Inês Loubet is a Portuguese singer-songwriter who combines Latin Jazz and Brazilian Tropicália, with a touch of soul and funk. She released her debut solo album Senga on the Albert’s Favourites label last year. On Sunday, she was joined in the Festival Marquee by Julio de Castro on electric bass and Jansen Santana on a fascinating array of percussion, including the boom box he was sitting on, metal keys, a small samba drum and plastic bottle tops. Inês Loubet provided lead vocals and acoustic guitar.
Inês Loubet and Jansen Santana
An early highlight was Dandē da Bahia from the new album, a song about friends who significantly impact your life, even if you haven’t seen them for a while. Loubet smiled gently as she sang and played guitar, and de Castro played a lovely melodic bass line. Olha o Rio was an ode to carnival and its contribution to Brazilian music. The song began with a samba/bossa nova feel, Loubet sounding like the American jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux. Loubet announced Sambo Mesmo Sem, a song about coming together to celebrate despite the weather, as the first single she ever released, in November 2023. It was a lovely, laid-back song featuring mixed percussion and superb guitar, bass and vocal harmonies. Loubet had a charming stage presence, drawing us into her music and her stories with a mellow, soulful voice. Santana was relaxed and inventive in his percussion playing, smiling gently as he played. De Castro was a virtuosic bass player and played some excellent funky bass on Banho de Folhas, a cover of a song by the Brazilian singer-songwriter Luedji Luna.
Julio de Castro
Loubet explained that most of the songs in the set were from Senga, a superb album that is well worth investigating. Senga is Agnes (her name) backwards, but it also means fragments, and the record represents fragments of who she is. Guri (child in Portuguese) recounted a long journey in Brazil in a car with a nine-month-old boy, enjoying himself despite the journey. Loubet dedicated this song to the boy, saying she needs to be more like him. She danced while she sang this inspiring song. Semente (‘seed’) told the more serious story of a phone call from her mother in her native Porto ( ‘the best city in Portugal’) asking her to come home from university because her father was ill with depression. It was a gentle, soulful song with an excellent bass solo and anguished vocals at the end.
Two of the songs in the set were about women’s role in society. Sapo Jacaré used a rhythm that only women play, in the mountains in the North East of Portugal, as they sing verses about their struggles as women. Loubet dedicated the final song A Todas as Mulheres (To all women), to all the women in the room, and to family members she had seen in toxic relationships. A haunting song, it was slow and poignant. At one point, she moved away from the mic, and the audience leaned in to this intimate, vulnerable section. At the end of the song (and the set), the Minster bell chimed, as if in agreement with the sentiment of the song.
Performers Inês Loubet voice, guitar Julio de Castro electric bass Jansen Santana percussion
Mahler and the Folksong – songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and traditional folksongs arr. Gemma Bass The Quire, Southwell Minster
This took place in the beautiful and intimate surroundings of the Quire in Southwell Minster. The audience sat in the choir stalls while the musicians performed on the steps to the Chancel. Marcus Farnsworth, Founder and Artistic Director of Southwell Music Festival, and baritone for this recital, introduced us to the eleventh festival, following last year’s triumphant tenth anniversary celebrations. He said he had enjoyed last year’s Bank Holiday Monday concert in the Minster’s Chapter House, with musicians including the mezzo-soprano Judy Louie Brown and the composer and violinist Gemma Bass, so they decided to do something similar this year.
The Quire of Southwell Minster, with the statue of Bishop George Ridding (far right)
Gustav Mahler returned to texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn), an early nineteenth-century collection of German folk poems and songs, on several occasions, including movements of his second, third and fourth symphonies, various song collections, and the song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). In her programme note, Gemma Bass described Mahler’s songs as follows:
‘There’s a focus on humanness and nature, both in his subjects and his approach, but there’s also an incredible depth and something bigger being tapped into here – his own genius, perhaps, or his faith – and of course a remarkable command of musical language.’
Farnsworth sang the five Mahler songs in the concert with accompanist Libby Burgess. Both musicians skilfully drew out the subtleties of Mahler’s musical language. They began with Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen(Where the splendid trumpets sound). Farnsworth brought out the tenderness and poignancy of this early morning meeting between a soldier and his lover before he went to war. He was more robust in Revelge (Reveille), with a rich tone and boisterous demeanour, Burgess superbly illustrating the drums played by the jolly soldier as he sang ‘Tralalee, tralalay, tralala.’ But the song had an underlying poignancy, described in the chilling final verse, ‘There in the morning lie their bones/In rank and file like tombstones.’ The Schubert-like folk song Rheinlegendchen (Little Rhine Legend) about unrequited love had a lovely flowing piano part, and there was a glimpse of hope at the end. Farnsworth’s superb word-painting was again evident in Wer hat das Liedlein erdacht? (Who made up this little song?) as he brought out the song’s gentle humour.But the highlight of his contribution was Urlicht(Primordial Light), the fourth movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony. The poem describes returning to God with the hope of resurrection, and as Farnsworth sang it, I noticed a statue of a praying figure with his back to us as if turning to God, George Ridding, first Bishop of Southwell (1884 – 1904). Farnsworth sang from the depths of inward, contemplative stillness. Burgess’s touch on the piano was sublime. The song’s ending was ecstatic, as the protagonist passed into eternal life.
Gemma Bass said in her programme note that her English folk song arrangements were inspired by the contrast between Mahler’s ‘simplicity and complexity.’ She told the audience that she wanted to bring out Mahlerian contrasts between the personal and the universal, nature and humanity, love and war. Even the building where the concert took place was a mixture of the manmade and the nature carvings of the Minster (such as those celebrated in The Leaves of Southwell project). Bass took songs famously set by Benjamin Britten, Polly Oliver, O Waly Waly and Come you not from Newcastle? plus the traditional Northumbrian song, The Oak and the Ash, and radically transformed them. Mezzo-soprano Judy Louie Brown sang the songs with a warm, generous tone and a gentle, folky inflexion. The string players – Bass herself on violin, Lena Eckels on viola and Nathaniel Boyd on cello – often seemed to provide an ironic commentary on the jolly-sounding folk tunes, in the kind of contrast Mahler would have enjoyed. So Sweet Polly Oliver’s traditional tune was accompanied by violin and viola that sounded like bagpipes and a bell-like drone, perhaps to cast doubt on the female protagonist’s decision to please her lover better, having bravely followed him to war dressed in her dead brother’s clothes. In the bold arrangement of O Waly Waly, the strings darkly enhanced the narrative of unrequited love. Bass also wrote two Mahler-inspired instrumentals. Rosy Dawn, which took its title from the words ‘Die Morgenröt’ from Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen, featured a folky violin tune, soon joined by the viola, over a cello drone. There was a feeling of gently pensive stasis, which shifted like a flowing river, constantly changing but always the same. Three Geese took its title from the ‘drei Gäns’ of Wer hat das Liedlein erdacht? It began in the same contemplative mode as Rosy Dawn but gradually became more folky, jazzy and joyful. It ended with a humorous little squiggle, which made the audience smile. A lovely end to a delightful concert.
