I didn’t know what to expect when I received this album, and what I found was a musical experience that pushes at the boundaries of jazz and is profoundly moving.
Elsden Music EM04
Julie Walkington (gongs, hand percussion, singing bowls); Jim Howard (trumpet, flugelhorn, electronics)
Recorded Studio 45, London 14 February 2021
Unusual jazz duos are like buses – you review one album with a novel line-up and along comes another one. A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed Lunch Break, an album featuring Tom Teasley on percussion, and Dave Ballou playing trumpet. Beyond The Treeline also has a trumpet/percussion combination, although the musical content is very different from Lunch Break.
Julie Walkington is a well-established bassist on the jazz scene, playing with artists such as Jim Mullen, Claire Martin, Geoff Eales, Tina May and Tony Coe. She’s also a qualified complimentary therapist who uses sound healing as part of her therapy. Sound healing uses sounds and music to improve well-being. It achieves this by triggering a relaxation response. Percussive instrumentation is often used in sound healing: gongs, hand percussion and Tibetan singing bowls.
Singing bowls are metallic objects that are struck with a wooden striker. Various sounds can be created with a singing bowl. Tap the bowl and it will ring. Strike the bowl and then run the striker around the rim and it will sing. A mouth can be used to create a wah-wah effect, and adding water to the bowl will change its pitch and resonance. Walkington uses these instruments on this album and is joined by Jim Howard on trumpet and flugelhorn. He also uses loops and electronics to create a variety of soundscapes and effects. Howard released a quintet album – Forever Between – in 2020. He’s played with Randy Brecker, Django Bates and The London Jazz Orchestra. He also composes music for film and television.
The album consists of eleven pieces, with a total playing time of 67 minutes. The album was recorded on Valentine’s Day 2021, when society was beginning to find its feet again after the pandemic. The music is totally improvised and all recordings are first takes. How do you describe this music? Well yes, there’s jazz, but there are also elements of ambient, electronica and avant garde.
The music on this recording is atmospheric, meditative and spacious. It’s also highly elastic: twisting, turning, bending and going off in unexpected directions. Most of it seems designed to relax the listener, but there are also pieces that put you on the edge of your seat.
Whilst listening to the album, I made a note: ‘It’s the aural equivalent of immersing yourself in a bath of warm water and soothing bath oils.’ It was only later that I discovered that a sound hearing session is also known as a sound bath. But this is not to suggest that this is mere background music that simply washes over you. It’s music your brain and your body respond to. And it’s music that merits close listening.
What struck me about this album is the way both musicians show great restraint. With just two instruments in the line-up, there is always a temptation to overplay and fill in any gaps with sound. But there are times when Walkington or Howard barely play anything, but when they do play, it makes a strong statement.
One of my favourite pieces is ‘Watering Hole,’ a seven-minute performance where Howard’s electronically processed muted trumpet floats above a vast, undulating electronic soundscape – the sound ebbs and flows, coloured by ringing percussion and crashing gongs. ‘The combination of horn, percussion and electronics on ‘The Lonely Road’ combine to create a piece that brings to mind that famous 1960s exhortation to ‘turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.’ The title track is a soothing mix of swirling sound loops, fluegelhorn treated with echo and reverb, and tinkling percussion.
But some pieces are more abstract and challenging to the ears. ‘Downtown Without A Map’ begins with a blast of trumpet, followed by a series of flurries, crashing gongs and electronic effects that in places sound like a heavily distorted electric guitar. On ‘It’s Over There’ the percussion sounds like a disjointed Morse code message. The muted trumpet sound is light and airy, and in places, joined by chirping electronic chatter and the resonating ringing of a singing bowl. At 5:38, there is a sudden burst of silence which lasts five seconds, before the sound resumes. What exactly is’ over there’ is down to how you react to the music.
‘Strong Wind From The East,’ is a trumpet–led piece, with Howard’s lightning phrases sounding like a wake-up call. The horn is later accompanied by electronic effects, which in part, sound like a trombone playing in duet with the trumpet. A crashing gong heralds the ending of the piece, as the trumpet is silenced, and a low, rumbling electronic soundtrack takes us to the song’s conclusion.
The gentle opening track, ‘Catching The Dawn’ has plenty of tender horn playing by Howard, crashing gongs and an electronic soundscape that swells up like an incoming tide. The atmospheric closer, ‘You Can See Your Home From Here’ is filled with reverberating trumpet and delicate, clinking percussion. Bursts of electronic sounds increase in intensity (in places, they sound like ghostly sampled voices) and then gracefully decay, bringing it all to an end. I didn’t know what to expect when I received this album, and what I found was a musical experience that pushes at the boundaries of jazz and is profoundly moving.
