Lauren
Kinsella (voice), Alex Roth (guitar, effects, synth, voice), Laura
Jurd (trumpet, synth, voice), Corrie Dick (drums, percussion,
harmonium, piano, voice).
(Review
by Hugh Cochrane)
Blue-Eyed
Hawk are a London-based band who take their name from a line in a W.B.
Yeats poem Under the Moon. This their debut album, titled
after the same poem.
The
album is a record sellers nightmare, as it defies classification by
genre. While there are certainly elements of jazz in what is
offered, it would probably not be out of place any of the
conventional categories.
Writing is shared between all four musicians, each
contributing in more or less equal measure
across the album. Kinsella and Jurd also
wrote some of the lyrics with acknowledgements of inspiration
to W.B.
Yeats, Seamus Heaney, and Armand Silvestre.
In the studio, the electronic artistry of Leafcutter John and production skills of Tom Herbert enhanced the
spectrum of sounds that were recorded over 4 days in April in Giant Wafer Studios –
deep in the heart of the mid Wales countryside.
The
first track Oyster Trails commences with electronic effects
worthy of the BBC Radiophonic workshop and Dr Who. The melody,
provided by Kinsella's vocals and Jurd's trumpet
gradually develops.
Somewhere
is way, way Over the Rainbow,
man, as you have never heard it before and is punctuated with a heavy
guitar riff that would not be out of place on my metal-loving,
teenage daughter's ipod. This track then segues through a recording
of birdsong (Bluebirds – geddit?) into the balladic Aurora
Sam, stripped down to acoustic
basics.
Spiderton is an upbeat
number with a jaunty, rhythmic feel driven by the percussive input of
Corrie Dick. O Do Not Love Too Long slows things down again
with long, haunting chords underneath , supported by almost skeletal
percussion and overlain with beautiful drawn out trumpet from Jurd.
The minimalist Reflections in
the Spiral keeps things in a contemplative groove before things
(perhaps predictably) hot up for Living in the Fast Lane.
Intro (For Fathers) puts
us back in a more reflective mood before the rhythmic and beautiful
For Tom and Everything. Try to Turn Back is primarily basic
vocals and piano, where the purity of Kinsella's vocal line is
perhaps best appreciated. Valediction does what it
says on the tin and closes the show.
All in all then, this is not
jazz, but certainly has something of interest for the die hard jazzer.
This is perhaps likely to appeal to a much wider audience
than the customary jazz crowd. It is, as the record company website
has it, “a genre defying and boundless approach to music making”.
There is a prominent quote at the
head of the record company publicity:
So brilliant. Everyone in the
room was spellbound – BBC Radio 3. I would wager a fiver this
would be Jez on 3 (Jazz on 3 – hosted by Jez Nelson), this album is
seriously melodic compared with some of the usual fare.
Under
the Moon is released by Edition
Records on September 15. Catalogue No. EDN1054
Blue-Eyed
Hawk will be on tour in the Autumn of 2014 and play Splinter at The
Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne on October 5.
Hugh
C.
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