soundscapes and moods evoked in the recordings brought a sense of the epic and the ancient. I conceived in my mind the notion of a hero’s journey as I listened back - the music doesn’t feel immediately relatable to our present world situation. Here from this sense came the title Odysseus, one of the principal characters in Greek Mythology and whose story is synonymous with the notion of a hero’s journey. Similarly I named the tracks as part 1, part 2, etc. to add to this sense of a journey/story the listener goes on.

I hope that the music provides a sense/link back to before the hyper fragmented modern world. To a more abstract, chaotic time, reaching into prehistory - something ancient mythology tries to touch upon. I hope whoever is reading this goes on a journey when they listen to this album and feels this ‘prehistory’ in the here and now.

Thanks
George

US based Saxophonist, Composer Pianist

georgewinstone.com