Chris Montague (guitar);
Kit Downes (piano); Ruth Goller (electric bass).
In a recent lockdown interview with London
Jazz News, the composer of this CD Chris Montague was asked what was the first
album he purchased as a "jazz musician". Montague's reply is
interesting as he said that when he was 14/15 years old he bought a John
McLaughlin compilation in HMV in Newcastle ('Why not from Windows ?' I imagine the BSH editor wondering). Not a bad choice
for a young teenage aspiring guitarist but also interesting for the message he
took from McLaughlin's music. He said, "It felt like a completely
different aesthetic to the other stuff I'd been into which was much more
blues/rock oriented". Clearly it opened his eyes to the possibilities of
guitar playing and music generally.
Although one wouldn't think of McLaughlin
listening to this album it definitely has it's own aesthetic with constantly
varying soundscapes and a warm (> 98.6F) emotional feel.
Although Montague has been involved in many
recordings and with a number of well known groups this album is his first under
his leadership and it is wonderful. The music is original and imaginative, as
well as being experimental and improvised but without the negative connotations
that are sometimes attached (often unfairly) to those words. Some of this is
due to Montague's subtle compositions and guitar playing but much is also the
result of the complex interactions between him and his two colleagues;
long-time collaborator, pianist and ECM recording artist, Kit Downes, and
electric bassist Ruth Goller. The absence of drums creates spaces for the three
of them that gives the music an intriguing delicacy both engaging and
stimulating.
The opening track Irish Handcuffs (Introduction) is a beautifully judged improvised
guitar solo by Montague that leads into the second track, the full Irish Handcuffs with close rhythmic
inter-play between a 'prepared' piano and electronically enhanced guitar with
the electric bass in there as well producing a very vibrant and intricate mixture.
This piece demonstrates Montague's ability to integrate unusual musical forms
with the use of hocketting, a medieval musical form with a quick alteration of
notes between two voices (or in this case, two instruments) giving a very
distinctive sound. Apparently this effect is used in Indonesian gamelan music,
Andean siku, Russian kuvutsi, rara street processions in Haiti and King
Crimson. As my Irish granny would have said "It's a long way from
hocketting he was born" (Gateshead, actually) but it creates a fascinating
and gripping effect.
The title track Warmer Than Blood is a musical interpretation of a poem by Fiona
Sampson which begins "The black beast who sleeps/under your feet
raising/his back sometimes sending/shivers up your spine" and gives you a
feel of the atmosphere of this piece which is subtly dark and mysterious.
A number of pieces were written for his
family. FTM for his young son starts slowly
and meditatively but builds up to a more frantic staccato finish and the track,
Moira, inspired by his grandmother,
is a heartfelt and beautiful guitar improvisation (her views on hocketting are
not known).
The one standard, melodic 'tune' on the
album is perhaps appropriately given the title Not My Usual, but the quality of composition across the whole album
is shown by the fact that it does not stand out as something different or a
'relief', but as another fine piece of music with its place amongst all the
others.
The final track Rendered began as a commission for the opening of Jimi Hendrix's
flat in the house where Handel once lived and, as there wasn't much musical
inspiration there, apparently Montague got started by rubbing manuscript paper
onto wood chipped wallpaper (come to think of it Hendrix was inclined to rub
his guitar against certain delicate parts of his body in live performance).
But however it was created this is another
gorgeously musical track with beautiful repetitive bell-like sounds from the
piano and guitar and ending with the sounds of the sea or the wind or maybe
blood rushing through the veins.
Throughout the album all three musicians
are in intuitive harmony with each other and have created some fantastic music
to help deal with lockdown. My album of the year!
JC
Irish Handcuffs (Introduction); Irish Handcuffs;
Warmer Than Blood; FTM; C Squad; Not My Usual Type; The Internet; Moira;
Rendered.
Available now from Whirlwind Recordings.
Available now from Whirlwind Recordings.
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