Songs and Themes is a visionary fusion of jazz, electronica and chamber music. With its eighth contribution to the Thirsty Ear Records catalog, the production team of Ashley Wales and multi-instrumentalist John Coxon has truly outdone itself. Songs and Themes is ambient and atmospheric while still maintaining a link to the avant-garde.
Songs and Themes is as much trumpeter Roy Campbell's record as it is Coxon and Wales.' Beginning with “Church Music,” which marries the psychedlia of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1969) with the symphonia of the trumpeter's Sketches of Spain (Columbia, 1959), it's abundantly clear that Campbell will be the featured player throughout. “Dereks” recalls Albert Ayler in a church in Sweden or somewhere, if only in metaphor as much as in memory. “Clara” is a ballad unlike any other—Campbell sings the voice of the tormented lover telling his partner everything she wants to hear, while the backdrop of tortured strings and wandering bass lines tell a much different story.
Finish reading about Spring Heel Jack's Songs and Themes here
mp3: "Church Music"
video: Spring Heel Jack with J Spaceman
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