Album review: Ant Law & Brigitte Beraha – Ensconced (Ubuntu)

Ant Law (guitar); Brigitte Beraha (voice); plus guests Petros Klampanis (bass); Ernesto Simpson (drums); Max Luthert (electronics); Duncan Eagles (saxophone); Jamie Murray (drums); Matt Calvert (electronics, acoustic guitar, piano, dulcitone, synths); Kit Downes (piano); Adam Kovacs (percussion).

It must be acknowledged that Brigitte Beraha’s voice is an acquired taste. Ethereal, ghostly, delicate and full of character, a creature of the air, just exquisite in the higher registers but seeming to carry a lot of weight lower down that makes it a little less so.

A Kiss to Build a Dream On opens the album and it is heart stoppingly lovely, drawing the listener in in a way that excludes the rest of the world. You can’t help but hang on to every spare note; it’s the timing and the space that makes it work so well.

The title track follows with Beraha’s unmoored vocals soaring and then swooping down as Law plays a (seemingly) simple motif behind her adding brief Spanish flurries into the mix.

After the brief snippet that is Clever Hans, From A to Z is tragic and mournful Beraha’s voice dominates over a gentle mist of Law’s chords, the finest filigree.

The addition of Klampanis and Simpson to Harvest brings extra urgency and depth, especially during the bass solo, which is framed by rattling drums and Beraha’s floating vocal line. Law twists some Metheny-esque lines around the others before some more extensive explorations incorporating fluid runs and longer notes to punctuate the solo. Beraha’s voice flutters, wordlessly, above and around it all

Above Water also benefits from added musicians (Luthert, Murray and Eagles), the former’s electronics adding new landscapes and additional colour whilst Eagles provides an elegant solo and some spikiness to proceedings, the heavy, lumpy drumming from Murray is a distraction, however.

Kit Downes’ solo on Who We Are is a thing of beauty that Bill Evans would have been proud of; it achieves the same flight as Beraha’s voice. Both performances are full of escape, hope and freedom.

The album closes with a charming rendition of Bernstein’s Some Other Time (from On the Town) which has been covered by Bill Evans (him again) and Ian Shaw, amongst dozens of others. Seemingly relaxed with a hopeful, (almost a lullaby) Laurel Canyon vibe and perfect for a summer’s day, Law’s twisting solo adds reflection and takes the edge off the optimism.

For all the fact that I didn’t take to Beraha’s vocals on the first listen the whole album works its way under your skin and I have played it a lot in the week or so since I first got it. It undermines any resistance and, at the moment, I can see it in my end of year top ten. If nothing else, it looks likely to be my favourite for late night listen of the year. Dave Sayer