THE MUSIC
On Downland
This was written many years ago in London when I used to miss the countryside. It is an evocation of the chalk downs - mainly the South Downs in Sussex on a summer’s day. It is inspired by English folk songs and has a feeling of walking over open landscapes and looking at far horizons.
Lost Places
A hypnotic and ancient rhythm and texture support an emotional yearning voice like melody. Inspired initially by a trip to Somerset and thoughts of lost cities disappearing under the ground. Also an elegy for lost love and friendship – this is about memories, journeys in the past and those who have passed away or are no longer part of our lives.
Black Lake
In a vision of both inner and outer worlds I saw a vast loch in the highlands of Scotland set within mountainous walls and thought of shining black waters at night. The harp figure has a rolling mystery and fathomless depth and the melody has a soaring feeling like a bird flying and calling out over the lonely waters. The music changes time and moves into a rock driven soloing section before returning to the theme.
THE
MUSICIANS
The following musicians are featured on the recordings and perform
in my group.
Rhodri Davies harp
Rhodri has his own unique and lyrical Celtic language, which is
a synthesis of traditional and improvisational approaches. He also
brings deeper dimensions and sustain to the harmony. Rhodri is a
Welsh speaker and plays a full size concert harp.
Paul Morgan double bass
A friend who goes back many years, Paul is the mainstay for the
project and the foundation for the music. He has great feel and a
melodic approach with an earthy resonant sound.
Mark Fletcher drums/percussion
Mark
brings rhythmic sophistication, motion and subtlety. As a performer
he exudes both personality and virtuosity. Far too intelligent
to be a drummer, he is a great character with overflowing wit…..
Some of the people they have worked with -
Derek Bailey, Charlotte Church, Eric Clapton, Tony Coe, The Cure,
John Etheridge, Tal Farlow, Dizzy Gillespie, John Harle, Elton John,
Lee Konitz, The LSO, Madonna, Michael Nyman, Evan Parker, Pulp, Flora
Purim, The RPO, Soft Machine, Martin Taylor, Julian Lloyd Webber,
John Williams, Robbie Williams, John Zorn.
The Studio
For a number
of years, I’ve been working on my music in the
Cowshed Studio in north London with the engineer and producer Joe
Leach. Born in London and brought up partly in Australia, Joe is
an outstanding individual with a great vibe. He has really good ears
and is exceptional with phrasing and musical interpretation. He creates
quality and adds magic touches. Joe’s wife Biba Leach is the
studio manager and adds to the friendly and helpful atmosphere. This
is a great place and very special.
You can visit
their website - www.cowshedstudio.com
The Recording Process
The recording
process is simple and everything is played acoustically. After
I have started a track, I add elements in stages and often rework
it over a long period of time. I always record the melody and chords
on my own and then call in the bass player Paul. Predominantly
he works from parts which I have written out. The blending of the
two instruments is used as a template or foundation for the track.
After this I add Rhodri, and with the harp we work together beforehand
to see how he can voice modulating harmonies before a score is
written. After this Mark comes in and works from an outline chart.
We try different approaches to the tracks and I’ve tended
to place the drums in certain areas of my compositions. Sometimes
I add solos half way through the recording process and sometimes
at the end. Then we sit on the tracks for a while before mixing
them.
MUSICAL
INFLUENCES AS EQUAL PLANES
My music transcends genre and I see all my musical influences from
different sources coexisting on equal planes.
I've
often been inspired by unusual material from Britain, Europe, America
and other parts of the world. All of this has flowed
into my inner sound world as 'equal planes' of influence and
these have been refracted through my English identity and wide ranging
British world outlook. I think of my musical influences as
forming a deep synthesis rather than existing as an assembly of discrete
elements.
In addition
to those listed below there have been innumerable sources of inspiration
and many have had indefinable and subliminal effects. I have my
own unique voice as a musician and revealing influences only sheds
light on some aspects of my music, as the essence of individual
creativity is in many ways unknown and mysterious.
I've started off by selecting two composers, and then I chart a
course through the important area of music from England and the British
Isles. Finally I've chosen two instrumentalists.
Reducing this down to a small number of people has been very difficult.
Claude Debussy
Coming
across Debussy's Piano Preludes around the age of 15 was a defining
moment and a life changing experience. This magical sound world
was a revelation and opened up my interest in harmony. It shaped
my chord voicings, movements, and melodic phrasing and I felt that
music could represent nature and open the door to mystical worlds.
Parallel chords, close voicings, chords built with fourths and
fifths and whole tone scales were some of the crucial elements
which I absorbed very quickly and they became part of the foundation
of my own musical vocabulary. A particular favourite
amongst his compositions was the Sonata for Flute Viola and Harp
and I also liked the Syrinx and La Mer.
