ZEKE HARMON : Lemonade : JUSTICE PHILLIPS: Serenade, I Miss You: NICOLAS HURT : The Springs a) Hillside ; b) Ubiquitous Drum Circle ; c) Under Deep Water (after Satie): CLAIRE PUCKETYT : Lantern.
Nicolas Hurt
CD: Oak Recordings; Available from nickhurtmusic.com
This EP sized recording (just over 23 minutes) goes hand in hand with a short film of the same title, where Nicolas Hurt worked with local musical friends (the other composers on this recording), and ther end – result shows his love for the place and people where he grew up, namely Austin Texas, and is a friendly, but quietly intimate picture of Hurt and his three compatriots’ love of music and what inspires them
The opening Lemonade by Jarmon has an almost folk inspiration behind its harmonies at the start. In fact it reminded me a little of a Paul Simon style of writing at first. It remains very friendly and open in its harmonies, and is a good opening track.
Justice Phillips’ title track is much longer, and much more involved musically, with a lot of different ideas that, whilst remaining contemplative for a great deal of the time, does move into much more modern harmonic territory , before finally returning to its opening phrase, and fading away into the distance.
Hurt’s own piece is in three movements, with the opening Hillside containing very guitaristic clashes across open and stopped strings, but still very quiet and relaxed. The second movement is short and entirely percussive, as he uses many places on the guitar to create a rhythmic bounce. I personally could have done with some music too within its percussion but that is just my own thoughts. The final movement is sub- titled (after Satie) and one can see how some of Erik Satie’s music has encouraged this part.
The final piece is again very static, with long chords and gaps in between them , before changing into music that is always friendly but still quiet and yet emotive at the same time.
All in all, this is a nice and well performed CD of some music that you most certainly will not have heard before, and I encourage you all to have a look at the film that goes hand in hand with this well made CD.
Chris Dumigan
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