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Jun 22 2010
New trio with Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Robert Mitchell

Various news around June 2010....

 

Intense but rewarding days were spent recently at the beautiful Dartington Hall arts complex in the south west rehearsing with Ayanna Witter-Johnson - an amazing vocalist/cellist and composer alongside the brilliant Robert Mitchell on piano. Our first public performance, at the end of the week at Dartington, was very enjoyable and so we look forward to more over the summer – Harrogate, Brighton, London, Brecon and Newcastle, see my gig listings for details.  Thanks to all involved at Dartington and Serious Music for the great experience.

 

'Birds and Beasts' the new album from Mr McFalls Chamber is out and gathering very favourable reaction such as this from Folk Radio UK "I’ve always said, as have many others, that Martyn was years ahead of his time. With the help of Mr McFall’s chamber, Fraser Fifield and the rest of this very impressive gathering of musical talent his music remains firmly at the cutting edge." read the whole article at http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2010/06/mr-mcfalls-chamber-birds-beasts/ and for the latest McFalls news visit http://www.mcfalls.co.uk/

 

Mr McFall’s group (Robert, Greg Lawson, Su-a Lee and Brian Schiele) have also recorded ‘Chasing the Sun’ – a Blas Festival commission by James Ross. string quartet, soprano sax and composer himself, James Ross, playing the piano.  Release details to follow...

 

Thanks to all involved for the lovely gig in Lion, Spain... a variety of videos and photos from the gig have appeared on youtube/facebook... have a look/listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfs3utkuqTY&feature=related

 

Do look out for Inge Thomson's new trio on the live circuit.  The talented singer and accordionist has enlisted the help of Owen Green (electronics/laptop) and myself, and we've done a handful of gigs over the past couple of months which are shaping up very nicely indeed. We're playing the music from Inge's excellent new album 'Shipwrecks and Static' re-worked for this line-up.  Another imminent addition to Inge and Martin's family may slow up the gigs for a time but we'll be back soon I'm sure....

 

I've contributed sax on a couple of tracks by the Spanish group Tejedor...  look out for this in the coming months in you like a Balearic twist to your Celtic music...

 

Also delighted to see Joe Acheson’s Hidden Orchestra recording titled ‘Night Walks’ finding it’s way into the public domain via Tru Thought Recordings.  Joe and his band play a fascinating mix of genres- electronic/classical and jazz. I played soprano sax, low whistle and kaval on a few tracks and, I think, my friend, cellist Su-a Lee also features on the album which is released in September 2010.

 

Lastly but not leastly on recording news, Graeme Stephen Sextet featuring cellist Ben Davis (and Martin Kershaw, Stu Ritchie, Mario Caribe, Graeme Stephen and me!), captured the lucid flow of Graeme’s compositions on recording in February this year.  Vantage Points is the title of the album and of the suite of music which makes up the album.  The sonic palette Graeme musters from his band is unusual and very beautiful.  Available to purchase from graemestephen.com 

 

All the best,

 

Fraser

 





May 05 2010
Reviews CD and Gig - Birds and Beasts

Source: The List Date: 4 May 2010 Written by: Kenny Mathieson
 
Mr McFall's Chamber - Birds & Beasts
A quintet of classical string players both thinking and playing out of the box, a jazz pianist and two drummers, and a piper with both folk and jazz leanings – it can only be Mr McFall’s. The music is equally eclectic – two compositions by Fraser Fifield (the piper in question), Martyn Bennett’s once lost ‘Piece for string quartet, percussion and Scottish small pipes in C’, and a half dozen arrangements by violinist Robert McFall from Bennett’s music.
The McFall’s have a track record in adapting Bennett’s ground-breaking folk-meets-techno experiments for this instrumentation, and it is good to see it now on disc. Tunes from Bothy Culture and Bennett’s stage music for Knives In Hens lend themselves well to the treatment (the later, even more studio-dependent Grit could have been a trickier proposition), and they capture the excitement and vitality of Bennett’s creative thinking in convincing fashion, while Fifield’s fiery ‘The Beast’ is a virtuoso achievement all round.
 
 

The Scotsman: Gig review: Mr McFall's Chamber

By Kenny Mathieson

 
 
QUEEN'S HALL, EDINBURGH
****
MR MCFALL'S Chamber are well acquainted with the music of the late Martyn Bennett, and have long since found an accommodation with many of the problems inherent in converting Bennett's unique folk-meets-techno experiments for a line-up that features a quintet of eclectic classical musicians, folk-jazz piper Fraser Fifield, pianist Phil Alexander, and drummers Tom Bancroft and Ian Sandilands.

The occasion for re-visiting this material is the imminent release of Birds & Beasts on Paul Baxter's admirable Delphian label, and they gave us the full contents of the recording in this concert. They opened with the iconic Cuillin, probably Bennett's best known tune, a high-energy workout that slid into the gentler The Miller, one of the themes from Bennett's music for David Harrower's play Knives In Hens.

Much of the music was drawn from Bennett's theatre work and the ground-breaking Bothy Culture album, material which is more amenable to this kind of arrangement than his later studio work, which was even more intensely focused on electronic manipulation of all kinds.

The precisely-titled Piece for String Quartet, Percussion and Scottish Small Pipes in C (Bennett might have given it a snappier title had he lived) is receiving a premiere recording on the disc, and took centre stage in the set here, although for sheer fearsome virtuosity, Fifield's aptly named The Beast eclipsed anything else on the night.

Bennett's multi-faceted legacy is being advanced on several fronts, and this is a very worthwhile addition.