Todd McComb’s Jazz Thoughts just wrote an impressive extensive review on our latest release of HUNT AT THE BROOK/HUNT AT THE BROOK AGAIN with NEIL METCALFE. In this review Todd blends in several other releases on our label as well some from affiliated labels and musicians. Get ready.
This double disc is of course available from our webstore on bandcamp.

“Hunt at the Brook (recorded in 2014) has felt like a pivotal album for me, in terms of finding my own interests in this space, i.e. as slowly moving away from following a variety of other sources (as can seem inevitable…), into more personal priorities & articulations. Moreover, that’s been underscored by ongoing interest in the performers involved: Just this past May, I reviewed It used to be an elephant (recorded in 2022 & released on Daniel Thompson’s Empty Birdcage label), a quintet combining the original trio with frequent collaborators Dirk Serries & Colin Webster. (That album comes off as more exploratory, preliminary again with its unusual ensemble….) And there I’d traced some historical relations as well, including to me in this space, so I’ll skip over some of that now. Nonetheless, the recent release of two albums at once on Serries’ “A New Wave of Jazz” label — Hunt at the Brook Again & with Neil Metcalfe — necessitates some further thoughts on chronology (as well as confirms that Hunt at the Brook was a significant project for the trio of musicians involved): The addition of Metcalfe on flute for the second album of this double release raises as well his participation (with Thompson) in Runcible Quintet, e.g. their own quartet formation on (half of) Four suggesting something of the quartet interaction here. Of course, the Runcible albums have more in the way of rhythmic articulation via drums, but there’s a sort of tuneful “anthropology music” cultivated as well. (This is a notion I’ve been articulating here over the past few years, namely musical inspiration from “natural” sounds, e.g. zoomimesis, or in this case more in the way of outdoor resonances woven into a sort of harmonic tapestry….) And there’s likewise a sort of pointillism much of the time underlying Hunt at the Brook, multiple relations woven more densely than a real (ecological) scene, evoking multiple perspectives & collisions in counterpoint…. So the chronology here implicates Runcible as well, the latter’s most recent album Three having been recorded in March 2019 (& reviewed here in May 2020), followed by Hunt at the Brook Again in April 2019 & Hunt at the Brook with Neil Metcalfe in May 2019. And I’d already been emphasizing post-pandemic productions here, so this does come to seem like the past…. Still, both albums have been quite compelling, and further (even centrally…) illuminate subsequent productions: 2019 had opened for Thompson & Benedict Taylor recording the double duo album T’other in January (launching Thompson’s new label…), as reviewed here in November 2020, i.e. only after I’d reviewed the horn-less SETT (recorded in November 2019, and first documenting the unusual double acoustic guitar formations that followed these trio & quartet chamber ensembles…). (Taylor himself also went on to record a series of duos that year, including Live Offerings 2019 with Serries, reviewed here in March 2021, plus e.g. Knotted Threads with Yves Charuest on Inexhaustible Editions…. Moving ahead then, he appears with Serries & e.g. with Stefan Keune for the middle disc of Live at Plus-Etage, Volume 1 too, recorded last September: That understated triple album, also produced by Serries, includes two striking duo recitals as well, from different musicians who also intersect this unit sometimes.) Meanwhile, I’ve had more of an “in order” (if sparser…) chronology for clarinetist Tom Jackson (who joined the core Hunt at the Brook trio later, replacing Alex Ward from Compost, as reviewed here in April 2013…), appearing e.g. with the trio album Nauportus with Thompson (reviewed already July 2019, but after the present recordings were made), and then Dandelion (actually recorded in the interim in 2021) with Serries instead on guitar. (The latter was also presented in big, dynamic 24bit sound — as are now Hunt at the Brook Again & Hunt at the Brook with Neil Metcalfe….) And then Thompson himself has recently e.g. reprised his duo with Webster, releasing However, Forward! (as recorded only last October) this month on Webster’s Raw Tonk label, yielding a relatively tighter articulation for that ongoing formation…. So then one thing I’ve (apparently) learned from doing this sort of review over the years is that it becomes too easy simply to trace relations…. What about the specific music? Why do I return (even to 2019 yet again)? For one, there’s always more to appreciate, even to learn! For instance, sometimes I feel smart for appreciating the original Hunt at the Brook, but the notes for this new release also tell me that I didn’t pick up on title, which names the engineer & (studio) location. (So then I don’t feel so smart.) Anyway, I’d instead focused on the outdoorsy quality (pace the previous), and even a sense of nostalgia, i.e. as “also” reflected in the track titles. (And admittedly, the fact that this was a substantial album, lengthy rather than short, figured into my interest in those days, i.e. offering more to chew on over time….) Now the “new” albums — & they’re still significantly more recent than the original trio, even if one wonders why the delayed release… — dispense with track titles (as so often in this space…), figuring similar material inspirations into a denser & more detailed network, seeming to leave behind nostalgia per se (about which I’ve already expressed ambivalence…). (There’s of course still the matter of my own familiarity….) So while Hunt at the Brook Again provides a remarkably taut & lively exploration of some of the earlier ideas in greater depth & concentration (as befitting a reprise five years later…), Hunt at the Brook with Neil Metcalfe then broaches some different interactions, more in the way of harmonic shading (e.g. via register between the two woodwinds), yielding almost a modernist vibe in more chordal sections (& incorporating e.g. traffic, beyond anything potentially idyllic…). A similar, more chordal (v. pointillist) approach then opens It used to be an elephant (without Metcalfe), before turning elsewhere…. Acoustic guitar particularly feels like a pivot for the quartet formation, articulating counterpoints rhythmically, the potentially chordal viola often functioning more like a horn, raucous even at times, almost an alto sax…. Hunt at the Brook with Neil Metcalfe can thus feel almost like three top lines — & regular readers will know that pairing flute with clarinet was likely to appeal to me… — yielding a “different” approach to (fluid) harmonic combinations, pace e.g. “spectral” ideas on (“natural”) overtone relations. There’s also some real “fire” on both albums, especially from violist Taylor, but the “modernist” feel also involves tangible affective modulation, a sort of sinking-calming at times (including dueling runs…), moody… maybe sometimes almost new age-y? But with its assertive opening & quicker pace of articulation & dynamics, Hunt at the Brook Again had already made Hunt at the Brook seem relatively more stark (or classic…), similar materials & inspiration worked further into more intricate articulations…. Both formations are still able to summon a sense of quiet (or even silence) as well, via basic fluidity figuring dynamics throughout. As far as musical parameters per se then, i.e. in addition to their articulation of an abstracted ecology, it’s perhaps this sense for “dynamics” that most marks this group of colleagues as (sometimes) a collective. Theirs is thus a rich (rather than simplistic…) interaction with the world (& especially its outdoor sonic palette…), yielding a regime of actively shifting attention, figuration & human choice as well. Counterpoint per se then comes to feel like a condensation or embodiment of multiply intersecting experiences.” Todd McComb’s Jazz Thoughts – UK