foobar2000 1.6.16 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1 log date: 2025-01-06 16:13:35 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analyzed: Jasmine Myra / Rising -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR Peak RMS Duration Track -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR9 -0.73 dB -13.04 dB 7:11 01-Rising DR9 -0.76 dB -13.60 dB 6:08 02-Still Waters DR8 -0.71 dB -12.69 dB 8:11 03-Knowingness DR8 -0.68 dB -11.17 dB 8:17 04-Glimmers DR9 -0.79 dB -13.92 dB 2:44 05-From Embers DR9 -0.77 dB -12.88 dB 7:22 06-How Tall the Mountains -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of tracks: 6 Official DR value: DR9 Samplerate: 44100 Hz Channels: 2 Bits per sample: 16 Bitrate: 739 kbps Codec: FLAC ================================================================================
Review by Thom Jurek
Jasmine Myra is a Leeds-based composer and multi-instrumentalist. Signed to Matthew Halsall's Gondwana, she delivered the carefully considered Horizons in 2022, a musical journey reflecting struggles with mental and emotional health during the pandemic. By her own admission, Rising is a musical continuation and reflects better times. She re-teams with producer Halsall and mixing guru Greg Freeman, guitarist Ben Haskins, pianist Jasper Green, harpist Alice Roberts, drummer George Hall, bassist Sam Quintana, and, on four tracks, a string quartet. Myra's music is deeply influenced by the late trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, and expresses great admiration for the influences of Shabaka Hutchings, Makaya McCraven, and multi-instrumentalist/producer Bonobo (Simon Green).
Five of these six tunes are between six and eight minutes long. The title-cut opener recalls the compositional styles of saxophonists Jan Garbarek and Jim Pepper, as well as the mature work of guitarist Pat Metheny. Introduced by an arco bass drone with piano and shimmering cymbals, Myra delivers the modal lyric in the tenor's low register. A minute in, an overdubbed guitar goes into call-and- response with itself, as double bass and crystalline piano punctuate her statements. When Myra solos, she opts for the horn's upper register and overdubs her flute as the band gradually ratchets the tension. The flute serves as primary driver on "Still Waters," a vampish dialogue in waltz time led by piano, bushed snare, double bass, and strings. She executes the primary melody on tenor, as her bandmates carry and expand the vamp. The intro on "Knowingness" is provided by harp, double bass, and Myra's soprano saxophone. Haskins joins with intricate counter melodies before he, the saxophonist, Green, and Roberts engage in modal swing tracing minor melodies from the ether. Myra overdubs the tenor, creating a dramatic processional before taking it out with the entire band behind her. "Glimmers" initially sounds like a suite; Myra's stacked saxes meet piano, guitar, and drums in shifting cadences and mercurial choruses, opening onto structured improvisation. Haskins' guitar solo is elegant, poignant, and eerie. At less than three minutes, "From Embers" is an outlier. A lovely, chamber-like piece, it interweaves tenor with strings, guitar, flute, and cymbals, walking the tightrope between dirge and nocturnal reverie. Set closer "How Tall the Mountains" is introduced with Myra's bass clarinet. Amid reverential tom-tom and bass drums, she plays a secondary melody framed by harp and guitar. When the piano enters, it seems Green will carry the harmony off in another direction, but Myra reasserts her vamps on layered saxes first, then flute and bass clarinet before the guitarist and harpist add groove. Myra answers them by dabbling in Andean folk music. Rising's compositions are of a piece, making the album holistic. Myra and ensemble offer intricately structured compositions, played subtly and skillfully with abundant inspiration and heart. Indeed, it is almost as if Myra's collaborators composed these pieces with her in real time on-stage. Magnificent.
Состав
Jasmine Myra - alto saxophone, flute
Arran Kent (#1,3,5,6), Joel Stedman (#2) - bass clarinet
Jasper Green - Nord keyboard
Ben Haskins - guitar
Alice Roberts - harp
Sam Quintana - double bass
George Hall - drums, percussion
Greg Burns - congas & triangle (#1,3,6), percussion (#2,3)
Isabella Baker, Lisa Meech - violin (#2,3,5,6)
Sophia Dignam - viola (#2,3,5,6)
Awen Blandford - cello (#2,3,5,6) Recorded at WR Audio, Salford, UK in August 2022 and January 2023.
