Holiday Listening - Kit Downes, Laura Cannell, Garth Knox

Although I took plenty of music on holiday, three records kept making their way to the top of the pile.

Kit Downes is best known as a brilliant jazz pianist, happy in a wide range of settings. On Obsidian (ECM), he renews his acquaintance with the pipe organ, which he used to play as a younger man. We hear three instruments on the disc, starting with the largest, at Union Chapel in London, and ending with the smallest, a single manual organ at St. Edmund's, Bromeswell, in Suffolk. Kings is a cool, slowly evolving study for the London instrument, which makes use of its considerable resources, without needing to shout. The Gift, a touching hymn tune by Downes' father, is beautifully suited to the slightly wheezy Bromeswell instrument. Like the others, this organ is closely recorded, bringing out the lovely, percussive "chiff" on the start of each note.

The third organ, at the Church of St. John's, Snape (also Suffolk), sits somewhere between the other two, in terms of size and power. Downes used this instrument to record the improvisations which make up Rings Of Saturn, a marvellous track inspired by W.G. Sebald's novel, set on the same Suffolk coast. Here, Downes experiments with pulling out the stops to varying degrees, playing with the air going through the pipes, and creating an astonishing range of other-worldly effects. 

Laura Cannell's Simultaneous Flight Movement (Brawl Records) consists of a series of shortish solo pieces (improvisations?) for fiddle and recorder(s), set down in Southwold Lighthouse (Suffolk again). Here, as on some of her subsequent records, the richly resonant recording venue plays a full part in the music, becoming a duet partner of sorts. In the fiddle pieces (here's Three Stones), there are passages where Cannell moves forward steadily, repeating and clarifying, giving the lighthouse time to respond to her subtle changes of articulation and tone colour. Elsewhere, she hurries her collaborator, overloading the space with information, and creating a glorious pile-up of sound.* The recorder pieces, if naturally more limited, are no less beautiful - try Interrelation Of Diverse Emotions for double recorders.

On D'Amore (ECM), the added resonance comes not just from the recording venue (Propstei St. Gerold in Austria), but also from Garth Knox's viola d'amore, an instrument equipped with an extra set of strings, which vibrate in sympathy with the seven bowed strings. Knox's programme is an intriguing mix of old and new, with recentish pieces by Roland Moser and Klaus Huber sitting alongside the Prima Lezione by 18th century viola d'amore virtuoso Attilio Ariosti, as well as borrowings from the viola da gamba repertoire. There's also folk music, which works well, the sympathetic strings adding a sweetness that contrasts with Cannell's more astringent earthiness. In his own piece, Malor Me Bat, based on a song attributed to Ockeghem, Knox succeeds in bringing together these varied musical strands. This semi-improvised duet with cellist Agnès Vesterman is a sometimes wild, elaborate fantasy. Knox brings the old song in and out of focus, while often coaxing a huge sound from his instrument - with the added cello, it can easily feel like a quartet. Stunning playing.

Back at home. One more listen, then on to something new (or old)...

*EDIT: I recently came across this excellent interview with Laura Cannell, in which she talks about the deconstructed bow she uses to play several strings simultaneously. A bit more explanation here.