Julie Campiche Quartet conjure compelling harp-led sounds at the Black Mountain Jazz Club

Last year’s event - like so many others - having been scrapped, Abergavenny’s Black Mountain Jazz Club were relieved to re-establish their annual Wall2Wall jazz weekend with an eclectic programme ranging from Aaron Liddard’s hard bop to the Monmouth Big Band’s swing via looping trip-pop duo Charlie and Jake and Marvin Muoneke’s classic Great American Songbook.

Snagging one of contemporary Swiss harpist Julie Campiche’s Quartet’s three UK gigs for their Saturday nights festival headliner, however, was a definite coup for the Black Mountain crew and if many people attending were unsure what they were in for most were justifiably impressed. It was a showcase for her recently released second album You Matter, a tightly focused set of tunes composed during lockdown reflecting Campiche’s social and environmental concerns. These were most evident in ‘Fridays of Hope’, a ticking time bomb of a number punctuated by samples of Greta Thunberg urging us to act. Cleverly constructed, its pulsing harp bass and a loping double bass riff never quite synched with Clemens Kuratle’s drum creating an unsettling atmosphere as the number built to an assertive climax around the word ‘panic’. Edgy stuff, immediately counterbalanced by ‘Paranthese’, an elegant harp and bass duet embellished with Campiche’s wordless vocals and a floating saxophone rumination from Leo Fugalli’s nimble tenor.

As ever, Campiche made much use of the harp as a rhythm instrument, wrapping the strings in cloth or striking with a soft mallet drumstick for percussive effects, leaving Fugalli to mostly take the melodic spotlight. The balance shifted in ‘The Other’s Share’, however, where her jazz fluency shone over staccato drumming and harmonised saxophone. Closing the evening, Fumagalli’s tune ‘Utopia’ was another closely composed piece of interweaving lines that gave bass player Manu Hagmann space for a rare display of flamboyance – he had been mostly the perfectly precise anchor to the set – while the saxophonist also let rip with a firesome solo before winding the tune down against the slowly ticking harp. It was all powerful stuff, driven by the reined in pyrotechnics of Campiche’s simmering rage and aspirations for change, and there was much energetic discussion amongst the departing audience at the end. It must have been a great boost for the Black Mountain Club as they continue to rebuild after the pandemic – their own optimism captured earlier in a fledgling workshop for youngsters aiming to nurture a fresh generation of future jazz talent.