This is a staggering team-up.

Other Light Ensemble is a new operating name for past collaborators Jonathan Hill, Chris Jones, Matthew Redfern and Ryan James Mawbey, and on blue fifty-one they are joined by Tony Buck, Patrick Shiroishi and Alessandro Cau.

While the collective are somewhat coy about exactly who is doing what on this 28-minute composition, Body of Ritual Tapestry, it is worth noting that in Ryan, Alessandro and legendary Necks’ sticksman Tony Buck alone they have three of the most gifted and lyrical percussionists operating in improvised music today.

Patrick Shiroishi, meanwhile, may be the most acclaimed saxophonist of the post- Brötzmann era.

Body of Ritual Tapestry was written and recorded in stages over the course of two years, with emerging sections stitched together in a form of ‘sonic tapestry’. That is interesting, but it doesn’t feel like a collage, it feels like poetry.

The piece glides instinctively through different moods and movements. A tense, cinematic build gives way to a bareboned duet for harmonium swells and a saxophone that sounds for all the world like it’s talking, reasoning, explaining - muttering important things. It’s a sound written in hand gestures, hunched shoulders and swirls of smoke from an impressing cigarette.

I can’t explain why, but I understand every syllable.

When the horn steps back from the narrative, shadows swarm all over. That’s what the synths in the third act feel like – swirling, breathing, darkness things. Somewhere just above your head and sucking up all the oxygen. When the sound winds down and finally flames out it’s like a match being struck in reverse.

Essential noise for fans of Staraya Derevnya, Minaru, Tashi Dorji and jazz as a psychic force.

--

Praise for Ryan James Mawbey:

“Not so much a journey through or into but movement itself generously peppered by highs and lows, light and darkness. I find it exhilarating and extraordinary.” – Magazine Sixty

“While meditative drones pervade, it’s Mawbey’s inventive, understated drumming that provides a very organic core.” – Electronic Sound

“There’s a subtle psychedelic hue to this that borders on the best of post-rock territory but thankfully evades cliche for a willingness to explore beyond. I’m reminded somewhat of Charles Hayward’s approach to percussion-bound music or Andy Pyne of MAP 71’s work due to this intuitive approach, yet the music itself is comparatively more refined or restrained, akin to a more avant-garde Seefeel or some such.” – adverseeffectmagazine

“…a wonderfully effective statement and a wildly evocative, moving listen. Absolutely packed with twists and turns and every bit the exciting prospect from a great artist.” – Piccadilly Records

--

Praise for Patrick Shiroishi:

“A staggering, important work.” – Popmatters

“Shiroishi’s productivity is due in part to his versatility. Through a multitude of guest appearances, he has found a space for his saxophone in the Armed’s muscular hardcore, Agriculture’s ecstatic black metal, and Quicksails’ fractured electronica, among scores of others.” – Pitchfork

“The music builds into something genuinely breathtaking, a melancholic exaltation, an achievement that feels both too sensitively, intelligently constructed to be improvised and so honest and immediate that it could only be the result of unplanned, instinctual release.” - Treblezine

“Fam, this is some deep shit.” – Jazz Right Now

“One way to approach Shiroishi is to think of him like Peter Brötzmann, a player with so much to say, whose art actively engages with the world, and who forms deep connections through improvisation.” – Free Jazz Collective

blue fifty-one: Other Light Ensemble - Body of Ritual Tapestry

1) The Residents – Hey Skinny
2) John Oswald – Birth1
3) John Oswald – Birth2  
4) John Oswald – Birth3
5) Cosa Brava – Snake Eating Its Tail 
6) Prefuse 73 – Nuno
7) Pili Coït et Les Exocrines – Mzi
8] Vox Vulgaris  – De Jordiska Fröjdeenas Paradis
9) Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – Sleep Is Wrong 
10) Makrotulpa – A Mind Full of Owls
11) Svantana – Destiny’s Boys
12) Korekyojinn Acoustic – Poet and Peasant
13) Jóhann Jóhannsson – Seeker of the Serpent’s Eye
14) Fire! – Four Ways of Dealing With One Way
15) Zöj – Caspian
16) Hanna Hartman – Message from the Lighthouse
17) Deerhoof – Spirit Ditties of No Tone
18] Tony Buck – Dialer
19) Ocrilim – Blwch-Ariam 7
20) Tony Buck – Dark Angel
21) Ocrilim – Blwch-Ariam 9
22) 3 – Basichaos (hard excerpt)

Radio Earthling 23-06-2025 ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴍᴜꜱɪᴄ ɴᴏᴛ ᴡᴀʀ

South Coast FM Radio. South Gippsland, Bass Coast & beyond, Australia

Slow-moving soul music

https://bluetapes.bandcamp.com

New tracks tagged #Tony Buck