The music experiments of ‘Unified Theories’ are really just starting points, it is what the group do with the theoretical frames and inspirations that pushes the album into pulse-racing territory.
Independent release (Available from Bandcamp)
Ant Law (guitars); Will Vinson (alto saxophone); Gwilym Simcock (piano); Orlando le Fleming (bass); Ernesto Simpson (drums); Brigitte Beraha (voice)
Recorded 3rd and 4th February 2023
It was while studying physics at the University of Edinburgh that Ant Law cultivated his obsession with jazz and performed his first live gigs. Before graduating, he also managed to fit in a summer semester at Berklee College Of Music in Boston. It should come as no surprise then that his passions for jazz and science would eventually converge. On his new album, ‘Unified Theories’, his sixth as leader, Law’s scientific approach is to the fore, developing unique theory-based improvisatory structures and a collective group approach that draw the listener into unexpected and exciting new places.
Law explains that the album title has dual meanings. First, as a reference to “people in the world… deciding on agreed, common ground as a starting point – a unified theory – rather than focusing on differences”; in this case it is a group of six musicians finding common ground. And second, reflecting that much of the album has been developed from individual music experiments and theories.
The mental image of compositions being crafted by musical alchemists within a jazz laboratory is compelling, and what a group of musical alchemists this is! All big names who have committed absolutely to the approach, including Brigitte Beraha, the Milan-born British/Turkish singer with whom Law collaborated on their 2024 album, ‘Ensconced’, providing vocals and lyrics on three tracks. The group have not simply followed Law down a rabbit hole here, it is more like they have passed through a wormhole together to create something genuinely fresh and new.
The music experiments are intriguing. On ‘Stereopticon’ (a projector or viewer that combines two images to create a merged 3D effect), Law questions “what happens if we combine two tonal centres?” delivering a piece that transitions from pastoral to propulsive and back again. Another track, ‘Nikumaroro’ (the name of an atoll island in the archipelago state of Kiribati shaped like an elongated triangle) asks “what if a rhythmic cycle had the same shape as a Pacific island?” and we hear passages of sychronised guitar and sax, giving way first to guitar and then piano and sax solos with waves of rising and falling energy.
Not all of the experiments are explained and we are left to fill in the gaps from our own imaginations. ‘Tbilisi’ feels like driving pell-mell through the city, with snatched sights and sounds over a racing bass line, complete with fast-fingered guitar surges and drum cascades. ‘Ballroom’, a slower and immersive piece, ripples with plaintive echoes of the past. The atmospheric, ‘Where would we be?’ seems to have other origins, starting quietly towards a blues-infused theme and punctuated by two passages of Brigitte Beraha’s vocals that have a Flora Purim-like delivery.
Of course the music experiments of ‘Unified Theories’ are really just starting points, it is what the group do with the theoretical frame and inspiration that pushes the album into pulse-racing territory. Indeed, this is very much a group adventure, where it is the collective interplay in particular that grabs and holds the attention, successfully negotiating the various twists and turns so that the changes build excitement and never jar. These are pieces that do not release their secrets too soon, pointing to new sources of surprise and excitement on each listen, and leaving us to ponder the question “why isn’t more music conceived and delivered this way?”
