Sikora / O’Hara / Lacey – Arbour (Fort Evil Fruit)

Posted on by earsforeyes




Cover art by James McCaul

 http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1105309579/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/t=3/transparent=true/

This trio of Catherine Sikora (tenor sax), Colm O’Hara (trombone), and David Lacey (drums and percussion) have made a gripping piece of music with ‘Arbour’.  Its 39 minutes are deeply absorbing; the interaction between the instruments is heated and full of threat, each stalking the other, no player allowed to break away for too long before the other two lock tentacles again.  The sax strikes hot sparks off the flinty coarse trombone, the drums a constant drizzle of activity: intermingling cymbal washes, rapid machine-gun rattle, plunging tom hits; the sound wrestles with itself, like a building constructed from mad tangents in counter-intuitive thrusts, angled impossibly to the ground, somehow standing regardless.

A quiet segment seethes almost silently, the space briefly emptied except for a few sonic twigs blowing across the dusty street of a town, depopulated in advance of a battle.  Flailing sax, bells, low moans and scorching parps recombine in a metallic tussle; the moving parts of the music acting like an agricultural machine threshing piles of small gongs. 
‘Arbour’ is a chaotic clatter of sound that possesses great soul and fury, small pockets of pregnant calm forcing brief respites in between passages of rushing tumult.  An excellent album you should hear without delay.

Download ‘Arbour’ here.

Published by earsforeyes

Very amateur music writer

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