…fine album from an ensemble that is truly bringing a new perspective on classical chamber composition and contemporary jazz and does so with a genuine sense of adventure.
Caliban Sounds COL006
Diane McLoughlin (soprano & alto saxophones, piano on ‘Kaitiaki Anahera’); Alcyona Mick (piano); Kit Massey (violin & viola on ‘The Long Walk From Home’); Tim Fairhall (double bass)
Recorded 2022 – 2023
The follow up to the ensembles excellent 2019 album Cause and Effect, I approached this new recording with eager anticipation, and I am glad to say Reflection is as outstanding and beautiful as their debut.
On paper nothing much seems to have changed with the exception of pianist Alcyona Mick taking over piano duties from Pawel Grudzień, but the resulting music is quite a departure, yet still retaining that deeply lyrical quality that made Cause and Effect such a joy to listen too.
As the title would suggest, Reflection touches on a different emotional sensibility. Rather than impose a limitation on the framework of the compositions, the music encompasses the wide range of emotions and feelings that that are often touched when time is taken to simply reflect.
All the compositions are written by Diane McLoughlin and she has remarkably broadened her writing and the sound of the group in the process. The music is quietly powerful and very emotive as McLoughlin’s compositions are able to touch and connect with all of us in various ways.
The deployment of the instruments creates a soundscape that is at once familiar yet offering new possibilities as improvisation plays a greater role in the music. Once again, the use of space is paramount, but on Reflection there is increased sense of awareness and there is no fear or hesitation in deciding how and when, or if, the space needs to be occupied.
The music comes from a place of uncertainty as the world we live in seems to be in an ever-turbulent state of change, and McLoughlin’s compositions address this well. The music has a compulsion that makes you listen and contemplate, and this sense contemplation somehow heightens the drama inherent in the compositions.
‘Everday Heroes’ brings forth a dramatic use of the ensemble, and strong solos from both piano and double bass that the piece much of its momentum, while the title track opens with a gentle piano introduction and McLoughlin’s lyrical and expressive soprano saxophone over an ethereal effect from the strings.
Times of hardship and sorrow are poignantly brought together in the lovely ‘The Slow Walk From Home’ which directly references to the saxophonist’s mother and her journey undertaken to leave war torn Ukraine.
Moments like these make one ponder on life and humankind, yet the beauty of the planet and the wonders of nature are once again brought to our attention in the evocative ‘The Spirit of the Birds’; while the tough and dynamic ‘A Difficult Conversation’ find the ensemble rubbing against each other. The opening dialogue in this conversation between alto and piano is spectacularly played out, before Fairhall’s bass wades in to lend addition gravitas. When Kit Massey violin enters the fray, the conversation becomes a tumbling affair with a dramatic climax.
In a set that wilfully seeks to provoke a response and refuses to be categorised drawing on classical music and improvisation in equal measures, the music has an edge to it in addition to the more serene and reflective moments. Alcyona Mick’s piano offers glimpses of light in her contribution to ‘Dark Matters’, and the piano is again at the heart of things on the solo piece ‘Kaitaki Anahare’ with McLoughlin at the keyboard.
A lovely way to conclude this fine album from an ensemble that is truly bringing a new perspective on classical chamber composition and contemporary jazz and does so with a genuine sense of adventure.
