..couches his clear, upbeat style over seven varying pieces that range from two to nine minutes and encompass blues, slide and Spanish inflections within a landscape of wide-open desert spaces.
Mr Olivetti
901 posts
Mattias brings his trademark textural sax and synth backdrops while Black Koyo bring the ritual chants, guimbri (a three-string bass lute), the qraqeb (a kind of metal castanet) and a sense of mystery. Together, these disparate acts make a six-part suite that offers Gnawa traditionals in expansive and often dreamlike settings.
The initial impetus for Green Prism came from composer Hilary Jeffery asking the late Keith Tippett to compose some music for Berlin-based group Zinc & Copper. This was originally premiered in Berlin in 2019, but unfortunately Keith was too ill to attend and sadly died soon after. In a form of tribute, Hilary took some of the pieces that Keith wrote and re-imagined them for a brass ensemble.
With getting on for forty people lined up to play covering trumpets, trombones and horns as well as reeds, viola, percussion and keyboards, their first album, The New Atomic, is a wild and unpredictable ride taking in big band swing, soundtrack tension, bluesy stomps, funky soul stylings and even torch song jazz.
The last forty years seem to have treated the members of the Loft well and with their musical history put through a prism of those years, the quality of the song-writing and playing shines through. Two albums in twelve months is good going and by the strength of this there will be more to come.
They wish to bring these classic folk forms into the twenty-first century and although there is still something ancient in the tone, there is enough modern inspiration and desire for deconstruction to make Vindespel resonate with today’s listener.
...Both sides show the band working well but in different ways and the more you play, the more you discover... with five members bringing ideas and two vocalists with contrasting approaches, you know the outcome will be diverse.
...they have constructed four pieces over two volumes that use rhythmic repetition and respectful interplay to propel the listener into previously unconsidered realms. With trumpeter Ellen Kirkwood and sax man Matt Otignon as well as incisive drummer Evan Mannell, these extended improvisatory journeys are a breathtaking discovery.
...the perfect encapsulation of their ability to wrap the elements of boredom and frustration in a fizzy coating that makes the truth easier to swallow. The whole album can be taken in one sitting and then played again straight away while other bands are still lumbering to a conclusion. Power Of Now is well worth the effort.
Recorded at the Church Of The Immaculate Conception in Budapest, this suite of pieces fuses circular breathing techniques, intense rhythmic attack and percussive textures into a whole that flickers across light and dark as if watching a projector film of seabirds at play.
lulling you into calmer waters after the frantic pace of the preceding tracks. Once again Let Spin show how much life there is in this post-jazz world, twisting the vaguely familiar into new and compelling shapes.
Between them they bring a wealth of experience in the free improv scene, but the first effort for this line-up is a forty-six minute journey through relationships that go beyond the professional and somehow manifest into something magical.
...an album that sees the light after thirty years and not before time, Kenny perhaps at the peak of his later and smoother era, playing with friends and concocting a session that is well remembered by all those involved.
It is this evocation of distance and stretching of time that Sol.Hz manages so well, pushing us out of a recognisable orbit; yet it engages and moves in equal measure.
As on 2023's Weejuns, six tracks are collated, but here things are a little more succinct although wildly diverse in approach and once again the three draw elusive patterns from one another.
It is a really human sound that they produce and an explosion of voices just adds to the joy. The flute is ragged and out of breath, as if being chased and is wildly skipping and scattering. The sax is more predatory, consuming the flute and turning the atmosphere; while the ascending organ and battering drums give an almost physical sense of being lifted.
...a pure delight and so wide-ranging, with Martin’s ability at arranging as well as writing for choir and group proven to be a natural progression; but with such adept musical assistance as given by the group, it fits like a hand in a glove.
...an album of languorous drifting beauty that follows the folds of rivers and the pale glint of sunlight on sleepy backwaters in a series of ten surprisingly diverse and meditative musical mantras.