Bela Bartok
I came
across Bartok just after Debussy. Bartok has composed
material with a range of linear, harmonic and rhythmic content which
for me is unparalleled. All the six string quartets are an endless
source of inspiration. The String Quartet No.2 with its intense
and sad lyrical beauty, the fascinating lines and ambiguous tonality,
and strange dark folk modality had a massive impact. The other quartets
with their interwoven lines and incisive rhythmic invention are a
wellspring of dynamic power, architecture and imagination. The
Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta was also important and I
liked the Concerto for Orchestra. This music opened up my interest
in unusual lyrical single lines with interesting combinations of
scales and intervals and haunting motifs using elements such as symmetrical
and augmented scales. Also rhythmic ideas such as shifting
accents, time signatures and tempos.
Conceptual and intuitive approaches coexist in much of this great
music.
And
most importantly for me, Bartok was the master of the
transmutation of folk music into sophisticated compositional art.
English
Folk Songs, The British Isles and Ireland
Curiously,
I first became deeply interested in English folk songs after buying
a small book called The Crystal Spring around the age of 19. This
was an edited selection of songs collected by Cecil Sharp in various
parts of England from 1903-1923. There
were songs which I particularly liked such as The Outlandish Knight
and I played them constantly. Their phrases and lines felt familiar
and natural and I was moved by their poetry and meaning and saw that
they were part of a lost heritage which belonged to me. They seemed
to speak of the English landscapes I loved and the emotions of the
working people. I enjoyed their simplicity and mournful lyricism
and started improvising with them, altering the phrasing and extending
the melodies and using the related modes. I looked for more
English collections and found material collected by Vaughan Williams,
A.L. Lloyd and Hammond and Gardiner amongst others.
I came
across more English folk songs through classical works by Butterworth,
Vaughan Williams and Delius. I loved Vaughan Williams' Pastoral
Symphony which for me has both a visionary depth and a singular
emotional intensity and I also liked The Lark Ascending. Delius
was the most important influence among composers from this period
and I loved Sea Drift, Brigg Fair, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in
Spring and other compositions. I was inspired by his harmonic
approach with beautiful voicings functioning as block chords supporting
melodic lines and this shaped part of my own compositional thinking.
I also liked Elgar and Bridge, and Bax and Moeran with their British
and Celtic influences and impressions. And there were the songs of
Warlock and Gurney.
Another
route into British classical music came through my favourite classical
guitarist Julian Bream. I was influenced by his
recordings of Walton's Five Bagatelles for Guitar, Britten's Nocturnal
and Maxwell Davies' Hill Runes.
When
I was 22 I was fortunate to meet and get to know the pianist, arranger,
conductor and musical polymath Bob Cornford who
had worked closely with people ranging from Benjamin Britten to John
McLaughlin. He bridged the area between classical music and jazz.
I often visited him in his flat in the Caledonian Road in London,
and he would sit at the piano and create sublime chord voicings and
harmonies. He had wonderful sensibilities, fantastic ears and his
clear musical thinking was inspirational. He introduced me to undervalued
English composers and really appreciated inventive improvisation
in jazz. Bob wasn't afraid to voice some unfashionable truths about
debased musical values, pop subculture and the music profession and
this was all delivered with a great sense of humour.
In my
late twenties I lived on the border of west Oxfordshire near Kingham.
In Oxford I met the outstanding English concertina player Dave
Townsend who has an extraordinary knowledge and passion for English
instrumental folk music. He introduced me to a lot
of material including music for dances and hornpipes, played recordings
of traditional musicians and was able to connect me to important
aspects such as rhythm and ornamentation. He also turned me onto
material collected by Cecil Sharp early in the twentieth century
from local traditional musicians such as the violinist Charlie Benfield
who had lived less than a mile away from my house. This brought
about a fascinating process. I often travelled down Idbury Hill nearby
and as with many places it conveyed an indefinable yet particular
feeling to me. When I started playing the simple local tune called
'Idbury Hill', the place took on a new aspect and inner meanings seemed
to be revealed. In turn I was then able to play the tune and through
it connect with part of the essence of English music. Using
my imagination I started to transform local tunes and landscapes
into music with a new life force which was both traditional and improvisational.
I thought about the melodic shape and nature of English music, felt
that others before me must have been creative and wondered what this
music had really been like at its best. I felt that there was a wilder
side which had been homogenized by collectors and folkies. Dave
and I often played together and explored and developed material with
improvisation and added counter melodies and chords. We performed
some of this music on a small number of occasions.
One
day Dave played me a very powerful and otherworldly piece of violin
music. He wasn't sure where it had come from and after checking
he found that it was from a place in Kent just a couple of miles
away from the village where I had grown up ! Here
was another tantalising fragment and I was inspired.
A melange
of diverse home grown influences and crosscurrents shaped my early
years - Britain was, and is, a rich musical environment.
Early
music by Dowland, Byrd, and Tallis and even hymns such as Jerusalem,
and traditional tunes ranging from Packington's Pound to Greensleeves
had an effect.
Outside
England, I had a strong affinity with the particular flavour and
feeling of Scottish songs and instrumental music, and the astonishing
recordings of singing from the Hebrides. These have had a
great emotional impact.
