Key points
No sense of a one size fits allness
It’s the individualism that counts even when you can place the sound in some sort of wider context.
Journey to the heart of the most outstanding tune via Mike Moreno harking back to Radiohead
Listening to opening track ‘Stone Eyes,’ the most compelling track of all 7 here on this guitar led jazz-rock quartet album, that’s clear even given a slightly convoluted journey to its creation.
Cascading Allardice approach nestles in a jazz-rock firmament
A piece that was inspired by Radiohead’s ‘Glass Eyes’ but through the stepping stone of an instrumental version delivered by Mike Moreno makes me even knowing this nevertheless think of a sound that lies somewhere between John Abercrombie and Pat Metheny – in other words pastoral jazz rock that was currency in the 1980s and still figures importantly in the work of players like Moreno, Nir Felder and Julian Lage.
Prismatic of the Pat Metheny Group radiance
Nevertheless Allardice says, writing about his song ‘Peaceful,’ that the song does indeed share some affinity with such a notion because it ”was my first foray into a sort of pastoral or Americana sound, inspired by the likes of Pat Metheny and Brian Blade.”
Roadtrip-like reveries
A Kiwi, Allardice is here with: Australian pianist Luke Sweeting who is largely in an accompanying role but bursts through more on ‘Odyssey’; New Zealand double bassist Thomas Botting plus Allardice and Botting’s fellow Kiwi jazzer, drummer
Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa.
Elementa begins like the sort of thing you’d put on in the car when embarking on a road trip to head deep into the countryside where there’s nothing to see for miles apart from distant mountains and endless skies.
Such momentum is pretty enticing and sucks you in without you even knowing you’re attached. After ‘Peaceful’ Allardice feels the need to include a little more acoustic sounding solo coda that takes the mood right down from the great outdoors to a place inside. That’s 57 seconds well spent. There’s a grittier edge to the title track which follows.
Most of the pieces clock in at around the 7 or 8 minute mark. Some you feel could rewardingly be even longer and allow for some looser, additional, improvisatory free-for-alls.
Shares ‘Dark Love’ in common with Cinematic Light Orchestra
A composer residency at Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music helped give Allardice time and space to come up with the tunes here fruits of which have already been released on Cinematic Light Orchestra. Both albums, issued on saxist Jeremy Rose’s Australian label Earshift, share ‘Dark Love’ in common.
Recorded in just a day and a half there’s plenty of flow and a sense of movement. If you’re a Metheny fan or more broadly into heritage jazz-rock from the 1980s you will, with the right wind blowing behind you, feel completely at home and seek sanctuary right here.
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