LAURA JURD - Stepping Back, Jumping In
Edition EDN1131
Laura Jurd - trumpet; Raphael Clarkson - trombone (tracks 3, 5 & 6); Alex Paxton - trombone (tracks 1 & 2); Martin Lee Thomson – euphonium; Soosan Lolavar - santoor; Rob Luft – banjo / guitars; Elliot Galvin - piano; Anja Lauvdal - synth / electronics; Conor Chaplin - double bass; Liz Exell - drum kit; Corrie Dick – drum kit
The Ligeti Quartet:
Mandhira de Saram - violin; Patrick Dawkins - violin; Richard Jones - viola; Cecilia Bignall - cello (guest cellist)
Think Christian Wallumrød Ensemble ("Arch Song" on A year from Yesterday), or Moondog (Joanna McGregor's take on "Rabbit" Hop in Sidewalk Dances). You might even want to think Polar Bear when they're being a bit exuberant ("Chatpot" on In each and Everyone). If you were new to Laura Jurd's work, they would help give you a sense of where Stepping Back, Jumping in, Laura Jurd's most recent project, is coming from. It's composed, it’s even composed by more than one composer (Jurd herself on three tracks and her long term collaborator Elliot Galvin on another, Anja Lauvdal & Heida K. Jóhannesdóttir and Soosan Lolavar contributing two other pieces). But, most of the time, it's also surprisingly free and open, despite the number of people involved.
Mercury nominated Laura Jurd has been building a serious reputation since her highly regarded 2014 debut with Landing Ground. If you were one of the many who enjoyed this earlier collaboration with the Ligeti Quartet you might be in for a surprise – whether it's a pleasant one or not will depend on how eclectic you're feeling. In the earlier project, Jurd's confidently striding trumpet was a dominant presence, whether it was in the ethereal "Happy Sad Song", or the cockily confident "Flight Music". In the six tracks on Stepping Back, Jumping in, Jurd's presence is still strongly felt, but here it's much more as part of something, or even as a guiding force, rather than as a disinct, independent voice. I suppose this shouldn't be a surprise given that the new album is a 14 musician project that resulted from a commission by London's King's Place for their Venus Unchained season.
How does all this work out in practice. In some sections, I think remarkably well – in others just a bit less so. The first long track, "Jumping in", motors along with percussion, low brass, banjo and Jurd's trumpet set against Steve Reich like repeated phrases from the string quartet and piano, though after several hearings I'm still not sure about the way in which slow / fast passages are interspersed. I suppose this is where the tension between the slightly academic, composed character of the work might push against the excitement of the engagement between the 14 musicians who are having to find their way through Jurd's intentions.
In "Ishtar" (the Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, sex and war – in case you didn't know that!), Galvin's piano, Lolavar's santoor (think seriously big dulcimer) and percussion, provide a ragged framework for the brass and strings to dance around. It's a piece which starts in a disturbingly fragmented way, works towards a strongly rhythmic middle section and then floats away in a cloud of synth and strings. Maybe that's the love and sex bit after all that the war…
"Ishtar" segues beautifully into the next track, Lolavar's "I Am The Spring, You Are The Earth". Here, santoor, piano and strings build a quiet, contemplative mood which is blown apart by Jurd's trumpet and a blaring brass section that lays down chords that could have come straight from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, before things quieten down and fade to black.
"Jump Cut Shuffle" is the track where the Ligeti Quartet take the lead, playing Jurd's themes (random cuts and shuffles?) – although in the process they seem to be channelling their inner Bartók. It’s lovely, it’s difficult to describe, and it feels sort of borderline in relation to the rest of the project. I enjoyed the pizzicato energy of some sections and the elegiac quietness of the legato finale, and it flowed beautifully into Lauvdal and Jóhannesdóttir's cheerfully raucous "Companion Species", but it felt as if it had been shoe-horned into the running order.
"Companion Species" is a complete contrast and brings us back into the territory where I feel Jurd and her collaborators excel. It drives along, with a deceptively simple off-beat rising and falling four note riff that's maintained by strings and piano, and creates a solid ground that Jurd's trumpet can soar above, with a chorus of trombones and synth to accompany her in her flight. It's a great get-up-and-dance, grin on your face celebration of musical collaboration.
The final track, "Stepping Back" makes the most of the resources Jurd has to hand. It feels controlled, but in a good way, and the contrasting soundscape which the ensemble builds is tight and together. Perhaps we could have had more of this.
A conclusion? From this reviewer's point of view maybe there were too many professors on the team for this project to really take off. Certainly, there are some lovely moments, but if I compare Stepping back, Jumping In with the outstanding Landing Ground or the work Jurd has done with Dinosaur, I am left feeling a bit disappointed. I'm sure the live experience of hearing these pieces in the beautiful King's Hall 1 concert space would have been a delight, but as a recording I feel this is a bit less than the sum of its parts. By trying to give space for all the participants, Jurd and Edition have perhaps lost some of the verve that sets Jurd apart from her contemporaries.
