James O'Sullivan: Lovely Error

Having been an active member of Eddie Prevost's Friday night Workshop since the early years of the millennium, experimental guitarist James O’Sullivan has not learned to improvise by receiving lessons per se but, like many other Workshop participants, by playing with like-minded individuals, listening, searching for sounds, experimenting, making mistakes and learning from them. Along the way, O'Sullivan has inevitably developed into a player with his own individual sound and style, one of a kind.

Lovely Error is O'Sullivan's third solo album, following Feed Back Couple (Forwind, 2011) and IL Y A (Linear Obsessional, 2017). The release of Lovely Error is closely followed by that of Prison Analogies (MRM, 2022), a duo recording of O'Sullivan with his collaborator in the trio Found Drowned, percussionist Paul May, which will bring O'Sullivan's tally of releases into the upper teens. Aside from his solo albums, O'Sullivan releases are predominantly duo or trio recordings. As did his past solo recordings, Lovely Error demonstrates why O'Sullivan is better suited to duos and trios than to larger groupings—solo, his rich, layered music can easily be mistaken for several players together.

Of the album's six tracks, five were studio-recorded in London and the sixth was recorded by O'Sullivan in Pardaillan, in south-western France; ranging in length from just under three minutes to just under twelve, the six tracks sound similar enough to hang together well as an album. Although each track is undoubtedly improvised, each has its own distinctive soundscape; they all sound structured by a single mind which knows where it is taking the music and how, with each having an underlying pulse. Although O'Sullivan is meticulous in his attention to detail and structure, throughout the album his music has an uplifting playfulness which makes for very enjoyable listening.