Available for the first time since its original release in 1980, this is compelling, funky, exploratory jazz from Melbourne, Australia.

The album opens with the floating Song For Bobby, a downtempo gem with the heartbeat aura of Herbie Hancock’s Butterfly; Orchestral Excerpts (From The Symphony Of Life), In The Basement and City Of Stone are high-grade fusion jams with one eye on Weather Report and Return to Forever, the other on the organic Australian sound of Alan Lee and John Sangster. The album closes out with the completely improvised Universal Suite, a 17-minute excursion which begins with a cinematic opening reminiscent of electric Miles at his most introspective before taking flight on passages of hard-driving Latin percussion, shimmering fusion and gritty funk. Slick, cultured and in close dialogue with the most advanced sounds of the era, Pyramid documents one of Australia’s great fusion bands at the height of their powers.

‘Warm, mysterious and alluring, the Trio’s debut album maintains a balanced interaction at once intimate and almost limitlessly expansive. The leader’s unmistakable tone and improvisational verve are naturally a focal point, but there is no doubt that we are dealing with a proper band. Cellist Joel Ring and drummer Øystein Aarnes Vik are masterfully light-footed and tight, calmly driving the music forward, filling it with colour and texture… and still there is room for the influential Norwegian pianist Jon Balke, who guests on three tracks.
‘The compositions are strong, immediate and captivating. For all its eccentricities, the music has a broad, timeless appeal, running from the distant past far into the future. It takes you by the hand, to show you that the world is still a magical and enchanted place.’

Five-star business. With James Spaulding, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Joe Chambers, in 1965. The first side is all Hutcherson compositions — including Little B’s Poem, his lovely signature tune, written for his toddler Barry — the second all Chambers’, more abstract and reaching.

Live at the Lila Eule 2018.

Tense, textured, classy minimalism from Al Wootton.

Nine tunes copped from the archives of the legendary 78s collector Harry Smith — ‘pointedly taken from regions shaped by major US conflicts since Anderson’s birth in 1970. While her fascinating liner notes track what is lost and found when trying to translate these compositions, their universal musicality still cuts through. Opener Quodlibet is beautiful: an intricate, minor-key medley of Uzbek tunes originally performed on the dambura (a fretless lute), on which Anderson adds bluegrass techniques to counter her inability to play quarter-tones on her guitar. Her take on a qawwali vocal tune, Hamd, is also a highlight, her stacked guitar layers ringing with warmth and emotion. Gisela Rodríguez Fernández adds violin to Sarvi Simin, a shimmering tune from Soviet-era Afghanistan, while a Yemeni tune, Zar, intended to exorcise evil spirits from the sick, sees Anderson and Fernández constantly rearranging five notes without repetition. Dark ambient moods are also conjured in Pair of Duduk, on which Anderson shifts the drones of Armenian woodwinds on to reverb-heavy guitar and bassy synths, while in Vietnamese tune Whistle Song, transferred from bamboo flutes to electric piano, the composition’s closeness to minimalism sings out.’

Wonderful. Here’s to volume two.

‘In the thirteen years since Voices From The Lake I, the duo has performed worldwide, released a handful of EPs, worked on installations, and founded record labels, all while continuing to refine the project’s unique identity. Its core has always been its deep, aqueous approach to sound, a sensibility that returns in full force on II. “The project was never meant to become what it did. At one point, we even paused it. Only to later embrace it in all its forms. II is both a continuation and a reinvention.” True to that spirit, Voices From The Lake have explored extremes in recent years, from high-tempo live sets to seated listening concerts, while remaining anchored in the meditative pulse of ambient techno. II extends this lineage, carrying forward the immersive sound design and boundary-pushing vision that has defined their work from the beginning.’

‘Marvelling, playful, inquisitive contemplations, ranging from the stardust that forms us to the very first human sound that reverberated through a cave; ambient, liminal narratives woven by poetic recitation and Buchla, bass and sitar, edging towards blues and spiritual jazz.’

‘Though one long piece, New Old Medicine moves through several unofficial chapters. It originates in the psychic depths with a pensive melody. Gradually solidifying, the organ’s first solo ushers the piece into a swaying, reverent dance. This dance nears its end with a vigorously percussive section on oud, handing it off to the violin for a climactic solo. A momentary pause, then the rhythm thickens, and the musicians ride untethered through the midnight. This frenzy is followed by a calm repose on placid water. But this calm is merely a deep inhale before the final charged ascent into cosmic rapture.’