Performers Judy Louie Brown mezzo-soprano Marcus Farnsworth baritone Libby Burgess piano Gemma Bass violin Lena Eckels viola Nathaniel Boyd cello
Amongst the displays about the local history of Southwell, this was the first time a Festival main event took place in Southwell Library on the high street, just a short walk from the Minster. The Festival Voices performed a well-chosen mix of songs from musicals, 60s and 70s pop and rock, and music from Gershwin, Flanders and Swann, the Ink Spots, Hoagy Carmichael and Victoria Wood. All were guaranteed to raise smiles of recognition and tapping of toes in the capacity audience.
The concert began with a showcase for the superb a cappella close harmony singing of Festival Voices, including two lovely Beatles covers. Here, There and Everywhere followed the template of the original harmonies, but with added decorations in a Swingle Singers style. Blackbird was part of the concert’s avian theme, which somehow got lost along the way; no matter! The singers mimicked guitars and whistled stylishly. A false ending raised laughter from the audience, and the real ending raised more laughter. In between, there was a stunning rendition of The Ink Spots’ 1940 hit Java Jive. There were vocal sound effects, including drumming, an upright bass and hearty ‘Aahs’ to show how much the singers loved coffee and tea.
Individual singers from within the choir had a chance to shine, too. Chris Webb sang Hippopotamus by Flanders and Swann with operatic aplomb, and the audience gamely covered themselves in metaphorical mud in the choruses. Oliver Hunt sang Bernstein’s On the Town in a poignant rendition, and a passionate Lost in the Stars, acting out the words expressively. Alastair Brookshaw created a Bridge Over Troubled Water, echoing the delicacy of Art Garfunkel’s voice with a liquid legato in a rousing performance. He returned in a fantastic coup de théâtre, dressed as a priest and wishing the house peace as he flew onto the stage in ecclesiastical turmoil. He perfectly illustrated the painful dilemma of the protagonist in Bishop’s Song from Sondheim’s last musical, Here We Are. There was another ecclesiastical protagonist when Carrys Jones, minus the habit of the Mother Abbess, sang an operatic, heartfelt version of Climb Ev’ry Mountain.
There was a piano interlude when the two accompanists, Libby Burgess and Paul Provost, treated us to a selection of four-hand arrangements from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. They played a lilting version of Summertime, a rollicking, jazzy version of It Ain’t Necessarily So, and a short but very sweet I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin. The concert ended with more joyous close harmony frolics from Festival Voices. There was a witty version of Queen’s vaudeville pastiche, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, complete with kazoos, honouring the band’s famous ‘No Synthesisers!’ avowal. There was Tin Pan Alley close harmony in Hoagy Carmichael’s Skylark, with excellent solos from the choir. But perhaps the highlight of the whole concert wasVictoria Wood’s wickedly naughty Ballad of Barry and Freda (Let’s Do It), which features the immortal line, ‘Beat me on the bottom with a Woman’s Weekly.’ We felt sorry for poor old Barry being harassed by his wife. The song went down a storm – a fantastic ending to a superb concert. A splendid time was guaranteed for all.
Performers Libby Burgess piano Paul Provost piano Festival Voices – soloists Chris Webb, Oliver Hunt, Alastair Brookshaw, Carrys Jones
Duke Ellington’s ‘Sacred Concert’ The Nave, Southwell Minster
When conductor and Artistic Director Marcus Farnsworth was 12 and studying trumpet, he discovered Simon Rattle’s TheJazz Album, which he recorded in 1987 with London Sinfonietta and others. Farnsworth was fascinated by the final piece on the album, Leonard Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs and always wanted to conduct it. With trumpeter Graham South, he devised a concert which included the Bernstein piece, and his dream was realised – in what he described as ‘a new departure’ for the Festival – an orchestral jazz concert with choir and clarinet and soprano soloists.
South and Farnsworth chose music from Duke Ellington and his long-time collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, to pair with the Bernstein. In his invaluable programme notes, South quoted a comment Bernstein made to Ellington in a TV interview in 1966,
Well maybe that’s really the difference between us – you wrote symphonic jazz, and I wrote jazz symphonies
The musicians were the Manchester-based Cottontail Orchestra, comprised of freelance musicians from various ensembles, including Beats & Pieces Big Band and Manchester Jazz Collective. Appropriately, they began the concert with the Duke Ellington composition Cottontail. This was lively big band jazz, idiomatically played with superbly virtuosic soloists. At one point, a sax quintet stood up to play some gorgeous close harmony, similar to what we had heard in the Festival Cabaret earlier. Strayhorn’s Isfahan showcased the extraordinary talent of alto sax player Emily Burkhardt, whose beautiful tone featured sensuous slides and a melismatic flow, with quivering vibrato and bluesy note bends. A surprise but welcome addition to the programme was Ellington’s Happy-Go-Lucky Local, which has a slightly sleazy and sarcastic sound, describing a local train heaving its way along the track – some material from the much more famous Night Train could also be heard. For Prelude to a Kiss, the band were joined by soprano Clare Wheeler, whose voice was suitably mellow with a touch of the great Ella Fitzgerald. The final Ellington piece in the first half was Kinda Dukish/Rockin’ in Rhythm, with a lovely syncopated piano intro from Adam Fairhall, followed by joyfully intricate big band music. Farnsworth described Prelude, Fugue and Riffs as the ‘meeting point of classical and jazz’, with a prelude for brass and kit, an ‘actual fugue’ for saxophone, and Matt Glendening on solo clarinet in the riffs section. Touches of 20th-century classical music could be heard, such as Stravinsky’s Les noces, which features four pianos. There was an almost avant-garde section, but also some Rhapsody in Blue-style clarinet playing and plenty of stunning big band music. Farnsworth worked very hard, bringing out a superbly life-affirming performance from the players.
