I haven't listened to this tune from Abercrombie's 2009 record in ages, but I just love it. Whenever I listen to John Abercrombie’s recordings, I am always struck by how uniquely he approaches harmony—not as functional signposts, but as color. Abercrombie’s harmonic language reminds me of impressionist and post-impressionist composers like Debussy or Messiaen, with chords drifting in unexpected but emotionally compelling ways.
In this chart (downloadable as PDF or MuseScore), check out the striking harmonic shifts, from E♭m7(sus4) to G7(#5), then A/B, and later E♭maj7(#5). These chords unfold as textural progressions, each offering a different harmonic color, while the piece retains a sense of form through repetition in melody and harmony.
I had always assumed Waltz for Agnes was a John Abercrombie composition—it sounds like him: airy voicings, rich harmony, understated lyricism. It turns out the piece was written by Marek Dykta. Dykta accesses a similarly rich harmonic landscape but in a personal, inventive way.
The melody notes often avoid expected chord tones, landing on non-chord tones that generate expressive friction, reminiscent of Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition. Dissonance becomes a colorful part of the tonality, not tension to be resolved.
The big takeaway is that, with attention to voice leading, color, and form, all notes can work. Harmony becomes less about rules and more about possibility—a freedom central to Abercrombie’s voice and embraced by Dykta here, giving space to explore shifting, ambiguous tonalities and find beauty in unexpected relationships between sound and line.