British saxophonist, composer and arranger Jaswon has based his third album, Polar Waters, recorded by his Berlin-based contemporary octet, around contemporary poetry by women and non-binary people in an attempt to provide a parallel to his musical ideas. His previous album, The Silent Sea followed a similar theme.
We have subjects such as endangered species, ambivalent emotions about spaces from the past, Antarctica's lunar landscape, the importance of our relationship to water as well as a five part suite Seasick which bemoans humans' destructive impact on the waters that surround us.
Now normally, when I read such as the above I dismiss it as clap-trap, but when I actually listened to it I was impressed by the solos, the arrangements and the vocals by Serierse which have a Norma Winstone fluency about them. The fact that the booklet provides the words added to the experience.
To think I almost dismissed this as pretentious before I'd even listened!
Well it is pretentious but, and this a very big but, those pretensions have been realised perfectly proving that they weren't pretentious at all! Lance
Available on Ubuntu Music UBU125 (CD/Digital/Vinyl) on June 2 with a launch at Pizza Express on Sept. 20
Swimming in Winter (Elsa Hammond); Deception Island (Catherine Faulds); Landfill; Lost in a Dream (Milo Kent); Seasick Parts 1 - 5 (Claire Cox); Karner Blue (Carrie Etter); Enigma (Joshua Jaswon)
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