Articles by John Eyles

Album Review

Siril Malmedal Hauge & Kjetil Mulelid: I Remember Oranges

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by John Eyles
June 6, 2026

Norwegian jazz pianist and composer Kjetil Andre Mulelid was born on February 4th 1991, in Hurdal, Norway. In 2014, he completed his studies at the Jazz program at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Thereafter, he has been active with such bands as Kjemile, Wako and others, as well as his own work with Kjetil Mulelid Trio and his duo with Siril Malmedal Hauge. Hauge, a Norwegian jazz singer, was born on November 28th 1992. She ...

Album Review

Olivia Murphy: Fateful Birds & Fledgling Stories

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by John Eyles
May 16, 2026

Throughout her career, Olivia Murphy has receiyed many awards which have been instrumental in promoting her blossoming career. In 2021, she received the prestigious and influential Peter Whittingham Jazz Development Award, which has been contested annually since 1990 to support an emerging jazz musician with their plans and ambitions. At the time she won it, Murphy was playing clarinet in the Moonrise Trio alongside vocalist Becca Wilkins and pianist Olly Chalk. In 2020, the trio's first EP, Tomorrow ...

Live Review

Sound-ing Paint

by John Eyles
May 2, 2026

Sound-ing Paint St. Paul's United Reform Church, Newton Road London, United Kingdom April 11, 2026 Readers who are familiar with the Dutch-born, London-resident artist Gwendolyn Kassenaar will not be surprised by her latest venture which combines art and improvised music. Many will have made first contact with her when she painted or sketched their image during a skronk performance at which they were a performer or an audience member. Others will have encountered her when ...

Album Review

Judi Deak: Brisk

by John Eyles
May 1, 2026

Polish-Hungarian flautist Juli Deak was born in the year 2000. She is now based in Budapest, the capital of Hungary which has a population of approximately one point seven million, and is a premier European destination known for its stunning Danube-split scenery. Most of Deak's excellent debut album Brisk was recorded on April 14th 2025, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The album's two longest tracks, “Depict" (six minutes and forty three minutes long) and “Trace" (six minutes and and twenty ...

Album Review

Brian Eley & Ashley Wales: Songs

by John Eyles
March 23, 2026

Brian Eley and Ashley Wales both have impressive histories with other musicians, which makes this duo album, Songs, fascinating. In the 70's Eley was a member of the vocal quartet Voice, alongside esteemed vocalists Julie Tippett, Maggie Nicols and Phil Minton, which recorded the album Voice (Ogun 1977). In London, in 1993, Wales and John Coxon formed the delightfully named duo Spring Heel Jack which released a varied spectrum of music from Lee Perry to “The Sound of Music," taking ...

Multiple Reviews

Two very different albums from Urs Leimgruber

by John Eyles
March 20, 2026

In 2021, Urs Leimgruber was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a serious chronic illness of the lungs, which causes ever-worsening shortness of breath and is ultimately fatal. A lung transplant offered the only possible way of avoiding this outcome, and, in March 2025, he underwent this complicated and dangerous operation. It was a success, and now another human's respiratory organs are enabling him to breathe and to express himself as a musician again. Two and a half months after his ...

Album Review

Gebhard Ullmann: New Conference Call

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by John Eyles
March 7, 2026

In May 2000, at Acoustic Recording, Brooklyn, a quartet entitled Conference Call recorded together for the first time to produce the album Final Answer, which was released on the Soul Note label in 2002. The quartet at that recording session comprised the German Gebhard Ullmann playing bass clarinet and soprano saxophone (he could also play clarinet, as his membership of The Clarinet Trio demonstrated), alongside Americans Joe Fonda on double bass, Michael Jefry Stevens on piano and Matt Wilson on ...

Album Review

Tuva Halse: Reconnection

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by John Eyles
February 27, 2026

Tuva Halse was born in Molde, Norway, in August, 1999. She studied at the Bekkevoll Junior High School and then at the Molde High School, simultaneously following the music programme of the Molde Kulturskole. She has composed music since childhood. She turned to jazz violin when her piano teacher from the age of 13 introduced her to jazz and encouraged her to play it on violin. One of her first experiences with a jazz orchestra was with the Lærlingan, a big band of Molde High ...

Album Review

Charlotte Hug: In Resonance With Elsewhere

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by John Eyles
February 8, 2026

Born in Zurich, Switzerland, in May 1965. Charlotte Hug gained degrees in classical music, pedagogy and fine arts, and won such awards as “Artist in Residence" in London. By the time she was thirty, Hug had begun recording at various locations in Switzerland, the resulting music being part of her first album, Mauerraum Wandraum (ASM/STV, 1999) on which she played viola and electronics, as well as conceiving, composing and producing it. That album was followed by further solo ...

Multiple Reviews

Two European Trios

by John Eyles
February 6, 2026

Ask a fan of music their favorite trio and, depending on their age and taste, they may nominate Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Jam, Nirvana, ZZ Top, The Police, Crosby, Stills & Nash... If the fan's musical taste is limited to jazz, their nominee is likely to include piano or other lead instrument, plus bass and drums, for instance, the Bill Evans trio, Esbjörn Svensson Trio, The Bad Plus... pick your own choice. It is unlikely that there would ...