ORIOLE ? MIGRATION ? ?F-IRE CD 13
?The soundtrack to a story of joy and longing born from an irresistible impulse to travel but never to arrive?
Migration?is?Oriole?s second album,?a sensory banquet of soaring melodies, colourful South American folklore, lively dances and emotional ballads of longing. Music that creates a rich, emotionally disquieting world that is at once familiar and dreamlike. A world of freedom, of movement, of dusty roads and travelling musicians in shaded market squares whose journey will never end. These are?songs?of magical realism mingling elements of fantasy, myth, desire and wanderlust in renderings that blur traditional distinctions between what is serious or trivial, melancholic or joyous.
?The magical realist does not try to copy the surrounding reality or to wound it but to seize the mystery that breathes behind things.?
Luis Leal, Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature
Oriole?s composer and guitarist Jonny Phillips was described by?The Guardian?as?A big new composing presence?and?Time Out?as?the brilliant F-IRE collective guitarist?on the release of the first Oriole album?Song for the Sleeping?in 2005. He has travelled widely blending the musical, folkloric and dance traditions of North Brazil, West Africa, Southern Europe and beyond. These Influences have been as important as the folkloric music of his own region and the church music of his composer parents.?Here both the migrations of the composer and the band members have resulted in the creation of new musical hybrids; the physical and artistic travels being inseparable.
Oriole received enthusiastic reviews last year for live performances at venues such as?The Purcell Room,?South Bank Centre?in London. Migration?s release will be accompanied by a?15 date nationwide tour?that will include?Cheltenham Jazz Festival as Jerwood rising stars.
The album features an award winning international line-up including drummer Sebastian Rochford, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, cellist Ben Davis, bassist Anders Christiansen, vocalist Julia Biel, percussionist Adriano Adawali Itauna and clarinettist Idris Rahman. All top instrumentalists in their respective fields.