Reviewed by Chris Tribble
Edition EDN1131
Laura Jurd - trumpet; Raphael Clarkson - trombone (tracks 3, 5 & 6); Alex Paxton - trombone (tracks 1 & 2); Martin Lee Thomson – euphonium; Soosan Lolavar - santoor; Rob Luft – banjo / guitars; Elliot Galvin - piano; Anja Lauvdal - synth / electronics; Conor Chaplin - double bass; Liz Exell - drum kit; Corrie Dick – drum kit
The Ligeti Quartet:
Mandhira de Saram - violin; Patrick Dawkins - violin; Richard Jones - viola; Cecilia Bignall - cello (guest cellist)
Think Christian Wallumrød Ensemble ("Arch Song" on A year from Yesterday), or Moondog (Joanna McGregor's take on "Rabbit" Hop in Sidewalk Dances). You might even want to think Polar Bear when they're being a bit exuberant ("Chatpot" on In each and Everyone). If you were new to Laura Jurd's work, they would help give you a sense of where Stepping Back, Jumping in, Laura Jurd's most recent project, is coming from. It's composed, it’s even composed by more than one composer (Jurd herself on three tracks and her long term collaborator Elliot Galvin on another, Anja Lauvdal & Heida K. Jóhannesdóttir and Soosan Lolavar contributing two other pieces). But, most of the time, it's also surprisingly free and open, despite the number of people involved.
Mercury nominated Laura Jurd has been building a serious reputation since her highly regarded 2014 debut with Landing Ground. If you were one of the many who enjoyed this earlier collaboration with the Ligeti Quartet you might be in for a surprise – whether it's a pleasant one or not will depend on how eclectic you're feeling. In the earlier project, Jurd's confidently striding trumpet was a dominant presence, whether it was in the ethereal "Happy Sad Song", or the cockily confident "Flight Music". In the six tracks on Stepping Back, Jumping in, Jurd's presence is still strongly felt, but here it's much more as part of something, or even as a guiding force, rather than as a disinct, independent voice. I suppose this shouldn't be a surprise given that the new album is a 14 musician project that resulted from a commission by London's King's Place for their Venus Unchained season.
How does all this work out in practice. In some sections, I think remarkably well – in others just a bit less so. The first long track, "Jumping in", motors along with percussion, low brass, banjo and Jurd's trumpet set against Steve Reich like repeated phrases from the string quartet and piano, though after several hearings I'm still not sure about the way in which slow / fast passages are interspersed. I suppose this is where the tension between the slightly academic, composed character of the work might push against the excitement of the engagement between the 14 musicians who are having to find their way through Jurd's intentions.
In "Ishtar" (the Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, sex and war – in case you didn't know that!), Galvin's piano, Lolavar's santoor (think seriously big dulcimer) and percussion, provide a ragged framework for the brass and strings to dance around. It's a piece which starts in a disturbingly fragmented way, works towards a strongly rhythmic middle section and then floats away in a cloud of synth and strings. Maybe that's the love and sex bit after all that the war…
"Ishtar" segues beautifully into the next track, Lolavar's "I Am The Spring, You Are The Earth". Here, santoor, piano and strings build a quiet, contemplative mood which is blown apart by Jurd's trumpet and a blaring brass section that lays down chords that could have come straight from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, before things quieten down and fade to black.
"Jump Cut Shuffle" is the track where the Ligeti Quartet take the lead, playing Jurd's themes (random cuts and shuffles?) – although in the process they seem to be channelling their inner Bartók. It’s lovely, it’s difficult to describe, and it feels sort of borderline in relation to the rest of the project. I enjoyed the pizzicato energy of some sections and the elegiac quietness of the legato finale, and it flowed beautifully into Lauvdal and Jóhannesdóttir's cheerfully raucous "Companion Species", but it felt as if it had been shoe-horned into the running order.
"Companion Species" is a complete contrast and brings us back into the territory where I feel Jurd and her collaborators excel. It drives along, with a deceptively simple off-beat rising and falling four note riff that's maintained by strings and piano, and creates a solid ground that Jurd's trumpet can soar above, with a chorus of trombones and synth to accompany her in her flight. It's a great get-up-and-dance, grin on your face celebration of musical collaboration.
The final track, "Stepping Back" makes the most of the resources Jurd has to hand. It feels controlled, but in a good way, and the contrasting soundscape which the ensemble builds is tight and together. Perhaps we could have had more of this.
A conclusion? From this reviewer's point of view maybe there were too many professors on the team for this project to really take off. Certainly, there are some lovely moments, but if I compare Stepping back, Jumping In with the outstanding Landing Ground or the work Jurd has done with Dinosaur, I am left feeling a bit disappointed. I'm sure the live experience of hearing these pieces in the beautiful King's Hall 1 concert space would have been a delight, but as a recording I feel this is a bit less than the sum of its parts. By trying to give space for all the participants, Jurd and Edition have perhaps lost some of the verve that sets Jurd apart from her contemporaries.
Reviewed by Chris Tribble
