This suite is the third and most ambitious release by my AACM influenced big band. Across three releases, the band has developed from the original idea of saxophone + percussion quartet + studio based orchestration as heard on the first release Blue Meat, Black Diesel and Engine Room Favourites, via a second CD Bad Tidings From Slackwater Drag, which gave the band a simple framework for live performance, and finally to the current release which features a larger group and more complex scores. I'm not usually one for programmatic music, but these pieces were conceived and written very quickly in the final 2 months of 2016. The titles enable the listener to imagine their own story of a world moving in exactly the opposite direction to the version most people would wish to live in.
"So this album music is always full of surprises, interesting and stunning musical decisions and has a marvelous and interesting sound. Bright, evocative and innovative musical language, masterful and original instrumentation, high variety of different music styles, marvelous and outstanding improvising - all these elements create an original, vivacious, dynamic and gorgeous sound." - AVANTSCENA
Martin Archer - saxophones
Mick Beck - tenor saxophone, bassoon
Seth Bennett - bass
Graham Clark - violin
Laura Cole - piano
Steve Dinsdale - percussion
Peter Fairclough - drums
Johnny Hunter - drums
Kim Macari - trumpet
George Murray - trombone
Corey Mwamba - vibraphone
Walt Shaw - percussion
Riley Stone-Lonergan - tenor saxophone, clarinet
