Kit Downes Dreamlife of Debris

180g Vinyl LP!
Dreamlife of Debris carries forward the story begun on Kit Downes’s Obsidian, extending and developing its processes and core ideas. But where Obsidian was (almost exclusively) a solo church organ album, part of Kit’s plan for Dreamlife was to put the organ in a broader context, and also to bring the piano into the larger compositional picture. Musicians in the project are primarily players with whom Downes has had long associations – saxophonist Tom Challenger, cellist Lucy Railton, drummer Seb Rochford – and there is also a first musical encounter with Norwegian guitarist Stian Westerhus. “I was interested to see how bringing in different people would change the direction of the recording.”
"When keyboardist Kit Downes released ‘Obsidian’ last year on ECM, it was a stunning album. He investigated three separate pipe organs of various sizes and the acoustic properties of each church, and the compositions yielded some provocative and stimulating music. With ‘Dreamlife Of Debris’ the follow up to last year’s effort, Downes utilizes not only the pipe organ once again from St. John’s the Baptist in Snape but also piano, his main instrument. The music is an expansion of that found on ‘Obsidian’ by Downes surrounding the keyboards with Tom Challenger on tenor saxophone (playing a larger role than the former album) cellist Lucy Railton, guitarist Stian Westerhus, and ECM regular, drummer Sebastian Rochford. […] The sound stage is quite large with aerated piano, massive organ with the forceful sound of air moving through pipes, ghost like guitar, present cello, and saxophone. The album is most certainly reference quality and will thrill audiophiles […] The pipe organ is a incredible vessel for composition as a forefather of the modern synthesizer. Through a unique blend of organ, piano, tenor saxophone, cello, guitar and drums it is a journey through the unconscious where one is confronted with everything. The chamber aspect of most of the compositions does blur the line between the written and improvised and is performed in such a way that it is unclear where one line ends and the next begins. Through this masterful use of blurred lines the listener to focus on the arresting array of tones and textures used to convey the message." - CJ Shearn, Jazz Views (Ten out of ten stars)
"Kit Downes, who topped the categories Rising Star–Keyboard and Rising Star–Organ in the 2019 DownBeat Critics Poll, turns in his second leader date for the venerated ECM Records, ‘Dreamlife Of Debris’, and rather easily coaxes spirited exhortations and divine simplicity out of a piano, as well as a church organ. But it’s the combination of Downes’ ghostly organ turns and the placid longtones of Tom Challenger’s tenor saxophone that make the album’s title such a fitting thing. […] the bandleader’s own ‘Circinus’ finds his organ copping some uncluttered version of decades-old austerity, while cellist Lucy Railton bows the changes and Challenger’s horn sweeps through emotions. It’s a sturdy formula that peaceably works throughout the recording.
A couple of tunes set Downes at an acoustic piano, his bandmates helping to mimic the dark and dour image of the album cover. ‘Blackeye,’ the closer where Downes and Challenger split writing credits, opens with a contemplative feeling that’s not just pervasive here, but across a bunch of ECM works. The pair and Railton float around on clouds for about a minute-and-a-half; then 15 seconds of silence. Downes switches to organ and, making his most concerted contribution to ‘Dreamlife’, Seb Rochford comes padding in on an augmented kit that sounds like it largely consists of toms and a gong. It’s Moondog territory, and it sends the band toward its most propulsive, songlike statements. It’s also the most aggressive-sounding composition Downes has recorded on either of his leader dates for ECM. It still might not be a jazz tune, but ‘Blackeye’ is a deeply affecting sonic turn that’s a surprise and a nod toward less experimental works—if only just vaguely." - Dave Cantor, Downbeat (Editor’s Pick)
"It is the power of the challenge, imagination and music experience that makes ‘Dreamlife of Debris’ so unpredictable and attractive. Music written and performed with a free spirit and transformed into unbridled unpredictable compositions. Again Downes knows how to move the musical beacons and leave a big impression." - Dick Hovenga, Written in music
"Kit Downes takes the listener into mysterious scenarios. On the church organ, which he plays unusually – quietly, weightlessly, almost dematerialized – on the piano, on which he beats rhapsodic waves, and in interaction with saxophone, cello, electric guitar and drums, he creates a spiritual sound space. A refuge in which time seems to be suspended: chorale-like chord progressions lead back to the archaic past, meditative minimal music patterns revolve around eternity, abstract, partly electronic sound collages point to futuristic distant ones. […] Fascinating." - Georg Spindler, Mannheimer Morgen
"The album is drawn from sessions recorded at two UK locations – the 13th century church of St John the Baptist in the village of Snape in the Suffolk countryside and St Paul’s Hall (a converted 19th century church) at Huddersfield University – where the musicians arrived to variously interact with Downes. The instrumentalists meet – as Downes puts it – ‘in a space with no singular character’, with a dream-like ambience being created through overdubs and collage. Although the players do not come together as an ensemble, their appearance as individuals in changing constellations influences the direction of the shape-shifting music triggered by Downes’s improvising, arranging and composing. The intuitive, effortlessly ethereal understanding between Downes and saxophonist Challenger is built on years of performing and recording together, and it shows. When two musicians of this calibre share the same wavelength at an identical moment in time, the results, as heard here, are quite simply stunning. […] The music on ‘Dreamlife of Debris’ has a timeless quality to it that is a rare gift. Immerse yourself in it and you will be carried away by its beauty. It has intrigue, it has depth, it has wonder. It is unique – even for an ECM release." - Mike Gates, UK Vibe
