Josephine Davies – Weatherwards – Out Today

Release day for Josephine Davies’
4th Whirlwind album ‘Weatherwards’ click here

CD / DL / 180 gram LP

ABOUT THE ALBUM

Like the ever-changing seascapes of award-winning saxophonist/composer Josephine Davies’ Shetland birthplace, the music of her Satori project presents a constantly evolving tableau, at once consistent and different every time. The music in her latest collection, released as Weatherwards, pays direct tribute to the islands that she left at an early age but that continue to exert a powerful fascination for her, drawing her back, just as the Satori project has continued to draw her back over the course of seven years and four albums – “Satori is where I find myself most at home as a saxophonist.” All the compositions were inspired by aspects of Shetland and her personal history there, and in order to realize them fully she has introduced a new element to the band. For half of Weatherwards, longtime bassist Dave Whitford and drummer James Maddren are joined by pianist Alcyona Mick, dramatically expanding the textural and harmonic palette.

Yet the essential qualities of Satori remain unchanged: Josephine’s unique compositions are the launch pads for free-flowing, limitless improvisations in which all the players become equal partners in exploration. The music of Weatherwards is by turns expansive and daring and hushed and intimate, all expedited by the empathetic communion between the players, with their individual virtuosity united by the strength of Josephine’s musical vision.

The addition of Alcyona Mick is essential to the expansion of the project’s creative scope, while retaining its commitment to a free and equal musical conversation. “Alcyona can be wholly spontaneous so we can retain the freedom of group improvisation; she knows how to leave space within the harmony and has such great ears, so she just fit straight in.” The opening statement ‘Old Happy Hansel’ pays tribute to Josephine’s parent’s eponymous house with a trio performance that gives the album’s clearest nod to the jazz legacy with its swing feel and angular, Monkish melody. Then ‘Saxa Vord’ (named for the island’s Northern point) introduces Alcyona’s piano in a traditional folkish 12/8 rhythm that she deconstructs in a breathtakingly daring solo before picking up the pieces and fitting them together again as the band mark the form with outbreaks of spontaneous clapping. ‘Hiraeth’ is a Welsh word describing a sense of longing for a missing home – a relationship to place that is expressed as the tune evolves from ballad feel to earthy backbeat. Rhythmic complexity dissolves into freeform expression in ‘Holes of Scraada’ which captures the spirit of the rugged Shetland caves for which it is named, while ‘Up Helly Aa’ celebrates the uproarious local winter festival with some swaggering odd-meter funk ,enriched in an alternative take by piano. By contrast, ‘The Simmer Dim’ is a meditative duet between Alcyona’s piano and Josephine’s soprano saxophone, inspired by the midnight sun of Shetland summer. ‘Ronas Voe’ and “The Long Dark’ are both totally spontaneous free- form improvisations that demonstrate the telepathic empathy between all the players: by contrast “Mara Mara” shows how tight and disciplined Whitford and Maddren are as section players. To conclude, ‘Song of the Selkie’ is the closest to a conventional quartet performance, in a measured and overtly romantically melodic tribute to the shapeshifting seal maidens of Scottish legend.

Weatherwards represents a boldly rewarding evolution of Satori as an improvising band, and of Josephine as a composer. “I was interested in having a theme for the album – I’m fascinated by the origins of creative expression and where it comes from. I found myself writing more harmonically dense material and felt there was more to say as quartet – I was hearing more exploration of harmony and texture, and it’s been so much fun playing with those three.” It’s a deep and compelling statement from a world-class project that deserves total immersion from the listener.

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