I’ve been listening to a range of upcoming autumn releases not out just yet. Realistically not much apart from the totally non essential litter of Christmas albums are released after the end of November so we are nearly there for another year’s worth of releases. I’ll mention some more recommendations of new albums to come in subsequent posts. But for now one record clearly stands out and it goes in the best of the year list choice on the next update.
The reason I like Ars Ludicra which is new from Peter Evans’ Being & Becoming in mid-October is to do with its in your face energy levels, exuberance and the wildness of it all.
Sonically there’s rich detail. And no wonder. It was recorded at shrine of shrines Van Gelder’s, the studio in New Jersey where A Love Supreme was made. It’s not heritage bop, which is something that often gets recorded there these days (nothing wrong with that, by the way) more a style that can’t be easily pigeonholed and comes across as a new modernism. The tunes are tough, it’s often pretty up tempo and the ferocity of Joel Ross’ vibes underpinning ensemble forays are a world away from the often soporific role vibes can adopt when the instrument is used more for colour and not as here, more hard thrash.
Evans’ style lands somewhere between Dave Douglas and Ambrose Akinmusire’s. A big presence on the album is the thundering drum work of Michael Shekwoaga Ode.
Overall it’s more a bulldozing sound than an album studded with memorable tunes. Tunes don’t seem to be the point as much as impact and abstract expressionism. But I’m non plussed by the version of ‘My Sorrow is Luminous’ by the Russian folk-punk singer Yanka Dyagileva. Seems an odd choice and is subsumed into the overall approach rather than standing on its own merits individually.
The band has been around a while. Being & Becoming which had a different drummer came out in 2020 the year of the first global Lockdowns brought on by the Covid 19 Pandemic. Ars Memoria, which links in Latin usage titling, came out in 2022 and is a closer fit to this latest. Ars Ludicra is another Latin phrase that references the art of the game or the dramatic art.
Tailor made for fans who like blistering full-on group play – it’s not for shrinking violets who want hush laden quietude at all or easy solutions. The masses won’t be sedated. There’s an intensity the group are very good at conveying. And it’s an exhilarating ride worth strapping yourself in for and seeing where the sound takes you.
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