"Downes creates tranquil sound perspectives that on the one hand recall Jan Garbarek's albums from the 1970s, and on the other hand, in their linearity, are quite correlated to current electronic and ambient music. There is something sacred attached to his imagined spaces, which one can indulge in regardless of any religious or non-religious predisposition. The static beauty, introspective thoughtfulness and transfigured transparency of this music contains the core of a new classicism, which, however, also does not exclude a certain youthfulness." - Wolf Kampmann, Eclipsed
"The music of Downes gains space and effect through the collaborators. Instead of being a constant presence, the pianist can dose his melodies and use them more effectively. In addition, especially the playing of the tenor saxophonist Challenger and the guitarist Westerns is a welcome enrichment in the sound cosmos of his compositions. The rapturous 'Circinus', for example, develops a hypnotic pull in the interaction of the three melody instruments that reverberates. [...] in terms of sound, the recordings also have something sacred attached to them in the band line-up, which means something beyond the actual music. And so 'Dreamlife Of Debris’ is all in all a harmonious further development of the vision of Downes planted on ‘Obsidian’. So the appreciation for this talented exotic is likely to increase further with this record." - Sebastian Meißner, Sounds and Books
"In November 2018, with changing partners, he created eight sound patterns in two English churches that do not fit into the customs of new chamber music or jazz. Subtle tones of percussion, saxophone, cello or electric guitar slide alternately or together into Downes meditative organ playing and create a sound world of integration and not – as would be expected – of encounter. This atmosphere remains when Downes plays the piano." - Werner Stiefele, Stereoplay
"The austere sonority of the church organ isn’ t something that would seem a natural fit with jazz (being better suited to the choppy sound of the Hammond), but it has been utilized to good effect in the past, notably by Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek. On ‘Dreamlife of Debris’ pianist Kit Downes continues his exploration of the unique timbres the church organ can offer and has surrounded himself with a top-flight group of improvisers; Tom Challenger (tenor saxophone), Stian Westerhus (guitar), Lucy Railton (cello), Sebastian Rochford (drums). Downes has played in duo capacities with Challenger, Railton and Rochford over the years, and there is the unmistakable sense of all involved being perfectly at home in Downes’s idiom." - Matt Groom, Presto Jazz (Recording of the Week)
"The music of Downes gains space and effect through the collaborators. Instead of being a constant presence, the pianist can dose his melodies and use them more effectively. In addition, especially the playing of the tenor saxophonist Challenger and the guitarist Westerhus is a welcome enrichment in the sound cosmos of his compositions. [...] The album was recorded on the one hand at the Church of St. John the Baptist in Snape in rural Suffolk and on the other hand at St. Paul's Hall, a converted church of the University of Huddersfield. The choice of these historical places also contributes to the magic of the shots. Because in terms of sound, there is something sacred attached to the recordings, even in the band line-up, which means beyond the actual music. And so 'Dreamlife Of Debris’ is all in all a harmonious further development of the vision of Downes planted on ‘Obsidian’. So the appreciation for this talented exotic is likely to increase further with this record." - Sebastian Meißner, Sounds and Books
"Inspired, Downes conjures spectral soundscapes and fluctuating moods with sparse piano cadences, rhythmic understatement and the unmistakable sonics of an English parish church organ […] Tom Challenger’s airy resonance on tenor sax, Norwegian guitarist Stian Westerhus’s synthesized unease and, on ‘Pinwheel’, Lucy Railton’s scratchy cello sustains all complete the album’s ethereal aesthetic. […] the album is dominated by the modulating textures of keyboards and sax improvising freely or post-produced into otherworldly soundscapes." - Mike Hobart, Financial Times
"Kit Downes follows 2018’s ‘Obsidian’ album, an idiosyncratic solo exploration of the pipe organ, with this quintet work of other-worldly beauty. Although largely improvised around pre-written themes (the pieces are named after galaxies), studio edits and overlays were used to heighten the sound’s celestial textures. Downes stays at the centre of the music and, while sax player Tom Challenger is never far away, the other players move in and out of orbit. […] The programme is consummated by ‘Blackeye’, Rochford’s snare and splashing ride cymbals assailing the organ’s grandiose edifice of sound. It is jazz – but not as we know it." - Garry Booth, BBC Music Magazine (five stars)
"An enthralling experience full of tonal delicacies, which in addition to the only organ solo track, ‘M 7’ by his wife Ruth Goller, also includes the final ‘Blackeye’. One must humbly admire Kit Downes for his unusually original chamber jazz treasures." - Sven Thielmann, Fono Forum
"Sometimes dreamy, sometimes eerie, sometimes sacred, Downes works with his colleagues – including his longtime improvisation partner Tom Challenger on tenor saxophone – on the surface quality of his compositions through the finest improvised dialogue. Here jazz and new music meet on an atmospherically so densely woven level that new, unimagined perspectives open up every time you listen again." - Rudolf Amstutz, Jazz'n'More

Features:

• 180g Vinyl
• Audiophile High Quality Pressing
• Mastered From Original Analog Source
• Recorded at St. Paul's Hall, University of Huddersfield, November 2018
• Made in Germany