Szun Waves – Earth Patterns

Leaf

A welcome return from Szun Waves after a four-year break finds them in shimmering, dreamlike form; horns, synths and percussion in perfect unison, Earth Patterns conjuring up a journey through the kind of landscapes that are hard to focus on, wreathed in smoke or scattered with dry desert dust.

Opener “Exploding Upwards” has the kind of slow drift that builds out of sight, with mournful horns sleepy and careful. It is gauzy but has the feel of a farewell message, one for which there is no explanation as it wavers and spins, ushering in images half-seen from stateroom windows.

Things turn more vibrant as the album progresses, “New Universe” containing a surging beat that belies the subtlety of Laurence Pike‘s drumming. It never tries to take centre stage nor overwhelm, but sets the right mood for the diffuse, silty sax and skybound synths to compel the listener. Mood and tempo are always in flux, with Laurence slowing things to a whisper on “Garden”.

Jack Wyllie‘s sax hypnotically breathes in your ear and his tone is familiar if you have ever listened to the Portico Quartet, but here things are more abstruse, a little more questioning of the listener’s willingness and all the better for it. Place that with the imaginative synths and hesitant piano and you have three players working from three directions for a common goal.

The rolling piano of “In The Moon House” changes the mood again, with scuffed sax more careless and obtuse. A spiritual search seems to be underway and things grow in a more cosmic manner as the album draws to a conclusion. There is almost an improv element to the percussion on “Be A Pattern For The World” as synth and sax join forces to tear across a desperate universe.

The final two tracks drift even further out, a rattlesnake purr resounds with the dusty surface of an unknown planet on “Willow Leaf Pair” and finally we are cut adrift, the dark recesses of “Atomkerne” finding the way home obstructed as the piece moves interminably outward to some distant point.

It is a fitting end to an album that moves through time and space, but in a way that is more comforting than alienating. Its supple and elastic structure and willingness to move wherever is necessary makes Earth Patterns a treat from start to finish and a welcome return from a trio with nothing to prove.

-Mr Olivetti-