Emergent
Emergent is the second album by Gordian Knot, a band with a fluid line-up assembled by Sean Malone in 1998. Malone was an exceptionally accomplished multi-instrumentalist, proficient on bass guitar (fretted and fretless), Chapman Stick, guitar and keyboards. He was the American equivalent of the UK’s Steven Wilson. As a gigging musician, he performed a brand of heavy progressive rock, very much like Wilson’s Porcupine Tree. He also taught music theory at universities in the U.S., and he wrote four books on the bass guitar in rock music.
open.spotify.com/album/7rRKPtQ…
The first track on the Emergent album is a 2-minute fretless bass guitar solo that spotlights the technique and versatility of the band leader. Two robust, metal-tinged progressive rock tunes follow, one featuring Steve Hackett on guitar, the other with Bill Bruford on drums. Mister Malone was obviously rubbing shoulders with the best in the business.
The highlight of the album, for me, comes at track 4 with Fischer’s Gambit, a melodic, relaxed prog rock piece with some delightful acoustic guitar work by Jim Matheos.
To kick off the second half of the album, Malone gives us Grace, an ambient Chapman Stick and tape loop solo, recorded live. Emerging from those modern electronic sounds, there are strong echoes of the classical baroque period composers (J. S. Bach, et al.).
Some Brighter Things uses three guitarists to mix melodic and heavy rock passages, very much in the style of Porcupine Tree. The Brook The Ocean sounds like a Stanley Clarke composition – improvised and carelessly wandering. And, to finish the album, Singing Deep Mountain is a pulsing prog rock song with wordless vocals by Sonia Lynn and Malone himself.
Sean Malone was in a number of other bands over the years. On 9th December 2020, a former bandmate, announced that Malone had died two days before, and it was subsequently revealed that his death was suicide. After listening to the Emergent album, I’m sure you will agree that this was a tragic waste of his exceptional talent.