Duke Ellington. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Part two was devoted to Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert, which has a complicated performance history. The Concert ofSacred Music was premiered sixty years ago, in mid-September 1965,at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. The Second Sacred Concert was premiered in 1968, and the Third in 1973. Ellington had reused some of his music from previous compositions, and when touring the Concert he was often joined by local choirs, and he adapted music from all three versions to suit their abilities. Farnsworth conducted a fourth version, which he described as ‘the best of all three Sacred Concerts’, produced in 1993 by John Høybye and Peder Pedersen for soprano solo, choir and big band. The version he chose was, in his words, ‘appropriate for the building.’ This was true in a religious sense, but also in an acoustic sense as the Minster’s superb acoustics are clear, warm and generous, ideal for big band jazz and chamber choir.
Farnsworth was right to choose a version of the Concert that emphasised the choir’s contribution. The Festival Voices were ecstatic in the opening Praise God, based on Psalm 150, and when they repeated the words, there was a bluesy big band beneath. In Heaven, they sang like the best of Hollywood choruses. There were moments of sublime beauty when they sang a cappella in Freedom, Come Sunday and Almighty God. There was also the chance for soprano Clare Wheeler to demonstrate her skills, including scatting in The Majesty of God, some avant-garde vocalising in T.G.T.T. (Too Good To Title) and a warm legato in David Danced Before the Lord. The Cottontail Orchestra matched the quality of the choir. Highlights included: Graham South’s trumpet solo in The Shepherd, using his mute to create an earthy, almost feral growling sound; Johnny Hunter’s drum solo at the start of David Danced…; and the tireless playing of bass player Joshua Cavanagh-Brierly throughout. The piece ended with an invitation to Praise God and Dance, an ecstatic hymn to God. Although there was no actual dancing in the audience, our spirits danced as the concert came to a rapturous end.
Performers Clare Wheeler soprano Matthew Glendening clarinet Festival Voices The Cottontail Orchestra Marcus Farnsworth conductor
Repertoire Duke Ellington Cottontail Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington Isfahan Duke Ellington Happy-Go-Lucky Local Duke Ellington Prelude to a Kiss Harry Carney, Irving Mills and Duke Ellington Kinda Dukish/Rockin’ in Rhythm Leonard Bernstein Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
Duke Ellington, arr. John Høybye and Peder Pedersen Sacred Concert
For a review of Day Two of the Festival, click here
Guthrie Govan Joins Shez Raja for Triumphant Birkenhead Show
Shez Raja (and Chris Jerome, back left)
This was a triumphant homecoming gig for bass player Shez Raja, returning to his native Birkenhead. Raja announced that he was born on the Wirral; it felt like a home audience – his parents and some of his school friends were there in the capacity crowd.
Afterwards, a relieved Raja revealed that disaster almost struck before the gig. He was being interviewed when he felt a wasp behind his ear. He flicked it away, and the wasp, obviously part of the anti-joy police, decided to sting him on his fretting hand (the left). Playing bass with a swollen index finger would have been difficult. Fortunately, his resourceful interviewer supplied antihistamines and ice, and the disaster was averted.
Guthrie Gova (left) and Shez Raja
Raja launched the first set with three cuts from his new album, Spellbound. The lineup on Friday was very different from that of the album itself, as all ’37 guest musicians’ on the album (as Raja later quipped) couldn’t come. This meant that some of the songs from the album had less of an Indian feel – there was no sitar, tabla, sarangi, or bansuri. Instead, Raja was backed by a superb rock/jazz band, with the legendary Guthrie Govan on guitar, Chris Jerome on keyboards and Adam Texeira (a new addition to the Raja fold) on drums.
Govan played guitar on three Steven Wilson albums, including Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015), and it was good to see an audience member wearing a t-shirt with the album cover on it (this year marks the tenth anniversary of the album. Govan’s playing throughout the evening was astonishing. Govan himself often looked mildly surprised as he looked down at the incredible dexterity of his quicksilver fingers as he created a continuous flow of joy. But he also brought delicate ornamentation to one of the highlights of the first set, ‘Together We Fly’ from the new album. There was some gorgeous duetting from Govan and Raja in this song, with Raja playing the lovely melody that Fiza Haider sings on the album version. The two musicians shared a smile as they headed towards the contemplative ending of the song.
Raja, a genial host, explained that there are three different versions of Spellbound (cue rising chords from Jerome on keyboards to increase the sense of anticipation). Raja showed us the vinyl version (which sold out during the interval), the CD version, then the download, which he illustrated with a wave of the hand. He said if we liked the live versions of the new songs, we should buy the album; if we didn’t like the new ones, the album versions are better! To illustrate the point, the live version of the title track was heavier than on the album, with uplifting, virtuosic guitar and bass, and a thundering drum solo from Adam Texeira, which left the audience transfixed.
Raja did take us on a brief tour of the Punjab, with ‘Maharaja’ from 2021’s appropriately named Tales From the Punjab, inspired by his visit to the Punjab the previous year to explore his cultural roots. Govan provided Indian-style improvisations, and there was fantastic keyboard work from Jerome, syncopated chords with a lively instrumental commentary from Raja and Goven, which led to a flowing keyboard solo that drew warm applause.
The final song of the first set was ‘our craziest tune’, a stunning version of ‘Get Cosmic’, from Journey to Shambhala (2019), which Raja promised us would suck us into a black hole and out the other side. Reader, it did. The song began with eerie psychedelic noises, then an invigorating bass and guitar riff in perfect unison. There was a lovely spacey section, over which Govan’s solo was thrilling, giving the audience no time to breathe. The perfectly controlled madness of the song brought the first set to a euphoric end.
The bar had been set very high by the first set, but the second set was even better. It began withan ecstatic version of ‘Chakras on the Wall’, in which the band traded four-bar phrases which became increasingly extreme, making the audience smile. There were some cheeky moments when the four musicians quoted riffs from famous rock songs. Raja quipped that the bands might sue; an audience member replied, ‘We won’t tell anyone!’ ‘Vishnu’ from the new album ‘brought the Punjab to Birkenhead.’ This was completely different from the album version. It began with raucous drums, the kick drum providing visceral support for the syncopated, upbeat opening tune. A pensive breakdown section brought a quicksilver bass solo from Raja at the top of the fretboard. Govan played a bluesy solo with string bends and some tapping, making it all sound very easy. There was a break from all the structured jazz/rock mayhem with ‘Song for John’, a beautiful ballad written for Shez’s newborn son 14 years ago. This featured a mellow, emotional bassline played with superb legato by Raja, with a fretless bass sound reminiscent of the great Jaco Pastorius. There was a lovely repeated phrase, with a yearning interval the second time around, expressing Raja’s parental joy.
