Jamie Leeming: Resynthesis

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Ben Reed (b)
Laura Groves (v, one track)
Joe Downard (el b, b, Synth Bass)
Jamie Leeming (g)
Jas Kayser (d)
Hugo Piper (b)
Nathaniel Facey (as)
Jamie Houghton (d)
Quinn Oulton (ts)

Label:

Sekito

August/2022

Media Format:

LP, DL

Catalogue Number:

SEKIT001

RecordDate:

Rec. date not stated

Young London guitarist Jamie Leeming’s solo debut deals with memory, seeing it as a shifting, synthetic process over time, yet fundamental to our sense of identity. He favours Eastern atmospheres, letting his instrument meditatively loop and glisten inside a broader sense of sonic space. ‘Shinkansen’ recalls a journey on Tokyo’s bullet train, with Empirical’s Nathaniel Facey muscularly plaintive on alto. ‘Champion’’s funk shuffle is built from a brief phone recording of a jam at the capital’s Champion Sounds improv night, complete with crowd hubbub. ‘Long Term Memory’ then shifts into trip-hop’s crepuscular, languid zone, Laura Groves’ vocal reaching further back towards Sade’s aching jazz-pop as she considers home as a haven for our deepest memories.

The atmospheric, exploratory ‘Zen Garden’ sees Leeming himself start choppy and abrasive before gliding into a hazy state of nirvana in slow, resonant phrases, building melodic and emotional territory over Jas Kayser’s tumbling, intensifying drums. The closing ‘Still Connected’, with its ambient crackle, Ben Reed’s softly prowling, playful bass and Leeming’s harp-like strums, is Resynthesis’ most intriguing world.

Sax and vocal guests apart, this is an interesting deconstruction of the jazz guitar trio, conversant with club language, and thoughtfully understated in its effects. Leeming is content so far to sketch and imply, rather than hammer his colours to the mast.

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