This is an odd but pleasant debut album of seven instrumental tracks from an Anglo-French contemporary jazz quartet.
The Brits are James Alsopp (tenor sax, bass clarinet) and Kit Downes (organ, keyboard, prepared piano); the French are Syvain Darrifourcq (drums, objects, toys) and Adrien Dennefeld (guitar, cello).
The press release talks of "angular riffs and hive mind extemporisations" and so you would be fully entitled to expect the playfulness of the cover art to be reflected in the music.
The first track,Animation, begins with a mad whirl of atonal energy but then half way through drifts into a soothing coda.
This chillout mood is maintained for Steam and Adobes, both of which are restrained ambient pieces.
After an all too brief blast of vibrant energy for Barbacana, For No Raisin slows things down again with its sleepy noir-ish mood.
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The promisingly titledMigration-Big Big Shop is, at ten minutes, the longest track. A honking sax refrain invites a more frenetic atmosphere which never really materialises. Instead it builds into a loose, but still fairly subdued, improv piece
Outro rounds things in a leisurely manner.
After such a manic intro, this record morphs into a curiously abstract and chilled album.
What starts as something that might annoy the neighbours ends up being the kind of record to put on during a sophisticated dinner party.
A case of 'pass the port' instead of 'pass the earplugs'!
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