Elevations
Lovely, jazz and contemporary classical-spirited 4th world ambient scaping from Cumbria-raised, Manchester-based Tom Burford’s Contours; initially a club project, now naturally transitioning into a whole other sphere with results surely indebted or comparable to Steve Reich, Richard Skelton, and Alice Coltrane.
A neat fit for Amsterdam’s revered Music From Memory label, ‘Elevations’ leads on from Contours’ 2020 ‘Balafon Sketches’ to bloom that album’s rhythmelodic ideas across an arcing soundfield impressionistically conveying the panoramas of his formative Cumbrian stomping grounds. Whilst seeded in his drumming practice, as explored on the Balafon, a Malian tuned percussion instrument, Contours first album, proper, sees him render the instrument's trickling rhythmelodies thru synth hyperprisms, layered with additional instrumentation by his peers at a home studio in Manchester to achieve lush swells of polyrhythm diffused into Hassellian brass and dubwise ambient clouds.
He’s not breaking the mold here, but he does play into it beautifully well, seamlessly eliding his ideas in broadly appealing arrangements that range from the subtle heart-in-mouth stealth of ‘Bike Shed’, thru a 3-part section of Alice Coltrane-meets-Steve Reich worship in the ‘Elevation’ parts, to the floating structures of ‘Balafon’, rippling hand-drums and searching brass of ‘Pots’, and ribboning synths of ‘Arp Phase’.
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Lovely, jazz and contemporary classical-spirited 4th world ambient scaping from Cumbria-raised, Manchester-based Tom Burford’s Contours; initially a club project, now naturally transitioning into a whole other sphere with results surely indebted or comparable to Steve Reich, Richard Skelton, and Alice Coltrane.
A neat fit for Amsterdam’s revered Music From Memory label, ‘Elevations’ leads on from Contours’ 2020 ‘Balafon Sketches’ to bloom that album’s rhythmelodic ideas across an arcing soundfield impressionistically conveying the panoramas of his formative Cumbrian stomping grounds. Whilst seeded in his drumming practice, as explored on the Balafon, a Malian tuned percussion instrument, Contours first album, proper, sees him render the instrument's trickling rhythmelodies thru synth hyperprisms, layered with additional instrumentation by his peers at a home studio in Manchester to achieve lush swells of polyrhythm diffused into Hassellian brass and dubwise ambient clouds.
He’s not breaking the mold here, but he does play into it beautifully well, seamlessly eliding his ideas in broadly appealing arrangements that range from the subtle heart-in-mouth stealth of ‘Bike Shed’, thru a 3-part section of Alice Coltrane-meets-Steve Reich worship in the ‘Elevation’ parts, to the floating structures of ‘Balafon’, rippling hand-drums and searching brass of ‘Pots’, and ribboning synths of ‘Arp Phase’.
Lovely, jazz and contemporary classical-spirited 4th world ambient scaping from Cumbria-raised, Manchester-based Tom Burford’s Contours; initially a club project, now naturally transitioning into a whole other sphere with results surely indebted or comparable to Steve Reich, Richard Skelton, and Alice Coltrane.
A neat fit for Amsterdam’s revered Music From Memory label, ‘Elevations’ leads on from Contours’ 2020 ‘Balafon Sketches’ to bloom that album’s rhythmelodic ideas across an arcing soundfield impressionistically conveying the panoramas of his formative Cumbrian stomping grounds. Whilst seeded in his drumming practice, as explored on the Balafon, a Malian tuned percussion instrument, Contours first album, proper, sees him render the instrument's trickling rhythmelodies thru synth hyperprisms, layered with additional instrumentation by his peers at a home studio in Manchester to achieve lush swells of polyrhythm diffused into Hassellian brass and dubwise ambient clouds.
He’s not breaking the mold here, but he does play into it beautifully well, seamlessly eliding his ideas in broadly appealing arrangements that range from the subtle heart-in-mouth stealth of ‘Bike Shed’, thru a 3-part section of Alice Coltrane-meets-Steve Reich worship in the ‘Elevation’ parts, to the floating structures of ‘Balafon’, rippling hand-drums and searching brass of ‘Pots’, and ribboning synths of ‘Arp Phase’.
Lovely, jazz and contemporary classical-spirited 4th world ambient scaping from Cumbria-raised, Manchester-based Tom Burford’s Contours; initially a club project, now naturally transitioning into a whole other sphere with results surely indebted or comparable to Steve Reich, Richard Skelton, and Alice Coltrane.
A neat fit for Amsterdam’s revered Music From Memory label, ‘Elevations’ leads on from Contours’ 2020 ‘Balafon Sketches’ to bloom that album’s rhythmelodic ideas across an arcing soundfield impressionistically conveying the panoramas of his formative Cumbrian stomping grounds. Whilst seeded in his drumming practice, as explored on the Balafon, a Malian tuned percussion instrument, Contours first album, proper, sees him render the instrument's trickling rhythmelodies thru synth hyperprisms, layered with additional instrumentation by his peers at a home studio in Manchester to achieve lush swells of polyrhythm diffused into Hassellian brass and dubwise ambient clouds.
He’s not breaking the mold here, but he does play into it beautifully well, seamlessly eliding his ideas in broadly appealing arrangements that range from the subtle heart-in-mouth stealth of ‘Bike Shed’, thru a 3-part section of Alice Coltrane-meets-Steve Reich worship in the ‘Elevation’ parts, to the floating structures of ‘Balafon’, rippling hand-drums and searching brass of ‘Pots’, and ribboning synths of ‘Arp Phase’.
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Lovely, jazz and contemporary classical-spirited 4th world ambient scaping from Cumbria-raised, Manchester-based Tom Burford’s Contours; initially a club project, now naturally transitioning into a whole other sphere with results surely indebted or comparable to Steve Reich, Richard Skelton, and Alice Coltrane.
A neat fit for Amsterdam’s revered Music From Memory label, ‘Elevations’ leads on from Contours’ 2020 ‘Balafon Sketches’ to bloom that album’s rhythmelodic ideas across an arcing soundfield impressionistically conveying the panoramas of his formative Cumbrian stomping grounds. Whilst seeded in his drumming practice, as explored on the Balafon, a Malian tuned percussion instrument, Contours first album, proper, sees him render the instrument's trickling rhythmelodies thru synth hyperprisms, layered with additional instrumentation by his peers at a home studio in Manchester to achieve lush swells of polyrhythm diffused into Hassellian brass and dubwise ambient clouds.
He’s not breaking the mold here, but he does play into it beautifully well, seamlessly eliding his ideas in broadly appealing arrangements that range from the subtle heart-in-mouth stealth of ‘Bike Shed’, thru a 3-part section of Alice Coltrane-meets-Steve Reich worship in the ‘Elevation’ parts, to the floating structures of ‘Balafon’, rippling hand-drums and searching brass of ‘Pots’, and ribboning synths of ‘Arp Phase’.