Raja quoted a review in Jazzwise magazine of the next song, ‘Quiverwish’, which apparently said it began with some Mark King-style slap bass but ‘it soon subsided.’ NickHolmesMusic enjoys a bit of slap bass, so that wasn’t a problem.This was a seriously funky track, with a Moog-like synth solo from Jerome with some evocative pitch-bends and another drum solo from Texeira, sounding like a complete percussion section on his own. According to the setlist, the band was due to play ‘My Imaginary Friend’ next, but in his excitement, Raja left it out, so we were left to imagine what his friend was like. Instead, for the encore, Raja asked us whether ‘anyone liked African music… well, we’re going to play an Eastern European folk tune.’ Before we had time to register our disappointment (although NickHolmesMusic does enjoy a bit of Eastern European folk music…), the band launched into ‘Freedom’, in which Govan introduced some African-style guitar playing, showing how versatile he is. By now, the audience was dancing and the joint was jumping. A joyful ending to an excellent evening.
Personnel
Shez Raja bass Guthrie Govan guitar Adam Texeira drums Chris Jerome keyboards
For a review of Shez Raja’s new album Spellbound click here
British-Asian bass player Shez Raja has been voted one of the ‘Hottest Bass Players in the World’ by readers of Bass Player magazine. His mother is Asian, and his father is English. He began playing the violin at nine years old, then replaced that instrument with the bass guitar a few years later. He travelled with his father to the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, where he learned to play tabla. His background is similar to that of the musical polymath Nitin Sawhney, who was born in Rochester, Kent to Punjabi immigrant parents. Both musicians successfully blend East with West in their music.
Shez Raja
Raja has just released his eighth solo album, Spellbound, in a genre which has been described as Indo-jazz-funk. He is joined by an eclectic mix of virtuoso jazz and (prog) rock musicians including guitarists John Etheridge (Soft Machine) and Guthrie Govan (the Aristocrats, Asia, Hans Zimmer, Steven Wilson), drummers Dennis Chambers, Jamie Murray and Sophie Alloway, and saxophonists Vasilis Xenopoulos and Tony Kofi. He is also joined by traditional Indian instrumentalists Gurdain Rayatt on tabla, Roopa Panesar on sitar, Ashan Papu on bansuri (bamboo flute) and Zahab Hassan on sarangi (a three-stringed bowed instrument).
‘I believe that the ultimate goal for a musician is to make music that is raw, real and from the heart, that moves and inspires people’
Shez Raja
Raja’s bass playing, on a custom-made Fodera, is superb throughout the album. His lower notes sometimes bring to mind the great Jah Wobble (Public Image Limited), the bass lines prowling around in almost dub style. Above this, he sometimes plays ornamental lines towards the top of the fretboard and makes imaginative use of effects pedals. The album is recorded in pristine quality, in audiophile sound (the review copy was available in high definition). For that reason, it’s only available on CD and vinyl, and as a download, rather than on streaming services that may degrade audio quality.
The opening track, Quantum Spirits, is infectiously joyful jazz-funk with deliciously spiky guitar. Mahirishi mindtrip begins with a drum flourish and then throws itself into a groove with an Indian flavour from the sarangi and a spacious, bluesy feel. The title track has a lovely running saxophone line and a gloriously syncopated main riff. The drumming is stunning, and nicely balanced with percussion from the tabla. Together we fly is an evocative, gently aspirational ballad with melismatic vocals from Fiza Haider, which become more Indian in style as the track progresses, with a yearning sitar solo and subtly offbeat drumming. Lucid path to the golden lotus is the only track to feature bansuri, which sounds at first like the flute playing of the late, great Barbara Thompson, then becomes more Indian in style near the end with a weeping sound that is so characteristic of the instrument, but there’s also a hint of Moog-style soloing. Vishnu is a life-affirming track, with blistering, joyfully dystopian guitar, and an evocative breakdown section with a moving call and response section. Through the multiverse features cascading sitar and an infectious bass part. Our journey takes us into darker parts of the multiverse; we head into King Crimson territory, where everything is darkly ambiguous, a fractured universe with an explosive saxophone solo.
Shez Raja live at Ronnie Scott’s
The album ends with two live tracks recorded at Pizza Express Live Soho in London. The first is a live version of the opening track, Quantum Spirits, with the raw, emotional and supremely virtuosic soloing of guitarist Guthrie Govan. The second is Rabbits, which builds to a stunning climax. Both tracks bode well for Raja’s forthcoming live performances.
Spellbound is out now via ShejRaza.com. Raja plays live at Future Yard, Wirral on 18 July, at Ronnie Scott’s on 17 September and at the 606 Club on 21 November.
2024 was a stunning year for Prog Rock new and old
The Cover of Living & Alive by Beatrix Players
The Return of Beatrix Players
Beatrix Players, led by Ms Amy Birks, made a welcome return to the progressive rock scene in late 2023 with the release of their album Living and Alive. In 2024, they brought the complete album to Manchester’s Band on the Wall and then to a triumphant home gig in the village of Barlaston, near Stoke-on-Trent. Birks was heavily pregnant and jokingly complained of ‘baby brain’; she has since given birth to a baby daughter. In the meantime, Birks and her band were superb live. Birks was a charismatic leader, her wonderfully expressive voice ranging from a warm, low mezzo to a high soprano, sometimes urgent in her delivery and at other times quietly intimate – often in the same song. She was a powerful stage presence, drawing the audience in, as their enthusiastic response showed.
Amalie Bruun (Myrkur)
Myrkur – Danish Black Metal and Scandinavian folk music
The Danish composer, vocalist, and classically trained multi-instrumentalist Amalie Bruun released her debut album under her own name in 2006. In 2011, she formed the indie pop duo Ex Cops with Brian Harding. The band split in 2014, and she started releasing music under the name Myrkur, Icelandic for darkness. In late 2023, she released Spine, which combines many of the styles of previous albums into a sophisticated whole, graced by her remarkably versatile voice. The album was partly based on her experience of being pregnant with her son Otto, who was born in 2019.
