Looking ahead to the summer, one to know about, for fear of missing out before disappearing into the dunes
A mournful but not at all depressing mini epic from the trumpet/flugel-vibes duo pairing recording in a Brooklyn studio is the latest from Nadje Noordhuis and vibist James Shipp. Synths and acoustic instruments decorate the melodicism that reveals the pair having written individually mainly although in the case of the much less compelling 'Encantamento' together. Noordhuis enters the Kenny Wheeler domain completely on 'Snow Line' and returns to the well whether consciously or probably not time and time again. And what a joy it is to embrace a kindred Kennian spirit. Shipp on this track and at other times sounds a little like the great Steve Nelson. 'These Days' the second track is more electroacoustic the pair as if on steroids going by the skip of the beat while the title track has busy little electronic punctuation chattering like an excitable teleprinter or old Space Invaders machine while the main melody has a Reuben Fowler type melodicism - remember Fowler's 2013 epic Between Shadows? (Let's hope you go there ''to join hands and contact the living,'' as Ronnie Scott was wont to jest.) 'Lumino' has superb cross rhythms in a percussion sense but the dinkily chiming intro to 'Candlestick Carol' is a long way removed. It makes use of brass candlesticks (that sound like a glockenspiel) to tell a ''lonely this Christmas'' tale written in a spirit of familial absence. If you like us are Alex Ridout fans you have to hear the paradoxically intimate and quite touching Multitudes when 13 June comes around.
MORE READING, LISTENING, GNU HIGHS, OLD HAUNTS:
- Full Circle - review and in the album of the week spot in December 2022
- Nadje Noordhuis - review, 2012
Nadje Noordhuis, photo: via Little Mystery
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