The title of the latest Am Are reflects 2022's Be Am, but is almost the antithesis of that light piano conversation with himself. Here, the ten tracks presented are made up of sessions with four different trios as well as a solo piece, a duo and a vocal track. It feels as though he has gone to the pub and it is filled with different groups of friends that are intent on different conversations, and he is flitting around like a social butterfly, dipping in here and dipping in there.
Mr Olivetti
905 posts
Perhaps because of other commitments, Behind Closed Doors is only her third album since 2014 and although coming from a place of loss and sorrow, still manages to sound uplifting and vivacious. The core quartet of violin, piano, bass and percussion is augmented across the seven tracks by vibes, trumpet, lute, oud and the resonant voice of Stratis Skarakis to ensure a varied and satisfyiong journey.
Using the likes of Hardanger fiddle, mouth harp and langeleik, the duo seems to have taken it upon themselves to take original recordings of these venerable pieces and manipulate them to their own ends, then thrusting them into a modern environment to see how they might exist amongst their younger siblings.
It has been seven years since Building Instrument's previous album, not that the three members have been quiet in the downtime. Mari Kvien Brunvoll was involved in last year's Barefoot In Bryophyte, while Øyvind Hegg-Lunde has been involved with Erlend Apneseth and Electric Eye, among others; but when they and Åsmund Weltzien reconvene with their combination of glockenspiel, electronics, subdued beats, found sounds and dreamy vocals, you know that there is magic in the air.
The story behind this live album is quite a poignant one, with guitarist Billy Marrows originally writing the studio album Penelope as a legacy to his mother, who was dying of cancer. Thankfully, she heard some of the pieces before passing, but as a further memorial and as a way of raising money for charity, he chose to bring together a twelve-piece band to do full justice to the songs and perhaps to enable something beautiful to be wrung from such a sad circumstance.
Dutch trumpeter Ian Cleaver has put together a quintet for whom the sounds of Louis Armstrong and Chet Baker and the arrangements of Nelson Riddle are something to aspire to. With fine accompaniment from bass, drums, piano and sax / clarinet, his sweet, smoky trumpet tones are cast adrift evoking the sort of dancefloors where snappily dressed characters move sharply, cigarettes aloft and smiles beaming.
Back in 2021, when the geographically challenged duo reconvened for some live action, they also involved accordionist Lazar Novkov and Broodmen was stretched to a trio, the sound changing again as the accordion, at times melancholic and at others joyful, set them on a new trajectory. Recorded live in a single session, Liminality explores the pushing of boundaries, the interaction of disparate sounds and the sheer thrill of playing live and seeing where it may lead.
...singer Owen Williams is doing quite well with the latest Tubs album, but where that tends to take as its starting point the classic British indie sound of yore, to my mind, Ex-Vöid looks more across the pond, aligning itself with the kind of flurrying '90s indie purveyed by the likes of Velocity Girl and Tsunami, but containing the essential melancholy that comes with a British perspective.
The production is dub-heavy and indolent and reverberates around us while a big, lazy heartbeat tries to smother the textured backdrop which is alive with echoing, half-hidden sounds. It can move at pace, lively yet elegant, with chiming guitars that are a little reminiscent of Michael Brook, but their jazz influences do peep through and they come on like a cavernous cousin of the Portico Quartet.
They like their guitars heavy and their riffs to circle as cymbals crash, but there is a dreaminess to their distance and there is a feeling, particularly on opening track "One Thousand Years", that they are making their way slowly up a mountain, the guitar gradually winding tighter, preparing us for an incredible view.
...there are ten players including Martin to bring this eclectic selection to life and sees the assembled throng veering through jazz, prog, psych and funk with what can only be described as aplomb. In fact, there is little opportunity for respite over this fifty-five-minute blast and each song seems to consist of numerous parts; some segues sympathetic while others are unexpected.
DO 555 PS is his first solo outing, utilising ideas formulated with his Pelican System album, but pushing them further and attempting to create a suite of songs for an imagined world from saxes, samples and electronics, and what an impressive feat it is. Over ten tracks, real and imagined sounds roil and reverberate, generating an atmosphere that picks at the edges of reality, uncovering a universe hidden in the shadows; one for which we need to take a deep breath before entering.
Upset The Rhythm It has been seven years since the last Rattle album and it feels as though in the down time Theresa Wrigley and Katharine Eira Brown have chosen to strip their drum and vocal sound down to the absolute bare bones, as if Sequence was too busy. They have stuck with the formula of two tracks per LP side but, with one being substantially longer then […]
Although Swiss melodic post-indie rock trio Ventura has been a unit for the best part of twenty years, this is only their fifth album but what a great discovery for these ears. Using the power of the guitar/bass/drums line-up, they cue up ten strong yet diverse tracks on Superheld that run from the slow strength of "Bubbles" to the rhythmically awkward "Advertiser", passing through all manner of other stylings to keep the listener constantly engaged.
The end result is Convergence & Variations, a lovely melding of the recognised and the unexpected; a meeting of two like minds who gently push one another in directions that they may not have chosen to head separately, using pieces by the likes of Bach, Schubert and Satie as jumping-off points for their collective imagination.
Some tracks sound like conversations between beings struggling to communicate but drawn together by some greater force. Different textures manifest themselves; his breathing direct through the reed is interrupted by electronic interjections, while the swiftness of a romantic moment is is pummelled by percussive points and the distant movement of comets.
Although the Kjetil Mulelid Trio has been recording since 2017, this is their first album with replacement bassist Rune Nergard and continues their jazz-adjacent explorations with a light and adventurous sound that ushers the listener through landscapes familiar yet refreshed.
The blustery synth sounds drag the song kicking and screaming into a riotous finale that plays havoc with their melodic heavy indie-rock sound. The wild synth action that takes place in the background of "Pretty Sticks" adds fresh texture to an already teeming sound that has the head nodding, gesturing towards the dancefloor as the quiet breakdown and slow build ramps up enthusiasm.