For the follow-up to our first instrumental EP, we wanted to record songs with words. We found the perfect person for the project: Nadia Basurto, a Catalan singer based in The Hague. Her warm, deep vocals and characterful non-native English pronunciation seemed to perfectly fit the songs, with their mixture of hope, uncertainty, change and displacement.
We had done a remix for Welsh bass player Aidan Thorne’s Duski band earlier in 2021, and he offered to return the favour by playing on a couple of our tracks. (It was a quid pro quo without any quids.) On ‘First Light’ and ‘Atlantis’, Aidan brings the spiritual jazz vibes, with his virtuosic, exciting and responsive double bass playing.
On the keys, we roped in our old friend Kishon Khan, the driving force behind Lokkhi Terra and leading light of a London-based global music community. Kishon’s organic, old-school Fender Rhodes sound and sensitive playing tied the other musical elements together and helped unify the different styles on the EP.
Finally, we think our own horn and guitar/bass playing are pretty good too, and central to the emerging Archie the Goldfish sound. (We particularly enjoyed the call and response passages on ‘Setting Out’ where it felt like old times spent on stage.)
These songs were all written at different times, but we hope that together they resonate with the spirit of the moment. They explore themes of positive and negative change, hope and regret, memory and anticipation, all through the imagery of Water & Light.
1. On a Summer's Day 05:53
2. Setting Out 03:29
3. First Light 04:49
4. Changing Places 03:35
5. Atlantis 04:39
Graeme Flowers - trumpet and flugelhorn
Chris Bestwick - guitar, and bass guitar on tracks 1,2,4
Nadia Basurto - vocals
Kishon Khan - Fender Rhodes
Aidan Thorne - double bass on tracks 3 and 5
Sarah Winton - intro backing vocals on track 2
Produced by Chris Bestwick and Graeme Flowers
Mixed by Chris Bestwick
Mastered by Steve Kitch
Cover art by Alban Low
All words and music by Chris Bestwick
Published by Sentric Music Publishing
Released by Funkiwala Records
Distributed by Kudos
