Supervoc

Two members of UK progressive rock band, Sanguine Hum, release their second volume of music as Supervoc – a “jazz trio”, of sorts… 
Currently a recording project with Paul Mallyon doubling on bass and drums, and pianist Matt Baber, who explains: 
“this really came about following some of the experimental jamming during the writing sessions for the last Sanguine Hum album, A Trace of Memory. Paul and I had worked on the initial idea of a more improvisational track that had the working title of Supervoc, but eventually became Automaton. In the months after that album, we started jamming but to separate it from Sanguine Hum, we kept the instrumentation simple…just piano, bass and drums. We very consciously started to allow ourselves into quite alien “jazzy” territory, which was exciting but also rather daunting.” 

To counterbalance this daunting aspect, Paul and Matt released a very low key, download only, first volume of music under the Supervoc moniker in Jan, 2024 in order to test the water. In the process an entire musical vocabulary started to emerge – “jazz” on the surface perhaps, with more improvisation than in Sanguine Hum, but still retaining that band’s compositional rigour: powerful chord sequences, intricate riffs, unusual structures and affecting atmospheric playing. 

Paul, who engineered the whole project, adds: “it’s been a real joy dealing with just a few primary sound sources…and especially having them be, for the most part, acoustic in nature. You get to really dig in to the potential of those instruments and push the limits of what we are capable of as musicians”. 

Supervoc Vol II is a powerful mix of Zappa like twists and turns, Reich and Glass inspired minimalistic patterns and Prog influenced unpredictable suites – all the while remaining respectfully aware of, but not beholden to, the great jazz trios of the past. Matt concludes: “you’re certainly never going to hear us breaking into Stella by Starlight…that’s not what this is, but we are really proud of what Supervoc is turning into…the listener can decide if it’s jazz or not!” 

Paul Mallyon has played on numerous Sanguine Hum releases as well as being the drummer for the last three Thieves Kitchen albums. He has also released several solo vocal albums. 

Matt Baber has been the keyboard player for Sanguine Hum and has also recently recorded two albums with Karda Estra musician, Richard Wileman as “Baber/Wileman”

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