Aidan Thorne / Jason Ball Duo, Station Arts, Erwood, Builth Wells, Powys, 02/03/2025

Aidan Thorne – double bass, Yamaha Reface keyboard, Jason Ball – guitar

The duo consisting of bassist Aidan Thorne and guitarist Jason Ball is currently touring Wales in support of the digital album release “Archwilio’r Traddodiad: Exploring The Tradition”.

Issued by Cambrian Records the album was recorded on St. David’s Day, March 1st 2024. Today’s performance, a year and a day later, was billed as a ‘St. David’s Day Celebration’ and was a lunchtime performance at Station Arts, based at the former Erwood Station near Builth Wells in the heart of Wales.

Formerly on the Mid Wales line axed by the Beeching Report Erwood Station closed in 1962 and stood derelict for many years before being revived as an arts centre and cafe in 1984. Situated in a charming setting by the side of the River Wye it continues to thrive and hosts a wealth of artistic activities including regular live music performances. Sensitively restored it is a beautiful and atmospheric location that proved ideal for the intimate music of Thorne and Ball as they improvised around a series of traditional Welsh folk melodies.

Aidan Thorne is best known as the leader of the Cardiff based quintet Duski, whose two albums “Duski” (2016) and “Make a Wish” (2020) have both been reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann, together with several of the group’s live performances.

Although Duski features Thorne playing electric bass he is also an accomplished jazz double bassist and is a busy and popular presence on the South Wales jazz scene. I’ve seen Thorne playing jazz double bass in a variety of contexts including performances with trombonist Gareth Roberts, saxophonists Ben Treacher and Martha Skilton, drummer Ollie Howell and as a part of the groups Burum, Coltrane Dedication and Slowly Rolling Camera. He has also accompanied the Spanish musicians Arturo Serra (vibes) and Juan Galiardo (piano) and has recorded with Burum, Slowly Rolling Camera and guitarist Dan Messore’s Lacuna group. Thorne is also a member of saxophonist Joe Northwood’s Tuk Tuk trio and was a part of Khamira, Burum’s collaboration with the Indian musicians Aditya Balani (guitar), Suhail Yusuf Khan (sarangi, vocals) and Vishal Nagar (tabla, vocals). He has recorded with folk singer Julie Murphy and appeared on the soundtrack of the cult Welsh TV series Hinterland, a programme that was subsequently distributed to the rest of the UK.

Since moving From Cardiff to Mid Wales Thorne’s interest in folk music forms has expanded and with Duski currently on something of a hiatus he has been working in this duo with Ball and also in a different duo with guitarist, Toby Hay, the founder of Cambrian Records, the label that is home to the first Duski album, the “Archwilio’r Traddodiad: Exploring The Tradition” recording and the Aidan Thorne / Toby Hay album “After a Pause” (2024). With the Thorne / Hay duo there is a greater focus on original material, with Hay favouring acoustic guitar rather than the electric instruments played by Ball.

I’ll admit to being less familiar with the work of guitarist Jason Ball, although I remember being impressed with his playing when he was part of the very classy ‘house band’ at the 2013 Wall2Wall Jazz Festival, staged by Black Mountain Jazz at the Swan Hotel in Abergavenny. Together with bassist Alun Vaughan and drummer Phill Redfox O’Sullivan Ball accompanied visiting London based soloists such as trumpeter Damon Brown and the late saxophonist Christian Brewer. I also recall seeing him perform with saxophonists Martha Skilton and Ben Treacher.

On a beautiful spring day today’s duo show took place in the intimate performance space at Erwood Station, with people also listening to the music from the garden outside. The number of people inside and actually watching was quite small, but in this setting it didn’t really seem to matter. This was a richly immersive musical experience and at times it almost felt as if Thorne and Ball were playing exclusively for us.

We sat and enjoyed our repast of a Welsh Tea, a generous selection of Welsh cheeses and chutneys, Welsh Cakes and Bara Brith, plus unlimited supplies of loose leaf tea as the duo played. All in all it was a magical experience and the perfect way to enjoy a late St. David’s Day celebration.

