Juliana Day’s last album lull (reviewed here) was a collection of interval pieces for the 2024 Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music. I described it as ‘assertive ambient’ and that label could apply here albeit that this recording is more upfront than much of lull. It’s a single 21 minute long piece, Capillary Cycles, which was inspired by “the vastness and complexity of sea and desert landscapes.”
Its central motif for
much of the piece is a repeated low bass note, like a foghorn out of the mist,
echoing and full of foreboding, almost a pulse, sometimes allowed to echo on
and at other times snatched to a sharp close. After a while Day’s voice is inserted
into the mix, present but largely subsumed by the lower note. As the piece
progresses the voice comes to dominate, wordless and ethereal, it floats over
the top before surrendering the lead to a bass recorder which calls,
mournfully, into the space; electronics swoop in like hungry gulls. There are
three levels at work now; in the distance the bass foundation is still there,
the foreground is the electronic sweep and in between is insistent movement
that sways like light fabric waving.
There is a change in tone
as higher notes take centre stage, chief among which is a ghostly wail,
echoing. I checked the sleeve notes, expecting to find that it was recorded in
an old building, like a cathedral or a watchtower, with a natural echo, but no,
this is all created in the studio. The voice sounds like a full chorus, as if
it’s been multi-tracked with one more dominant that the others, more
expressive, bolder, almost losing the note. In the distant background other
sounds bubble, suggesting the presence of water. It all falls away to leave a
single siren’s call, repeated slowly until that, too, is silenced.
There are all sorts of
back room arguments to be had about whether music like this is jazz. I would
say not but it is improvised music. The discussion may then go that all jazz is
improvised music which raises the question of whether all improvised music is
jazz, in which case Capillary Cycles is
back in. There does, however, seem to be an ethos about the NewJaIM label that
almost amounts to an obligation to record and release music like this album,
music that nudges at the edges. Long may they continue to do so. Dave Sayer
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