16th March 2015: RELEASE DAY for Tam de Villiers ‘Panacea’ + European tour continues…
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Announcing the release day for Panacea (click here for CDs and digital albums).
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For the the best part of a decade, the quartet of British-born guitarist Tam de Villiers (now firmly established in France) has been striving for musical authenticity, compositional originality and honest group interplay. Avoiding pastiche of the past and present, and deftly side-stepping the fleeting musical trends of the moment, their aim has been to explore a personal take on the human experience, defying genres and period.
Resolutely idiosyncratic, the music of Tam de Villiers surprises the listener with a melting pot of influences seamlessly combined into an original voice. What starts out as a jazz piece leads into a contrapuntal baroque fantasie, then veers off into abrasive progressive rock, skimming past rockabilly twangs before plunging into a trance inducing minimalist motif. Yet despite the apparent eclecticism, there is a carefully crafted archetypal balance underpinning the form that brings a sense of classical coherence to the notes, both written and improvised.
De Villiers continues working closely with this regular team of musicians, Karl Jannuska (drums), David Prez (tenor saxophone), and Frederic Chiffoleau (double bass), on Panacea, his debut for Whirlwind Recordings.
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This new opus expands upon the quartet’s body of work following the critically acclaimed albums Alba Lux (2008) and Motion Unfolding (2011). Described as “amazing, acrobatic, mind-poetry” by Jazz Thing Magazine, song-writing was explored on his last album featuring singer David Linx. Now, with Panacea, de Villiers pushes the poetic song writing aspect of his music even further, this time inviting Hungarian singer Gabor Winand, whose baritone voice and unique approach to scat improvisation bring an exceptional lyricism to four tracks of the album.
Listen to the title track from the album here:
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Listen to Panopticon from Panacea here:
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In parallel to this, and in some ways as counter-balance, inviting the flexibility of Winand’s vocal technique into the mix brings a universal coherence to the auditor. de Villiers desired to continue his exploration of poetic song-writing (first started on the last album Motion Unfolding), using the consonants and syllables of the text as a rhythmic framework for the articulation and sound of the themes. The texts examine symbolic archetypes found in European esoterica, alchemy and Jungian writings. The literal concepts explored also lay the foundation of the song forms, using numerological figures as a basis for tempo, form and meter: notably in “Panacea” and “As Above, So Below”. In other songs, “Morse Code Fantasie” and “Freedom” (Winand’s own composition), the voice is instead used as an instrument in its own right, using scat syllables for articulation.
The end result is a collection of varying pieces, instrument and vocal, that takes the listener on both a cerebral and visceral voyage, where the natural feel and organic execution of the material draws the listener in while allowing appreciation of the band’s exuberant interactions without its compositional depth and complexity burying their musicality.
Tam is currently touring around Europe. Please see our events page for more details:
12/02/15 Bravo Brussels, Belgium
8:00pm.
13/02/15 Jazzolder Mechelen
8:00pm.
16/02/15 Hopper Antwerp
8:00pm.
17/02/15 Liquid Luxembourg
8:00pm.
20/02/15 B-Flat Berlin-Mitte
8:00pm.
21/02/15 Club Hanseat Salzwedel
8:00pm.
11/03/15 Swing Unlimited Jazz Club Alum Chine, Bournemouth UK
8:00pm.
12/03/15 Sound Cellar Poole UK
8:00pm.
13/03/15 Birmingham Jazz Birmingham UK
7:45pm.
14/03/15 Shrewsbury Jazz Network Shrewsbury UK
7:45pm.
15/03/15 Southampton Modern Jazz Club Southampton UK
7:45pm.
17/03/15 Dempsey’s Cardiff, Wales UK
7:45pm.
18/03/15 Leeds College of Music Leeds UK
1:00pm.
Workshop
18/03/15 Lescar Sheffield UK
8:00pm.
20/03/15 Bebop Club Bristol UK
8:00pm.
22/03/15 Splinter Jazz Newcastle upon Tyne UK
8:00pm.