Two facts jump out about the duo collaboration of saxophonist Nora Stanley (Beth Orton, Shahzad Ismaily) and keyboardist Benny Bock (Sam Gendel, Feist, Weeknd): Distance of the Moon. is their first collaboration, yet, at the same time, it’s something that the duo has been working on for more than 10 years now.
When you combine these two facts you get this natural, organic music that uses not just the audible notes, but also the spaces between them to create music that is at the same time structured and free-flowing, something listeners who want their music finely categorized would label ambient jazz.
For such music to make sense you have to have the involvement of artists who have some substantial experience (both Stanley and Bock obviously do), but also a strong feel for what each of them is doing, and that is exactly the feel you get from the 10 tracks here.
That feel is something you can only build through continuous joint work, and those 10 or so years of building and playing music together obviously comes into play here.
What Stanley and Bock have come up with on Distance of the Moon is music that is on one hand seemingly unassuming but also music that reveals its intricacies and subtleties as it evolves.
