VITAL WEEKLY just reviewed THE TAPE, our latest limited cassette release, featuring this outstanding concert GRAHAM DUNNING, BENEDICT TAYLOR and DANIEL THOMPSON played at the A New Wave Of Jazz festival in 2020 at Hundred Years Gallery (London, UK). This release is still available here.

“Let’s start by stating that it is a pity that the recording on the cassette is cut in two. On Bandcamp, it is presented as one piece and quite rightly so, as this is a live recording. I assume mixing (as mentioned on the cover) means creating a balance between the various instruments, but otherwise, it is presented as it was captured on February 8, 2020, during a festival the label organized in London. I assume many of the label’s musicians played in all sorts of configurations, and here we have a trio
of Graham Dunning (turntable, dubplates, spring reverb), Benedict Taylor (viola) and Daniel Thompson (acoustic guitar). All three play on earlier releases. This is exciting work, I think. Thompson and Taylor provide a more traditional part of the improvised music here, bringing in a lot of nervous and hectic sound, and their instruments sound like a viola and acoustic guitar. Both players don’t seem to extend to playing their instruments as objects. Dunning’s contribution is of an entirely different order. His records are scratchy, the spring reverb off and on leans towards feedback, and his contribution is the opposite of the other two. Electrified, at times sustaining, he delivers a tapestry of sounds in which the others find each other. Sometimes, it seems, Dunning is entirely silent, and we hear only the other two, but then Dunning drops another record and scratches his way back in. However, the music remains a conversation between the three of them. I can safely say I am no
expert in this field of music, but I think this combination of instruments is quite surprising and is quite rightly released, even when chopped in two. Sadly it is only just thirty minutes. I wouldn’t have minded this being a bit longer.” Vital Weekly – The Netherlands