Floating Circles Quartet: Humble Travellers

Rating: ★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Jonny Wickham
Matt Hurley
Johanna Burnheart
Aidan Pearson (comp, cl)
Arthur Newell

Label:

self-released

November/2020

Media Format:

CD

RecordDate:

date not stated

Aidan Pearson is a Tomorrow's Warriors and Guildhall graduate, and Floating Circles Quartet are the vehicle of this rare contemporary clarinettist-bandleader. Opener ‘Brockley‘n’Peas’ indicates the laid-back, suburban South London vibe, despite optimistic claims of Sons of Kemet's fiercer influence. Calling this spiritual jazz in even the loosest sense is too much, but a sense of balanced contentment prevails. Johanna Burnheart's violin contributes to the folk-like, Celtic sway of ‘Wading Through the Mist’, which ascends from a dawn shimmer of cymbals. ‘Beyond the Mountains of Aria’ is also pastoral and pacific as its summery melody undulates, and Pearson offers climactic, sinuous trills. Pearson and Burnheart entwine in a sort of square­dance in ‘Caravan Curtains’, Hurley's guitar adding to a purposefully unified sound. By the closing ‘Galactic Pedalboat Rescue Trip’, though, the polite pleasantries verge on the soporific. The sunny mood could stand rising to blissful ecstasy, or else sinking for a while into the shadows.

Follow us

Jazzwise Print

  • Latest print issues

From £5.83 / month

Subscribe

Jazzwise Digital Club

  • Latest digital issues
  • Digital archive since 1997
  • Download tracks from bonus compilation albums during the year
  • Reviews Database access

From £7.42 / month

Subscribe

Subscribe from only £5.83

Never miss an issue of the UK's biggest selling jazz magazine.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Jazzwise magazine.

Find out more