Articles by James Fleming
Douwe Eisenga: Poetry of a City
by James Fleming
Poetry of a City begins with the gentle, rolling arpeggios of “Have I Not Tried." Douwe Eisenga's triplets stretch the tension in the chord out across the beat. The melody is played in double stops to add weight to the rhythm's swing. A violin enters, far below the piano, drawing out long, mournful notes. The chord progression loops back on itself, ushering in the jagged syncopation of the strings and the hard slamming of the percussion. This is one of ...
read moreDouwe Eisenga: The Border
by James Fleming
The brass section on The Border's opening track, “At The Coast," tolls like a foghorn through its two-note riff, pauses, then returns, pierced this time by a synthesizer's shimmering. Douwe Eisenga's piano does not make an appearance until the second track, “Encounter." He rolls through an arpeggio, changing just one note every bar to transform the voice of the chord, as the music moves from piano to forte, a bass drum pulses, and the saxophone glides a long, flowing melody ...
read moreDouwe Eisenga: Open
by James Fleming
Douwe Eisenga's riffs cycle around slight, subtle variations, echoing through the space of the studio. His right hand on “Left Out I," the opening piece, explores the possibilities his left hand opens up for it: two riffs on the left; chiming melodies on the right. “Bruno" feels like it has always been here, moving along a chord progression which waltzes upwards through the ascension's anticipation, then drops back to the starting riff, teasing the listener deeper into the arpeggios' rolls ...
read moreHey Exit: Arm's Reach (Else 3)
by James Fleming
Writers have been creating worlds for centuries. J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, H.P Lovecraft, they all shaped worlds and mythologies and civilisations out of words. Few musicians, however, have created new worlds out of their music. Kraftwerk's albums and aesthetics form a unique world of Pop Art, industrialism, rhythms and electricity. But it's a world rooted in reality, in the hardness and definition of this dimension. In 1972, Tangerine Dream released Zeit (Ohr), a record that sounds like a panorama of ...
read moreDouwe Eisenga: For Mattia
by James Fleming
The music on Douwe Eisenga's For Mattia flows like a ballet dancer's movements. Its nine songs, all solo piano compositions, glitter with a lyricism many vocalists cannot manage. As if Eisenga is playing with light as well as melody. Weaving the two about each other like threads of sound and aether. This is a record of deep sadness. Mattia, of the title track, was a young woman who committed suicide. Her parents commissioned Eisenga to write this piece--a ...
read moreAengus Hackett Quartet Plays The Music of Cole Porter at Black Gate Cultural Centre
by James Fleming
Aengus Hackett Quartet Black Gate Cultural Centre The Music Of Cole Porter Galway, Ireland May 25, 2019 The quartet stood in a line: saxophonist/clarinetist, guitarist, double bassist, then drummer. Their music packed the Black Gate Cultural Centre's basement venue as candle flames danced shadows across its low walls. Matthew Berrill's clarinet had the melody—"Anything Goes" by Cole Porter, whose music they were celebrating for the night. He moved into the upper reaches of ...
read moreBaiju Bhatt: Eastern Sonata
by James Fleming
Every day more emigrants leave their homelands. And as they travel their musics shadow them. The songs follow the singers into their new homes and, just as the people learn the language, the tunes adopt the new country's phrases. Adding its musics to the sonic lexicons of their native countries. So that new songs will be written. Where these lands meet in rhythms and melodies. Baiju Bhatt and Red Sun's Eastern Sonata is the sound of such a ...
read moreShy Mascot: The Changing Face Of Ireland
by James Fleming
The bar is lit by dim neon bulbs. And the grey daylight streaming in from outside barely puts up a fight against their sickly colours. Shy Mascot sit at the back-four of their five members around two small tables tucked into a nook. The band's rapper, Jamel, is hunched over his knees on the left and beside him is drummer Andy O'Farrell. Vocalist Fiadh Rua Gregg sits in the centre with bassist Keith Tobin on the right. Keyboardist Éanna Ryder ...
read moreReto Anneler: Stille Post
by James Fleming
Stille Post is a record as spacious as a solar system. Reto Anneler's alto and Cristoph Grab's tenor move around the rhythm section like planets orbiting a distant sun. And when the two horns align, the music glows with the red light of an eclipse, shining down on the spare basslines and pointed drumming of Claudio Strüby and Lukas Traxel. Who seem to capture the rhythms rather than mould them. And then lay them out like faded tracks for the ...
read moreGalway Jazz Festival 2018: Day 2
by James Fleming
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4Various Venues Galway Jazz Festival Galway, Ireland October 5, 2018 Thursday night's curtain rose on a brighter day, and a breeze blew gently down Galway's streets carrying the smell of the city on its back: petrol, coffee, sea-salt, cigarettes. Late-arrivers hurried down the cobbles to their workplaces. The growl of delivery vans filled the street between the businesses that line the main drag, ...
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