I listened
to all types of Irish music and played through
large written collections of Irish music and found this very uplifting
and exciting. I came across one of the most interesting instrumentalists
in folk music when I discovered the unique Irish violinist Tommy
Potts on the album The Liffey Banks. To me, this type of playing
pointed to where traditional music could go in the hands of a brilliant
individualist.
Later
I discovered the fascinating and hugely significant Welsh harp
music from the manuscripts of Robert ap Huw from 1613, containing
very early material and glimpses of ancient traditions. This
is a missing link between the past and present. It reveals approaches
to instrumental music from the Celtic British Isles and the content
gives strong hints of lost worlds. They have exerted
a powerful influence on my imagination.
In my
lifetime there have been many tremendous British musicians who
have given me something. This includes guitarists who I've particularly
liked such as John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth, and I've also
enjoyed Jeff Beck, Bert Jansch and many others.
Between
the ages of 16 and 18 I used to visit the saxophonist John Surman
who had moved to Kent and he turned me onto various areas of music
and encouraged me to really hear what I was trying to play inside
and I was inspired by his sound and song-like musical projection.
It was a revelation when I was turned onto the genius of the largely
overlooked saxophonist and clarinet player Tony Coe, curiously
also from Kent. I particularly liked his brilliantly inventive
clarinet soloing and went to see him play many times. His jazz and
classical synthesis with fascinating harmonic lines and intervals,
unusual outside notes and the sheer level of rich inventiveness has
been as important to me as Eric Dolphy.
In addition there was the innovative free improvisation scene with
Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley, Evan Parker, Barry Guy and others. At the
age of 24 I worked for five months in a group led by one of these
figures, the drummer John Stevens and he had some key concepts to
offer relating to rhythm, energy, and free and open improvisational
approaches. I spent a period playing in a duo with the black pianist
and keyboard player Pat Thomas and we had a close and almost telepathic
musical chemistry. He became one of my few musical friends and we
often talked about black musical roots, and fabulous cultures ranging
from Africa to America and the Caribbean and how they came through
to be manifested in Britain.
Folk
rock, folk jazz and rock with Fairport Convention, Pentangle, King
Crimson, Cream, Led Zeppelin and others was also music which I
enjoyed. Lastly, I have always loved The Beatles and many
of their songs have played a big part in my life and undoubtedly
shape my music. I hear their material as having influences
from America and sometimes other countries such as India, yet their
recordings still have the sound of music from Britain.
All
this material has reinforced the fact that the British Isles has
strong and vibrant urban music which is multicultural, and streams
of magical and often lyrical music from all the rural regions and
islands as well.
Eric Dolphy
The
most intriguing jazz musician for me has always been Eric Dolphy.
I've loved his playing because of its brilliant improvisational
inventiveness, unique expressiveness, individual presence and originality.
When I first listened closely to him playing saxophone, flute and
bass clarinet around the age of 13 to 14, I was
amazed by the soaring powerful lines with their dense content.
To me this was real improvisation which drew on tradition yet moved
forward into new areas. His use of speech inflected phrasing,
pitch bending, birdsong and interesting lines and intervals, delivered
with astonishing elliptical phrasing and speed made most solos, and
certainly those by guitarists sound limited and unimaginitive. His
records Out There, Outward Bound, Out To Lunch, and his playing with
Charles Mingus, John Coltrane and Oliver Nelson were hugely important
to me and he was a primary musical catalyst.
Munir Bashir
I have a particular interest and affinity with music from the Middle
East and North Africa. I went to a festival of music from the Islamic
world in my early twenties and was moved and fascinated by the sound,
timbres and moods. I found the microtonal approaches and melodic
development appealing.
On one occasion I saw the great Iraqi oud player Munir Bashir, one
of the true masters of the Arabic classical music tradition. His
contemplative yet powerful improvising had a big effect on me and
influenced my own approach to guitar playing. Hearing the sound of
the oud and its paradoxical power and intimacy convinced me that
I had to get back to playing a nylon string guitar and try to use
space and create atmospheres which were evocative. It reminded me
that the instrument should be like a human voice.
I've
often listened to his recordings starting with The Art of the Oud,
and they have mystique and an inner intelligence which can take
people on a journey and impart perceptions of deeper levels. The
Arabic maqam system of musical organisation and improvisation
is something which has always interested me. It offers a wider and
more expressive approach to notes than the narrow European tempered
system.
Munir
Bashir's example helped me to think about my own British
and European traditions and culture. I wanted to play my own
music and improvisation based on roots in Britain with ideas
from around the world and forge an innovative and progressive
path.
MANY OTHERS
At the
moment I don't have the time to write about all the other influences
such as Bach, Ali Akbar Khan and John Coltrane. Hopefully I will
get round to this eventually. And of course there are
guitarists such as Django Reinhardt, Paco de Lucia and Jimi Hendrix.
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