This
recording documents an evening of what sounds like freely
improvised music in Brighton in early January of last
year. The music was played by Urban Myth whose members
are Jim Black (guitar), Adam Bushell (vibraphone), Henry
Collins (laptop) and Kirsten Elliott (flutes, melodica)
and their guest Steve Beresford (piano and electronics).
Beresford is the name party here: he has played with
all manner of people, from African Head Charge to Flying
Lizards, from The Slits to Jah Wobble.
However this may not be the best starting point for
Beresford novices as the music proves to be rather unremarkable,
particularly when compared to classic recorded examples
of free improvisation such as AMM, Derek Bailey’s
now discontinued Company Weeks and Spontaneous Music
Ensemble. To be fair, the lack of engagement may be
attributed to the very nature of recorded free improvisation.
Even at the best of times this form of music is much
more interesting when heard in situ, where the shared
concentration of listeners and performers plays a key
part in the level of engagement with what is often difficult
and challenging music. The small size of audiences and
venues contributes to this absorption: my own best memories
relate to Saturday morning sessions organised by Derek
Bailey and various guests at a tiny wine bar in Hackney
where the audience would sometimes fail to swell to
double figures.
Urban Myth’s signature sound comprises spacey
vibes and keening tones, laced through with breathy
flute, a lot of struck guitar and very little regular
rhythm. Unfortunately these elements predominantly fail
to gather enough momentum to cohere into anything more
than a rather amorphous string of separate incidents.
There are promising passages of reflective ambience
but they’re too often intruded upon by elements
which sound inappropriate – such as what sounds
like an out of tune melodica and piano. It is tempting
to attribute this to a lack of the aforementioned close
listening necessary to successful free improv. Additionally,
the recording sounds like it was captured on a single
microphone located in the audience and the resulting
quality doesn’t help matters any. Unfortunately
Urban Myth too often sound unconsciously like a free
improv version of The Portsmouth Sinfonia and I'm afraid,
that can't be offered as a recommendation.
Colin Buttimer
1/5 |
