Fourth Page: Encore With Masks

The release of Encore With Masks represents a significant milestone for Fourth Page. The quartet of Charlie Beresford on guitar and vocals, Carolyn Hume on keyboards, Peter Marsh on bass and Paul May on drums first came together in 2010 and released its first two albums within a year. Five more albums followed, the last two, Live Wales—Hungary (2019) and Harbour (2020), being released on Beresford's label, The 52nd.

Now comes Encore With Masks which was recorded by the trio of Beresford, Hume and May, Marsh having decided to move on to new pastures as he wanted to explore new sonic worlds. The split seems to have been amicable, with the trio saying that they will miss Marsh's presence and the four will remain good friends, as ever.

So, how does the new trio compare with the quartet version of Fourth Page? Right from the start of the opening track, "Caught in Your Halo," we are in classic Fourth Page territory with Hume's piano paving the way for Beresford's expressive, half-spoken, half-sung vocals, subtly supported by percussion interjections from May; in other words, apart from the absence of bass guitar, the group at its best.

Next up, the nine-minute "Mist Between Faces" only includes eighty-five seconds of vocals, with the piano taking the spotlight, a reminder that this is a group of equals. The absence of Marsh means that the electronics he introduced to Fourth Page from 2017 onwards have subsided, although, as some sounds on "Diablerie" illustrate, they have not gone completely. (Incidentally, Marsh's electronics-based duo with Tom Clarke, Shark Calmer, issued its second album in April 2021 via Bandcamp.)

The longest track on Encore With Masks at almost twenty minutes, "Edgeplay," is probably the best way to judge the new Fourth Page and to hear its potential. Largely a three-way instrumental exchange between the players, it has some subtle vestigial traces of electronic sounds but these are not intrusive. There are no vocal passages on it, but this is more than remedied on the closing track, "Wires became Desire" (listen to that on YouTube, below). Altogether, this album promises great things of the trio and whets the appetite for more.