Manchester guitarist and composer Stuart McCallum is best known for his work with Cinematic Orchestra. The distinctive, ethereal and atmospheric sound of his guitar has been at the heart of their sound since 2004, including on the albums 'Ma Fleur' and 'Live At The Royal Albert Hall' and the award winning soundtrack ‘The Crimson Wing'. His own music influenced by jazz and DJ Culture is a distillation of many influences, creating a sound that is concentrated and distinctive. McCallum who admits to influences from Wes Montgomery to Bjork, Flying Lotus to Bon Iver and James Blake to Bill Frisell, as well as modern art, eschews over complicated harmonic and rhythmical structures in favour of a rich mix of electronica and improvisation enriched by elegant orchestral writing.
Distilled, McCallum's brilliant third album, and first for new label Naim, is a culmination of the music he has written over the last few year and the idea of ‘distillation' is right at the heart of how the record was written. McCallum ‘sampled' the best bits of his compositions, using them as the basis for further writing, before again sampling the results, and so on, until arriving at the perfectly distilled version of what he wanted to say. The result is a sublime slice of ambient-jazz-electonica with beautiful melodies and gorgeous soundscapes. But it isn't just the process, McCallum's own music is ‘distilled': simple, memorable and melodic, minimalist and repetitive like modern dance music. His music owes as much to dance music as it does jazz. McCallum's music thrives in the spaces between genres and on Distilled the improvisation is part of the compositional process. But it's his use of technology that helps give the music its unique sound, be it looped instruments, samples, or his ethereal guitar McCallum utilises technology to create unique soundscapes, that are in equal part performance, composition and improvisation.
Distilled's arguable ‘super-group' features McCallum on guitars and sampler alongside fabled New York jazz bassist Ira Coleman and Zero 7's Robin Mullarkey, harpist Rachel Gladwin (best known in the jazz world for her work with Matthew Halsall), drummer Dave Walsh (often found on tour with Tom McCrae), legendary Manchester based percussionist Chris Manis and Iain Dixon on woodwinds. Amongst the albums key tracks are Part 3, part of a suite that McCallum wrote for John Surman after a commission from Manchester Jazz festival. There are samples of the music from this suite in the tracks Lament for Levenshume and dR Doctor but it here that we here the most intact version of the original written music. The soaring Inflight was written on a flight to Australia and perfectly captures the sprit of motion. La Cigale, named after the venue in Paris, features a sample of a string quartet movement that McCallum wrote while sitting in a tour bus outside the venue. But it is dR Doctor, the opening track, which presents the clearest statement of what the album is about. Simple and melodic, with a catchy bass line and drum beat, the sampled strings are from the suite McCallum wrote for Surman and the rest of the track grew around the sample, a perfect example of how McCallum has distilled his music and which like a great Scotch proves that in the hands of an artist the perfect blend is one Distilled.
Stuart launched Distilled, at the invitation of Manchester Jazz Festival, in the summer of 2011, with Stuart sitting pproudly at the heart of a 16-piece ensemble, conducted by Ben Cottrell (recently praised for his orchestral arrangements for Mercury Prize nominated Everything Everything and his own jazz ensemble Beats & Pieces), where some of the talent that featured on the new album were re-united for a special one-off spectacle in the Royal Northern College of Music's Opera Theatre.
credits
released October 3, 2011
Produced by Stuart McCallum (and D'Alchemiss on Track 10)
Recording engineered by Stuart McCallum, D'Alchemiss and Seadna McPhail
Recorind in Elland, Stockport, Manchester, London and New York
Mixed by D'Alchemiss
Mastered by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering, Bristol
Interview by Linder
All song composed by Stuart McCallum
Cover photograph by Al McDermid www.mcdermid.deviantart.com
Inner photography by Louis Loizou
Artwork by Pragmatic Design Ltd
Stuart McCallum - guitars, keyboards, celeste, electronics
Dave Walsh - drums
Chris Manis - percussion
Robin Mullarkey - bass
Ira Coleman - bass (tracks 7, 8, 9, 10)
Dan Goldman - piano (tracks 1, 9)
Iain Dixon - clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, flute
Dan Edwards, Sam Morris - french horn
Neil Yates, Richard Isles - trumpet/flugelhorn
Rachael Gladwin - harp
Laura Senior, Melissa Court, Adam Robinson, James Pattinson, Matthew Batty - violin
Raymond Lester, Josephine Goynes - viola
Thomas Wilkes, Simon Denton - 'cello
Gavin Barras - contrabas
Stuart McCallum is a Jazz musician from Manchester who's music embraces simple, memorable melodies, bass lines and drum beats, with electronica and improvisation enriched by elegant orchestral writing.
Two absolutely magic Halsall moments. Taking on Alice Coltrane's "Journey" and delivering something that does full justice to the original is simply outstanding :) 8000records
Difficult to name a favourite track, however if I was forced to choose an all time favourite album this would certainly be up there at the top. I'm in the UK but it was a friend in South Africa that introduced me to Gondwana. Absolutely beautiful album from start to finish, amazing musicians and composition both. Thank you, it inspires me to become a better musician. rai scott
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