I've been trying to understand why I find this music so listenable and I think that I've found a few reasons. Firstly, it's slow; secondly, the soloists play simple lines with none of the typical jazz flourishes or 'sheets of sound' that one often hears; thirdly, it's sparse; fourthly (if there's such a word), here and there are lines that I might have played myself.
Halsall is a prolific composer and has a new record coming out next month, entitled 'An Ever Changing View'. A few advance tracks are available on YouTube, e.g. Water Street, that feature a denser chordal accompaniment played by kalimba, glockenspiel, celesta, harp and Rhodes. As a gesture of good will, I ordered a physical copy via Bandcamp.
I don't have his music in chronological order so I can't readily discern any form of progression, apart from the fact that the coming album features this denser sound as opposed to the sparse accompaniment of the other albums. As far as I can establish, the earlier albums had 'band #1' playing whereas the later albums have 'band #2': the bassist Gavin Barras is the only constant factor (apart from Halsall, of course). There have been three harpists and possibly three drummers. The earlier records seem to feature saxophone but the later ones have flute.
With regard to the harpists especially, I wonder whether they automatically play in the style preferred by Halsall or whether they have had to learn and adapt themselves. Their playing is seamless, and I can't tell who's playing on which track.
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 101 | Holiday | Holiday | |
| 752 | Archeology (my computer music evolution) | MIDI | |
| 971 | Second version of intermediate thesis submitted | DBA | |
| 1331 | New CPAP machine | CPAP |
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