But the song My Blood is Gold, reviewed here in the ongoing Off the Beaten Track series, is a product of another significant life event: the death of her beloved father, Michael Bruun, in 2021. This profoundly moving track perfectly describes Bruun’s despair at her father’s death and her resolve for his memory to live on through her music.
Bruun brought her music to London in April 2024, demonstrating her versatility as a singer and songwriter in an eclectic set. Over the course of four albums and various EPs and singles, she has combined black metal with Scandinavian folk music, sometimes on the same album. Her latest album, Spine, her most eclectic yet, formed the bulk of the setlist, including a run of six songs at the start of the show. Bruun was joined on stage by Swedish folk singer Jonathan Hultén, the support act, in a gorgeous version of House Carpenter, a traditional Nordic folk song, attracting the most excited applause of the evening.
Marjana Semkina on the cover of her second solo album, SIRIN
Marjana Semkina and iamthemorning – a difficult but artistically successful year
Marjana Semkina is a member of the prog rock group iamthemorning with her Russian-born compatriot, the pianist Gleb Kolyadin, both of whom are now resident in the UK. The duo have released several records, the most recent being The Bell (2019) and the EP Counting The Ghosts (2020).
Semkina has recently pursued a parallel solo career, releasing her first solo LP, Sleepwalking, in 2020 and her EP, Disillusioned, in 2021. In 2024 she sang on the Moonflower EP with Zora Cock of Blackbriar, and released SIRIN, her second solo album. Semkina created this album without the support of a record label, raising tens of thousands of pounds for the project via crowd funding. She is an exceptional talent, as a singer and a songwriter, and a passionate promoter of her poetic and profound vision of the world through her music.
Semkina had a challenging year. Her bandmate Kolyadin was arrested and imprisoned in Thailand while on tour as a session musician with the Russian dissident rock band Bi-2. He faced deportation to Russia, where the band could have been persecuted for anti-war sentiments. Semkina highlighted the story via social media and an online petition.
Kolyadin was released after a week in prison and returned to England via Israel. A few days after his release, the duo performed an emotional comeback show at Piano Smithfield in London. Later in the year, the duo were joined by a full band to perform iamthemorning songs at St. Matthias Church in Stoke Newington, London. Semkina began with an evocative selection of her solo material, and Kolyadin demonstrated his supreme skill as an improviser in a solo piano set before the iamthemorning band played a superb band set.
The Cover of Harmonic Divergence by Steven Wilson
An Overview of Steven Wilson’s Year
While fans of Steven Wilson eagerly await his new album The Overview due in March, in 2024 he released a Record Store Day album Harmonic Divergence based on his 2023 album The Harmony Codex. Producer Ewan Pearson also remixed ‘Inclination’ from that album. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote, ‘Ewan Pearson sprinkles sunlit Balearic euphoria’, and Wilson described the remix as ‘a hypnotic cosmic disco odyssey.’
The year also saw the re-release of Storm Corrosion, the collaboration between Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt of Swedish progressive metal band Opeth, in a new Dolby Atmos remix. Wilson has been making surround mixes of his own and other bands’ albums for so long now that he has been asked to do a surround sound mix of King Crimson’s Red for the second time after he did his first surround mix of the album in 2009. He decided to teach himself the art of surround sound mixing after Elliot Scheiner created 5.1 mixes of the Porcupine Tree albums In Absentia and Deadwing.
As Mikael Åkerfeldt admitted, Storm Corrosion isn’t an easy listen. However, it is certainly not as challenging to listen to as the albums Wilson has produced for his Bass Communion project, such as Ghosts on Magnetic Tape. Both albums take a while to give up their secrets and bring joy to the listener. In the Dolby Atmos mix of Storm Corrosion, the opening track makes the most startling use of the new technology. On other tracks, the effect is more muted, but when surround sound is used, it’s more effective as it is used sparingly.
Finally, in 2024, Wilson brought festive greetings to his fans with a physical release of his 2023 Christmas song, December Skies, complete with two Wilson-themed Christmas cards. The year also marked the fifth anniversary of the release of love you to bits, Wilson’s album with his no-man bandmate Tim Bowness, a melancholy disco masterpiece.
Perpetual Motions by Gavin Harrison and Antoine Fafard
Perpetual Change with Gavin Harrison and Antoine Fafard
Gavin Harrison, the drummer in Steven Wilson’s band Porcupine Tree, released Perpetual Motions, his second album with bass player Antoine Fafard, a collection of inventive musical explorations and collaborations from the virtuosic duo and several friends. The album’s title describes the perpetual change of musical arrangement from one of Fafard’s compositions to the next, the only constant being the playing of Fafard and Harrison on every piece. Remarkably, Fafard presented Harrison with complete recordings to add drums and percussion later; Harrison’s playing perfectly matches the pieces so it’s impossible to tell that his recordings were done separately.
Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland of Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate
Malcolm Galloway had a more than Adequate Year
Malcolm Galloway of Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate provided deep insights into his health condition and his writing process in a fascinating two-part interview: Part One and Part Two are here. Galloway and his bandmate Mark Gatland have a new album out in March, The Uncertainty Principle. In the meantime, One Word That Means The World (Arkhipov), one of the singles from the album, was released in 2024. It’s a compelling snapshot of a moral dilemma in which one man’s brave decision probably averted World War III. Hats Off shared the bill in Camden, London with a new discovery for me, the band EBB, who have a wonderful stage presence.
Prog the Forest at the Fiddler’s Elbow
Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland, with the promoter London Prog Gigs, hosted a charity prog festival, Prog the Forest, at the Fiddler’s Elbow in Camden. All performers gave their services for free to support the rainforest and wildlife conservation charity, World Land Trust, which ‘protects the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats.’ This was the sixth year of Prog the Forest and the most successful to date, raising £2750 to protect nearly 26 acres of rainforest and other threatened habitats.
The eclectic line-up was made up of: Spriggan Mist, a ‘pagan progressive rock band’; singer-songwriter Leoni Jane Kennedy, who was hand-picked by members of Queen for the Freddie Mercury Scholarship and plays acoustic Rush covers as well as her own songs; The Mighty Handful who include a ‘former music director of Strictly; Mountainscape who play instrumental post-metal; Theo Travis of Soft Machine, who has played saxophone and flute with numerous jazz and prog bands; Tim Bowness and Butterfly Mind; and Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate.
Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets
Prog History Brought to Life
The late 1960s to the mid-1970s were arguably the golden era of Prog Rock, particularly in the UK, but as can be seen from the reviews above, the genre continues to thrive, with superb new music being produced both on record and live.
New life has also been breathed into prog rock classics, with the return of Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets with live interpretations of early Pink Floyd songs. Robin A Smith continued to tour Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells – the 50th anniversary, with a stunning new arrangement of the classic album; 2024 was also the 50th anniversary of the release of Peter Hammill’s solo album The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage, from which the epic track ‘A Louse is not a Home‘ is taken.
Special Thanks
With thanks to Jerry Ewing and Prog magazine for keeping the prog flag flying, and to Chris Parkins of London Prog Gigs for his tireless contribution to the live scene in London.
For an overview of the year in classical music in 2024, click here.
Inventive musical explorations and collaborations from a virtuosic duo and friends
****
The cover of Perpetual Mutations. Image by Galina Timofeeva. Graphics by Antoine Fafard.
In classical music, a concerto in which a soloist – such as a pianist or a violinist – performs with an orchestra, is a common form. Less common is the concerto for orchestra, although the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók did write a popular piece of that name, stating that it wasn’t a symphony but a series of soloistic, virtuosic sections for each part of the orchestra, in effect a series of concertos. Now Canadian bass player Antoine Fafard and English drummer Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, The Pineapple Thief, King Crimson) have created a similar concept, a series of nine pieces for jazz duo and a range of soloists who play soprano sax, cello, violin, oboe, Fender Rhodes and piano. The aim of their new album, Perpetual Motions is, ‘to stretch out artistic possibilities and contribute to expanding the musical spectrum.’
Antoine Fafard. Photo by Colin D Miller.
The duo’s previous album Chemical Reactions was also ground breaking, using string quartet and full orchestra with drums and bass guitar. The title of the new album describes the perpetual change of musical arrangement from one of Fafard’s compositions to the next, the only constant being the playing of Fafard and Harrison on every piece. Remarkably, Fafard presented Harrison with complete recordings to add drums and percussion later; Harrison’s playing perfectly matches the pieces so it’s impossible to tell that his recordings were done separately. Harrison told Raffaella Mezzanzanica of MusicalMind that,
“Having a studio at home means you can do one take or a hundred takes…Sometimes it takes me two days to record a song, but when I listen to it later, I might decide to do it all again. That is the luxury (and curse) of working on your own in your own studio.”
Gavin Harrison
1 Dark Wind
The opening track begins with a fiercely rhythmic bass line, and big band brass, giving the track a similar feel to Harrison’s 2015 album Cheating the Polygraph, a reimagining of the work of Porcupine Tree for big band. Melodic soprano sax soon takes on virtuosic runs, with aspirational rising chords. There’s an evocative breakdown section with a trombone solo. The piece is often in 5/4, but the rhythmic patterns constantly change. A stunning start to the album.
2 Deadpan Euphoria
The ‘deadpan’ of the title presumably refers to the handpan drums on the track, which create a sound like steel drums. There are also log drums, long cylindrical pieces of wood, hollowed out with slits on the top. Fafard provides lovely, melodic fretless bass which entwines the long sustained notes of the cello – an unusual but very effective combination. The bass guitar drops lower as a liquid, free-flowing guitar surrounds the cello. A lovely track.
3 Viral Information 101
Like the opening track, this begins with a fierce, repeated bass note. Acoustic guitar flourishes with subtle marimba are followed by a folky violin solo. There’s a sudden, romantic slow section with melodic violin that would make excellent film music. The song ends with a gorgeous fretless bass run and exhilaratingly thunderous drums.
Gavin Harrison and Antoine Fafard – Objective Reality (2024)
4 Objective Reality
An unusual song, built around bass guitar harmonics, the same short phrase repeated at different pitches. Above the angular, geometric shapes of the urgently rhythmic backing track a sweet-toned oboe flows like liquid honey, adding vitality and humanity. The track ends with Harrison’s superb percussion runs. An intriguing track.
5 Quiescent II
This short, mellow track features a sprinkling of jazzy Fender Rhodes, and highlights Harrison’s relaxed, loose-limbed drumming which contrasts with his more energetic playing elsewhere on the album. Again, Fafard provides some inspiring fretless bass. The song builds to a climax with rhythmic chords and an insistent theme. A good contrast to other songs on the album.
6 Spontaneous Plan
This song begins with spontaneous piano flourishes, with big band brass that could have come from a John Barry score for a James Bond movie. The piano becomes jazzier and more freestyle as the track progresses. It ends with a joyful burst of brass. The song is energetic and lively, constantly changing and evolving, perfectly expressing the perpetual motion of the album’s title.
7 Pentalogic Structure
Another showcase for the cello, which plays a mysterious melody at the start with gentle guitar, before a chaotic repeated theme surrounds the cello which resolutely continues to plough its own furrow. Fafard told Raffaella Mezzanzanica that he wrote most of the songs on guitar, and this track features a fast-flowing, classical guitar solo which combines virtuosity with a sense of optimism. As the track comes to an end, the cello returns with a slow, angular melody which casts a shadow on the hopefulness of the guitar solo.
8 Solus Souls II
Laid-back piano chords are joined by a searching bass line. Again, as throughout the record, Harrison’s playing is a joy to hear. His subtle, spacey percussion leads to tom tom rolls that gain energy as the track becomes more complex and syncopated.
9 Safety Meeting
Piano chords and more big band brass chords rouse themselves, perhaps to illustrate a meeting of safety officers. Again, a highlight is Fafard’s elegant classical guitar playing, sometimes reminiscent here of another guitar virtuoso, Steve Howe of Yes. He follows this with a limpid bass guitar solo with gentle piano chords. This constantly changing song ends with jazzy piano chords and swelling brass, ending an excellent, varied collection of songs from two superb musicians and a range of performers from across the world.
