Fountain is from the CD Wild Silk (ASC CD8) available from
04/12/1995 Steve Henwood, Venue
"beautiful, exciting, reflective, exhilarating"
 
04/12/1995 Pete Martin, jazz UK
"consistently absorbing"
 
04/12/1995 Peter Bacon, Birmingham Post
"intelligent, fairly abstract music, full of space"
 
04/12/1995 Andy Hamilton, The Wire
"a classic of 90s free improv"


Fountain edit

"the mature form, the emergence of beauty, taking flight" this, the second CD from the partnership of Peter Fairclough (drums & percussion) & Keith Tippett (unprepared piano & percussion), was recorded live at Djanogly Recital Hall, Nottingham (17th October 2001) & Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool (11th October 2001)

produced by peter fairclough & nigel pease 

cover artwork by inca tippetts

The February Sea edit

Shepherd Wheel ASC CD1

The old 'don't judge a book by its cover'
warning is set into sharp focus on 
Shepherd Wheel. This is a concept album
about a 16th century, water-powered
grinding wheel; the cover shows a rural
labourer honing a knife on the wheel
itself. Lazy preconceptions that this could
well be a po-faced, finger-in-the-ear
nightmare are blown away on the 
introductory "Jacob's Ladder", where
Peter Whyman's lines evoke Stravinsky
circa Three Pieces For Solo Clarinet, and
when Christine Tobin's vocal comes in on
the title track, her smoky, folky tones are
set against a busy, jazz-inflected backing
with Paul Dunmall's Coltranesque sax
lines buffeting the melody.
Drummer Peter Fairclough, sometime
Mike Westbrook sideman, is the linchpin
here. He's harnessed a mightily
impressive eight piece group equally at 
home with squalling improvisation, cool
grooves and subtle, hovering backdrops
to Tobin's voice.
There are folk threads running through
the melodies and the storyline but this is
no half-baked stab at musical pluralism.
Crucially, a new genre emerges, and it's
not 'Jolk' - or a mere grab-bag of 
styles. The playing is strong, superlative
at times, born from eight formidable 
musical personalities.
On "The Yaller Belly" the musicians 
swarm around the melody; on the 
following "Saint Monda" pianist Pete 
Saberton's clunking chords and 
Tippetesque runs hound Whyman's
quicksilver alto. Something says this 
shouldn't work, but it does - brilliantly.

02/10/1995 Mike Barnes, The Wire

Shepherd Wheel

An improvisation featuring Mike Walker (electric guitar) from the CD, PERMISSION by Peter Fairclough (drums)

WildLife

Peter Fairclough - drums
Mike Walker - guitar
Tim Whitehead - tenor saxophone
Dudley Phillips - bass

Naive

from the CD, Momentarily, by Fairclough & Youell;
Hayley Youell - vocals
Peter Fairclough - drums
Dave Bainbridge - keyboards
Fred Thelonious - bass

FaircloughMusic

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