AMBIGUOUS DIALOGUES

by Philip Clemo

Release date: 2004

REVIEWS

Startlingly original writing. . . alternately hypnotises and charms. This album neatly encapsulates how even the strongest musical bloodlines are now in flux… music that creates its effect on its own terms. ★★★★
Stuart Nicholson, The Observer, UK

Mesmeric and completely addictive.
Nicholas Royle, The Wire, UK

Clemo possesses the compositional vision to draw from a vast array of source material – from John Cage to electric Miles via Brian Eno – and create something both intensely personal and profoundly beautiful… a fascinating and richly textured recording.
Peter Quinn, Jazzwise, UK

Plenty of crackling electronics. . . the structures are open ended and layered, and there are good feels. ‘Language’ evolves from proto-Murcof to electric Miles in eight minutes.
John L Walters, The Guardian, UK

A very beautiful CD. . . a mixture of improvisation, elaborate composition and post production shaping. . . hints at jazz, classical and World music but it always seems to sound like it’s own music – a difficult trick to pull off. But the bottom line is that this sounds great.
Mixing It, BBC Radio 3

Clemo leads a double-life as musician and filmmaker, and his sense of the visual drifts effortlessly into his musical structures… like competing characters in a film. Clemo’s evocative ‘location sound recordings’ and his understated string writing gives the music an atmospheric sense of place… Chant’s extended soprano saxophone solos are ravishing, and Clive Bell’s unspoilt shakuhachi and flute playing adds a distinct flavour to the soundscape. This is a bold debut for Metier Jazz… an album I enjoyed greatly.
Philip Clark, Jazz Review, UK

Fills the foreground with more lush vegetation and big-eyed animals than you would find in a Rousseau painting… ‘Form’ lands us in a magnificent downpour I have wished would never end, no matter how wet I got. Clemo builds the jungle in your head with a view of strange landscapes beyond. Bring a change of clothes, you may want to stay a while.
Kenneth Egbert, Jazz Now, USA

SLEEVE NOTES

Philip Clemo – guitar, keyboards,electronics, location sound recordings John Edwards – double bass Mark Sanders – drums and percussion Phil Slater – trumpet Tom Chant – soprano saxophone, bass clarinet Clive Bell – shakuhachi, bansuri, pi saw and shinobue flutes Nichola Christie – voices Chris Halliwell – prepared guitar, prepared piano Zoë Lewis – keyboards Martin Reed – violin Maritza Bulcock – viola Simon Wagland – cello Pete Lockett – percussion