Steeped in introspection and deep focus, Stone Echidna has fashioned a musical landscape that demands patience and effort from the listener, asking that we leave our musical baggage at the door, and embrace the unfamiliar. Only with repeated listening does the drama and beauty inherent within this music fully reveal itself.
“[Elysian Fields’] aim of creating a beautiful recording has well and truly been achieved, and once our lives return to some semblance of normality following the emergence of the virus that has shaken the world, ‘Fika’ will indeed bring people together.”
Pavlidis’ approach to improvisation is equal parts spontaneity and structure.
Andrea Keller’s piano is central to her Transients trios, a thing of wonder that binds together these conversations with her fellow musicians.
To say that drummer Kyrie Anderson and bassist Alana Dawes create a firm backbone that allows singer and bandleader Kate Fuller to shine, singing with clarity and confidence, would be an understatement.
Of Deities and Demons grew directly out of AAO Artistic Director Peter Knight’s meeting with drummer and Baliphonics leader Samudi Suraweera during a visit Knight made to Sri Lanka. The conversations and the friendship that grew between these two musicians led to the idea of meshing the experimental inclinations of the AAO with the yak bera (demon drum), and other traditional instruments of Sri Lanka.
But of course, this is a band overflowing with imaginative musicians. Jenny Eriksson’s electric viola da gamba is the anchor around which the good ship Elysian Fields sails. She was clearly enjoying herself onstage, relaxed and on fire.
Elly Hoyt has harnessed the power and beauty of music, not simply for its own sake, but to give voice to those we have heard far too little from.
I have had the good fortune to make it to Jazz in Marciac a number of times, including 2019. This is some of what I experienced in the Chapiteau.
The Outsider reflects an on-going commitment to building a body of work intent on exploring the great tradition of the piano trio, as epitomized by the work of artists such as Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, the Esbojrn Svensson Trio, or The Necks.
