Nia Lynn (voice); Gareth Lochrane (flutes); Ross Stanley (piano) + Norma Winstone.
(Review by Lance)
The guiding principle for the Bannau Trio - Bannau, by the way, is Welsh for Beacon - is the freedom to roam with melody, time and texture, to draw on the influences of folk and jazz along with original works.
Nia Lynn has a deadpan cool delivery that adapts well to the material, a mix of wordless passages and intelligent phrasing of lyric and melody. Her initial inspiration, Norma Winstone, pops up on one track and similarities can be detected.
Gareth Lochrane provides some fizzing fluting - is their a better jazz flautist? whilst Ross Stanley, prised away from his beloved B3 proves equally adept at an 88 note grand piano. The two instrumentalists weave and intertwine behind and with the singer making this truly a well tempered triumvirate.
The standard material includes Who Can I Turn To?, Bernstein's Some Other Time, Tom Waits' Soldier's Things and Ralph Towner's Renewal. However, excellent as all these are it's the singer's own composition Lonely Ghosts that does it for me. Melody, lyric, delivery, flute's ghostlike presence as he 'flies over Africa', piano's probing presence...Magic!
Another winner from Whirlwind.
The Bannau Trio - Point of View (Whirlwind Recordings WR4645.) is launched on Saturday October 12 as part of the Whirlwind Festival at King's Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG. The official release date is November 4.
Lance.
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