A superb series of endeavours embracing classical and avant flavours, Ark Hive Of A Live is full of improvised sparks and juddering disposition, the enclosed write-up full of fascinating insight.
Yearly archives: 2023
151 posts
...Timo Kaukolampi has been concentrating on his solo efforts, with three albums released since 2020. Here, for his second Optimo release, a few select friends join him in the studio to layer reeds and voices over his sinister, minimalist soundscapes.
...two albums that Anthony has recorded over the years; his latest is A Painter’s Life and an earlier 2007 album, British Ballads. Reynolds plays a variety of different instruments on the albums and writes all of the songs. So lets take a trip to where the wild flowers grow and moss creeps over stones.
Pram’s musical elves were on fine form, injecting this fine summer’s evening with their own special brand of skewered cuteness. Everyone here loves it, each track resulting in massive applause.
Although trading under Richard Jones' name, the six pieces chosen for this new trio's album are divided between the three players; Jones on piano, Joshua Cavanagh-Brierly on bass and Johnny Hunter on drums and it is this democratic approach that gives the album its appeal, no one player overwhelming the direction.
...these are arrangements bulbous with care and attention, but also with an ear towards appealing to a broader audience than his previous noisey business. For all the idiomatic guitar vocabulary, queasy bends and odd timekeeping, these are lovely wee miniatures of melodic blues numbers that you might want to stick on when you're driving with your Ma.
Still happily ensconced on Tapete, his fifth album for them emerges from the gloom with a stripped-down sound that, although still slow and steady, certainly has chinks of light filtering through the treetops.
All the way through the album, though the clarity of sound sparkles, the definition between the three players is just right and the overall mood transient, moving from the melancholy delicacy of opener "Little Abi" right on to the more mournful cello drone infused "En Stor Dag".
Friend of and brother to Townes Van Zandt, Roxy Gordon was a Texan-born outlaw poet who used the spoken word medium to highlight the contentious relationship between European settlers and native Americans. Working with other marginal Texan musicians, his dry as a bone drawl, ancient as the dusty earth from which he came is perfect for these cheaply produced but supremely moving and historically fascinating vignettes.
Containing four trumpeters and five trombonists as well as an array of sax, clarinet, percussion and electronics, it really does contain an army of noise makers ... feels a little like being poked in the chest as someone makes a strenuous point while travelling on a roller coaster.
Perhaps you have an AshNav bingo card. If you do, you can cross out "sounds '80s Miles Davis if he was a bit dirtier" and "I swear that was Tangerine Dream" with this release.
Guitarists Sylvain Chauveau and Joel Merah, along with percussionist Stephane Garin, conceived Ensemble 0 with a self-imposed rule that the instruments for all the pieces written for the trio should fit into a suitcase so that touring abroad would be a lot easier.
There's nothing nice or fun here, but the sheer apocalyptic rage is exhilarating. Remember how dirty Whitehouse felt the first time you heard them and didn't realise how much fun they were having?
...allowing the octet to straddle the borders of swinging, classic jazz with a freer, more progressive approach, shading in the areas between and generally having a fine old time if the smiles on the album photograph are anything to go by.
That wonderful louche coolness that epitomised the last Terry album is still here in droves on their fourth longplayer, but you have the feeling that there is a little anger and frustration in the mix. The album pointedly mentions that it was recorded on unceded Aboriginal land and they seem to be drawing the listener's attention to elements of Australia's shady past.
This is the sixth album for the Brighton-based band of Lisa Jayne and Andy Pyne, and is a collection of tracks they have been piecing together between 2021-2022 and features nine songs.
Clearly, although the interconnectedness of the players is as rich as before, they have chosen to take things in a more contemplative and languid manner, letting the music to reflect back on the listener, raising the beaded curtain and allowing them to peer through into their uniquely glazed realm.