Personnel
Gavin Harrison: Drums and Marimba Antoine Fafard: Electric Bass and Classical Guitar Jean-Pierre Zanella: Soprano Saxophone on track 1 Dale Devoe: Trombones and Trumpets on tracks 1, 6 and 9 Joasia Cieslak: Cello on track 2 Isodora Filipovic: Cello on track 7 Reinaldo Ocando: Marimba and Vibraphone on track 3 Pier Luigi Salami: Piano and Rhodes – Piano on tracks 6, 8, 9; Rhodes on track 5 Tadeusz Palosz: Handpans and Log Drum on track 2 Ally Storch: Violin on track 3 Rodrigo Escalona: Oboe on track 4
Sources
Mezzanzanica, R. Antoine Fafard unveils some “secrets” behind “Perpetual Mutations”, his new album with Gavin Harrison (MusicalMind 16 May 2024)
Mezzanzanica, R. Gavin Harrison talks about “Perpetual Mutations”, how to keep his balance and his view on the future of Porcupine Tree and King Crimson (MusicalMind 27 May 2024)
Drummer Craig Blundell, keyboard player Adam Holzman and bass player Nick Beggs began playing together on Steven Wilson’s Hand. Cannot. Erase tour in 2015. They also joined Steven on his To the Bone tour in 2018 and 2019. When Steven went off for a cup of tea after a brief soundcheck, the three others would remain on stage to jam together, creating what they described as a ‘jazz club’. They recorded each other on their phones as they played, and decided to use these recordings as the basis of some of the songs for the new Trifecta project. The result is a version of jazz rock fusion, almost entirely instrumental, in a style described by Nick Beggs as ‘Fission! It’s like Fusion but less efficient and more dangerous … with fall out.’ The outcome is an explosion of joyful, melodic virtuosity.
Beggs and Holzman were due to tour with Steven Wilson again but tours due in 2020 and again in 2021 were cancelled due to Covid-19. Like many artists, the three members of Trifecta collaborated remotely during lockdown – Beggs and Blundell in England and Holzman in New York. But whereas the work of another Steven Wilson alumnus Richard BarbieriUnder a Spell described darkly trouble dreams in lockdown, Trifecta cast a genial spell on tracks that they each completed at home before Holzman mixed the heady brew in his home studio. Further magic was sprinkled by expert mastering engineer Andy VanDette (who also worked on some of the Porcupine Tree albums). The light-hearted nature of the collaboration is shown by some of the tiles of the 15 ‘fragments’ that make up the album, such as ‘Clean Up On Aisle Five’ and ‘Nightmare In Shining Armour’. But don’t let that distract you from the serious levels of musicianship on display here.
Nick Beggs’ dry humour is evident on the only track that features vocals, the gently enticing Pavlov’s Dog Killed Schrodinger’s Cat, the lyrics of which he describes as ‘written from the perspective of a layman trying to understand quantum mechanics … and failing’. They include such memorable lines as ‘Wrestled to the ground by your quantum theory/ I’ve listened to your talk until my eyes grew weary’.
Despite the consistently high level of inventiveness and virtuosity shown by all three players, planting them firmly in prog rock territory, none of the songs are prog epics in terms of length; all of the 15 tracks are beautifully-crafted miniatures of around 3 minutes. The whole album is only 45 minutes long. Steven Wilson has recently called for a return to the shorter-form album, and his latest release The Future Bites lasts 42 minutes.
Opening track Clean Up On Aisle Five with its swirling keyboards, strong melody and powerful drumming is reminiscent of another prog rock supergroup, U.K. (John Wetton, Bill Bruford, Eddie Jobson and Alan Holdsworth) on their track ‘In the Dead of Night’, although without the impassioned vocals.
Other highlights include Proto Molecule with its amazingly funky bassline – worthy of Jaco Pastorius – evocative keyboard lines, syncopated jazz-funk riffing, and a delightful interplay between both instruments. There is more Jaco-style bass at the start of Nightmare in Shining Armor.
The Enigma of Mr Fripp cheerfully acknowledges its debt to Robert Fripp of King Crimson. It encapsulates all that is great about that band in less than three minutes. Nick Beggs plays Chapman Stick with Fripp-like intensity, the lines spiralling around each other. There are dystopian drums, sudden key changes, warm mellotron washes and rhythmic illusions. A complete King Crimson album in miniature. The track suddenly stops, delightfully segueing into the ultra-cool jazz keyboards of the next track Sally Doo-Dally.
Have You Seen What the Neighbours are Doing refers to the house next to Adam Holzman’s in the North Bronx, left empty when the man living there disappeared. It could easily have come from the soundtrack to a 1970s movie like Shaft. It begins with a disturbing film-noir scenario, with a looping funky bassline and luminous synths. There’s dirty distortion on the Fender Rhodes-like solo, adding to the sleaze. Holzman uses a similar sound on his recent live album The Last Gig.
The whole album is an unexpected lockdown delight that reveals its deep treasures with repeated listening. Two important questions remain. Are Trifecta working on new material, and will they ever tour? Hopefully the answer to both questions is yes!
Impeccable live jazz-rock from former Miles Davis music director and Steven Wilson’s keyboard player
*****
On 12 March 2020, keyboard player Adam Holzman and his band Brave New World drove to the Nublu club to soundcheck for a gig that night. The global pandemic was about to close New York City. Broadway had just shut down, but as Adam said later, ‘we decided to play anyway. Something big was coming, and who knew when we’d be able to perform again?… Only about 18 hardcore fans showed up.’
Adam Holzman has been Steven Wilson’s regular keyboard player since he joined the Grace for Drowning tour in late 2011 in support of Steven’s second solo album.
But Adam’s musical pedigree goes back much further than that; most notably he was with Miles Davis’ band for nearly five years, eventually becoming Miles’ musical director. And going back further still, Adam’s father is Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records (who signed The Doors) and Nonesuch Records (who began by specialising in European Early Music, but also commissioned the pioneering electronic album Silver Apples of the Moon, by the American composer Morton Subotnick in 1967). Adam tells stories of when he was a boy and Jim Morrison came to the house, and Adam showed Jim his toy keyboard and tape recorder; quiet moments when Jim was far from his rebellious and controversial public persona. Young Adam was also hugely influenced by The Doors’ keyboard player Ray Manzarek.
The album opens with Intro – The Age of Fear with dystopian synth noises, and ominous voices intoning, ‘The age of fear; the creative spirit must fight to stay alive’, words that take on a poignant significance in this context. But since the 1980s, Adam has made music under the title ‘Optimistic music in the time of fear’, so perhaps there is hope, and the vigorous drum solo from Gene Lake, with bubbling analogue synth sounds suggest that there is still life in music.
