After the album "Togetherness Music", british pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins presents another musical panorama: An ensemble in which his trio with bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis meets saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings, guitarist Otto Fischer, and drummer Richard Olátúndé baker. For anybody who has followed Hawkins' work since his emergence on the british improvised music scene in the mid 2000’s this is a fresh band full of familiar musicians with whom Hawkins has played in a wide variety of formations. The new pieces that "break a vase" presents emerge from Hawkins' own imagination, but they also capture the thrust of energy in collaborating with these outstanding musicians.
“Hawkins gives one of his most complete performances to date,” writes kevin Le Gendre in the liner notes. “Nothing is perhaps more majestic than the title track, which comes from Derek walcott’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize. ‘Break a vase, and the love that re - assembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.’ Enjoy then all these wily bits and pieces that come together in the kind of daring, courageous construction that is made to last.”
1. The Perfect Sound Would Like to Be Unique
2. Stamped Down, or Shovelled
3. Sun Rugged Billions
4. Generous Souls
5. Faint Making Stones
6. Break a Vase
7. Chaplin in Slow Motion
8. Domingada Open Air
9. Stride Rhyme Gospel
10. Even the Birds Stop to Listen
Richard Olátúndé Baker: Adamo (Talking Drum), Percussion
Neil Charles: Acoustic Bass Guitar, Double Bass
Stephen Davis: Drums
Otto Fischer: Electric Guitar
Alexander Hawkins: Grand Piano, Upright Piano, Sampler
Shabaka Hutchings: Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute
All compositions by Alexander Hawkins (PRS). Recorded July 27/28, 2021, at Challow Park Studios, Oxfordshire, UK, by Will Biggs. Mixed and mastered August/September 2021, London, UK, by Alex Bonney. Intakt Records, P. O. Box, 8024 Zürich, Switzerland.
Cover art and graphic design: Jonas Schoder
Inspired by Karl Gerstner (1930 – 2017)
Liner notes: Kevin Le Gendre
Photo: Onur Pinar
Disc and packaging by Adon Production AG
