Greg Fenton reviews Other Light Ensemble – Body of Ritual Tapestry – Blue Tapes
If you feel that this kind of improvised, free-flowing wealth of sound bouncing crazily off atoms might tempt you into an altogether more adventurous state of mind then please, press play. After all, what have you got to lose? Apart from moments making up an endless repetition of days.
Other Light Ensemble aka Jonathan Hill, Chris Jones, Matthew Redfern and Ryan James Mawbey, join forces on ‘blue fifty-one’ with Tony Buck, Patrick Shiroishi and Alessandro Cau. Under normal circumstances and with the involvement of so many people, you might expect to hear a mess of ideas chasing each trying to make themselves heard above the noise like competition gone mad. Yet this extended number seamlessly escapes potential chaos over an impressive twenty-eight minutes in the form of Body of Ritual Tapestry while making sumptuous indelible prints of emotion and musical motifs along the way. Starting at one place and ending up at another.
Perhaps it’s saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi who creates the most notable impression here amongst the gritty electronic discourse and bruising percussion by blowing the spirit of contemporary jazz into the whole affair. Still, we will never be quite sure exactly who is doing what at any given second. However, what can be said for certain is that the music dances between exhilaration and thought-provoking depths throughout sparking imagination amid the possibility of things. I sort of love this piece of unpredictable art for all that.
Release: July 19
Download/Stream Other Light Ensemble – Body of Ritual Tapestry on Bandcamp
Blue Tapes
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