Inner Garden Travis Laplante

INNER GARDEN

TRAVIS LAPLANTE

Inner Garden is an album-length work written by saxophonist Travis Laplante in collaboration with piano/percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire.

This nirvana-inducing three-movement work, which showcases Laplante’s passion for seamlessly merging improvisation and composition, was inspired by a dreamlike state he experienced shortly after receiving the commission from Yarn/Wire, a beloved ensemble he’d shared many stages with in Williamsburg and Lower Manhattan.

“The bands and groups playing were all really amazing and very hard to define,” explains Laplante of those many nights. “It was the intensity that tied everyone together.”

When Laplante and Yarn/Wire finally united in a direct collaboration for Inner Garden it was kinetic energy that mattered more than any style or genre classification.

“Yarn/Wire and I work together in an effortless and open way. There’s a tremendous force in that openness,” explains Laplante. “We’re all on the same page in terms of musical values, even if we all have different ways of describing them, a way of really being patient and allowing for something magical to organically come alive without needing to assert ourselves or prove anything.”

The feelings were mutual.

“Engaging with Travis’ music required me to simultaneously use everything that I’ve learned as a musician up to now while also attempting to start from a state of nothingness and create from an elemental ‘core’ of music,” explains Russell Greenberg, a percussionist in Yarn/Wire. “This was a challenge that required deep listening, rehearsal, honesty, and reflection. This recording captures the very different explorations that we each took which ultimately led us all towards the same destination.”

While the sounds of Inner Garden are signature Laplante, the work also documents an astounding shift that sees Laplante moving away from the physical and visceral and consciously becoming, as he describes it, “more and more inspired by subtlety, gentleness and the unknown --trying to let my musical language open up into more dimensions of human existence without dulling anything down.”

With Inner Garden, Laplante invites listeners to live inside this rich intensity of music, a sound world that was created through deep connectivity and intuition. “There is a feminine, yin, and receptive musical state that is a vital part of our connection with each other,” explains Laplante, who wrote a compositional framework so that the players could listen to each other deeply and respond equally. “This feels vital and distinct from my past work, which has been rigorously composed with more external force.

The result is music that, in Laplante’s own words, “carries a highly precise essence and force, while simultaneously allowing for the performers to put their ears, hearts, and connection with one another above all else.”

Album credits + Tracklisting:

Yarn/Wire and Roulette Intermedium commissioned Laplante to write “Inner Garden” in 2019.

Travis Laplante — composition, tenor saxophone
Laura Barger — piano
Ning Yu — piano
Ian Antonio — percussion
Russell Greenberg — percussion

“Inner Garden” tracklisting

I. 13:01
II. 13:10
III. 10:20