On the tour to support Steven Wilson’s third solo album, The Raven That Refused to Sing, Adam began to do piano improvisations each night at the start of Deform to Form a Star, a song from Steven’s second solo album Grace for Drowning. He collected them together on The Deform Variations in 2015. The second track Pianodemic is another in that tradition, a moment of optimism despite the reference to the Pandemic in the title.
The next three tracks are taken from Adam’s 2018 album Truth Decay. As is often the case with jazz, the live versions have more power and energy than the studio versions, good though they are. The first of these, Ectoplasm,bursts into life with fierce drumming and cool Fender Rhodes keyboards. On the NewEars Prog Show podcast Adam described the Fender as ‘the electric guitar of jazz’, and it plays an important role on this album (although the instrument Adam plays is a Korg SV1 Stage Vintage piano). Throughout the album, Adam gives space to the other players in the band rather than just showing off his keyboard skills, virtuosic as they are, so the album feels like a true band album.
The next track, Phobia has a lovely, spacey, open feel with an atmospheric main theme with evocative harmonies. It gives all the band their chance to shine above the backbeat – first Adam with some distorted Fender Rhodes sounds, then Ofer Assaf, with evocative saxophone, then Jane Getter on heavily echoed guitar. An excellent track.
Growing up as the son of a record company executive, Adam could easily have had a very cynical view of the music industry, the kind of view expressed by a relative who might have said, Good Luck with your Music, in the way that we might say, ‘good luck with that.’ But Adam’s father has been supportive of his son, and it seems that Adam has retained his joy in music making. This is a seriously funky track with an earworm for a chorus, featuring excellent rumbling bass playing from Freddy Cash jr.
Adam originally recorded Maze, a Miles Davis song in 1985, live in the studio just before the sessions for Miles’ 1986 album Tutu. The track finally appeared on the Rubberband album released in 2019. Adam described the track as having, ‘a killer groove…with a flat-out burning solo.’
The final song, Abandoner is a cover of a track from Steven Wilson’s first solo album Insurgentes. The original track begins with a lovely, introspective quality, and Steven’s plaintive vocals are replaced here with soulful saxophone playing from Ofer Assaf. As the title suggests, the song is about loss and abandonment, and Adam’s version perfectly captures this. Steven’s song descends into terrifying noise, perhaps reflecting bitterness and anger at being abandoned. Adam’s version takes a slightly quieter, but equally effective approach.
This is a stunning live album, although it often sounds like a studio album both because of the quality of the playing and the recording, and the fact that the audience is small due to the Pandemic. Holzman says, ‘As of now, it’s still the last gig’. Let’s hope it’s not too long before he is able to tour again.
Gavin Harrison and Antoine Fafard prove that fusing jazz, rock and classical music does work
Graphic design by Antoine Fafard
In music, the words ‘fusion’ or ‘crossover’ used to a warning for any sensible music lover to run for the hills. Very fast. Musical genres such as classical, rock, pop and jazz have worked independently of each other, very successfully, for decades if not centuries, but attempting to splice their DNA together has sometimes resulted in disturbing mutations. It is therefore a pleasure to report that fusing the muscular but subtle and intelligent drumming of Gavin Harrison, and the jazz bass playing of Antoine Fafard, with a string quartet and even an orchestra, actually works.
It helps that Gavin is probably one of the best drummers in the world at present, having performed as a session musician but also as a member of Porcupine Tree and more recently King Crimson, also releasing a stunning solo album of big band arrangements Cheating the Polygraph a few years ago. To appreciate the quality of his drumming, listen to the opening of the second track on this new album, Atonic Water which begins with half-speed, laconic, almost lazy drumming which is joined by fast, buzzing strings, creating the illusion of two time frames running in parallel. Gavin has written about rhythmic illusions in the past and here he puts his theory into thrilling practice.
Antoine shows what a fine jazz bass player he is in the opening track Transmutation Circle, making fast runs high up the fretboard when he is soloing, sounding almost like a jazz guitarist at times, but also providing a solid underpinning when the music demands that he sounds more like a conventional rock player.
The first five tracks of the album, which also include Vision of a Lost Orbit, Pair of a Perfect Four and Proto Mundi feature a string quartet, made up of Maria Grigwho overdubbed all the violin and viola parts and Jonathan Gerstner on cello. They bring great precision and intensity to these opening tracks. Gavin also plays marimba, helping to create a mellower vibe to balance the intensity.
The sixth track Singular Quartz adds Jerry Goodman on electric and acoustic violins, sometimes recalling the virtuosic performances of Eddie Jobson, who played violin for Frank Zappa and Roxy Music among many others.
In the last two tracks on the album Holding Back the Clock and Chemical Reactions the landscape suddenly up opens much wider, a lovely way to end an album that began with the intimate intensity of the string quartet and gradually opened out as more instruments are added. Both tracks feature the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Anthony Armore, recorded in Ostrava in the Czech Republic as long ago as March 2016. They have a cinematic sweep that makes a superb climax to the album. In the documentary about the making of the album, Antoine says that he wanted real players rather than samples because of the subtleties that can bring. Gavin says he had worked with sampled instruments before but enjoyed working with ‘the living breathing organic unity’ that a real orchestra can provide. You can almost sense the joy in the playing of both musicians, particularly Antoine’s inspired bass soloing in the title track Chemical Reactions, and Gavin’s passionately animated drumming around four minutes in. The track rounds off a highly satisfying album that repays repeated listening to reveal all its subtle pleasures; listen on decent speakers or headphones if you can to enjoy its riches in full.
Track list
1 Transmutation Circle
2 Atonic Water
3 Vision of a Lost Orbit
4 Pair of a Perfect Four
5 Proto Mundi
6 Singular Quartz
7 Holding Back the Clock
8 Chemical Reactions
Musicians
Gavin Harrison drums and marimba (tracks 1 – 5) drums (tracks 6 – 8)
Antoine Fafard bass (all tracks)
Maria Grig violins and viola (tracks 1 – 5)
Jonathan Gerstner cello (tracks 1 – 5)
Jerry Goodman acoustic and electric violin (track 6)
Avigail Arad Cello (track 6)
Reinaldo Ocando marimba and vibraphone (track 6)
Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Anthony Armore (tracks 7 – 8)
Chemical Reactions is released on 11 December on the Harmonic Heresy label.
