Avant jazz-song at its very best, performed by the world class JTMA Ensemble. A new double CD from Julie Tippetts (one of the UK's finest vocalists from the last 50 years) & Martin Archer, the first for 6 years, and our most ambitious work to date. The two CDs can be listened to separately and in any order. Each volume offers a different perspective on a common theme. CIRCLE OF WHISPERS is a sequence of 13 separate and contrasting songs, performed by various small groups drawn from the JTMA Ensemble, plus some guest musicians. Each song details a character / situation whose presence is hinted at in the companion disc. The result is a powerful and often intensely beautiful record. By contrast ILLUSION SUITE, although split into 7 tracks, is a single piece of music which runs without break for 75 minutes. The music is structured like a DJ mix - with elements appearing, reappearing, and transforming throughout. Extensive use of chance procedures was made in arriving at the finished form of the electronic music which forms the base layer of the piece, over which we hear both the ensemble in full throttle and Julie's complex vocal arrangements. Occasionally the music reaches passages of great almost overwhelming - density, and periodically the 140 bpm rhythms collapse into abstraction. ILLUSION SUITE Julie Tippetts voice Martin Archer keyboards, electronics, radio waves, all saxophones and clarinets Band Peter Fairclough drums Seth Bennett double bass Anton Hunter electric guitar, loops and electronics George Murray trombone Corey Mwamba vibraphone, wood flute Charlotte Keeffe trumpet, flugelhorn Electronics James Archer beats and loops Mark Hadman drones and grinds Michael Harding textures and melodies Herv Perez field recordings, electronics, shakuhachi, close mic soprano sax Chris Trent industrial environment Strings Paul Schatzberger violin Aby Vulliamy viola Angela Rosenfeld cello CIRCLE OF WHISPERS Julie Tippetts voice Martin Archer keyboards, electronics, woodwind with small groups drawn from B J Cole pedal steel guitar Laura Cole grand piano Steve Dinsdale electronic drums Peter Fairclough drums, percussion Liz Hanks cello Anton Hunter electric guitar, loops and electronics George Murray trombone Nick Robinson acoustic & electric guitars Angela Rosenfeld cello Paul Schatzberger violin Simmy Singh violin and viola Michael Somerset shaman percussion Aby Vulliamy viola