Before they began playing Thorne told us something about the duo’s approach explaining that they were going to improvise around traditional Welsh folk melodies, these typically being pretty simple and around eight bars long, thus offering plenty of scope for further embellishment and for improvisation. In this way he compared it to modal jazz, also adding that the lyrics of the source material would be ignored and that all the music would be purely instrumental. We were promised “improvisation, jazz and minimalism under an ambient backdrop” and ultimately this was what the duo delivered, their delicate and intimate musical rapport honed by fifteen years of playing together.

They began with “Y casey felen”, translating as “The Yellow Mare”, a tune that Thorne had recently learned from Burum piper / flautist / whistler Patrick Rimes. It was the duo’s first public performance of the tune but the contrast between the earthy, deeply resonant sounds of Thorne’s bowed bass and the ethereal shimmering of Vaughan’s electric guitar was highly effective. When Thorne switched to the pizzicato technique Ball’s guitar came to greater prominence, with the guitarist deploying delay effects to enhance that other worldly shimmer. Ball’s skilful and tasteful deployment of his range of effects was a feature of the performance as a whole as ancient melodies were seamlessly combined with modern musical technology to create something that was consistently both intriguing and beautiful.

From the duo’s album “Beth yw’r haf i mi” (“What Does Summer Mean To Me?”)  also featured the combination of bowed bass and FX drenched guitar, the tune’s A minor key helping to give the music a yearning quality. Ball and Thorne then entered into a series of melodic exchanges based around the original folk melody with the latter alternating between bowed and plucked bass accompanied by Ball’s guitar, variously plucked and strummed. A more expansive pizzicato bass solo was then accompanied by a combination of guitar arpeggios and chords.

Thorne also performs with a quartet playing Twmpath (or ‘Welsh Ceilidh’) music. From this repertoire came “Lisa Lan”, a tune previously covered by Burum on their 2012 album “Caniadau”. This was introduced by plucked double bass, later joined by Ball’s sparse guitar accompaniment. Thorne subsequently sketched the familiar folk melody on pizzicato double bass before handing over to Ball for a guitar solo that reminded me of Bill Frisell’s ‘Americana’ offerings. Indeed the duo as an entity reminded me of some of the great guitar / double bass pairings such as Frisell and Thomas Morgan, Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden and Jim Hall and Ron Carter ,yet were very different to all of them. Praise indeed for this uniquely Welsh duo.

The first of three sets concluded with “Mynwent Eglwys”, the concluding track on the duo’s album. The subject of the original song is of the bereaved communicating with lost loved ones by the grave side, a common theme in Welsh folklore. The E minor key lent the music a suitably sombre timbre that found expression via dark and grainy arco bass contrasting with shimmering, pointillist guitar.

The second set commenced with “Titrwm Tatrwm” (translating as “Pitter Patter”), introduced by an ambient passage of unaccompanied guitar. This was subsequently joined by arco bass with Thorne stating the melody with the bow, now accompanied by ringing, shimmering guitar arpeggios. Thorne also introduced impressionistic synth like sounds courtesy of his Yamaha Reface keyboard before returning to pizzicato double bass.

“Pan o’wn y Gwanwyn” (translating as “Song of Spring”) is the opening track on the duo’s album. Today the piece proved to be something of a showcase for Ball, who delivered the “weird notes and eyebrow raising chords” that Thorne had promised us. The guitarist utilised his Kempfer Profiler pedal board to good effect in addition to deploying an e-bow to create a sound that was both soaring and ethereal, also adding string bending to his sonic arsenal. A slightly more orthodox, sustain heavy guitar solo followed, with cascades of shimmering notes augmented by Thorne’s percussive bow stabs. Ball’s skilful, inventive and tasteful deployment of his range of guitar effects sometimes recalled that of the much lauded Rob Luft, another master of texture and dynamics.

“Ar lan y mor”, a song of the sea, was more of a feature for Thorne, with Ball this time in the shadowing role. An unaccompanied bowed bass intro was followed by a pizzicato statement of the melody followed by a more expansive, improvised plucked solo.

The second set concluded with Marwnad yr Ehedydd” (“The Lark’s Elegy”),  the lark of the title a reference to Owain Glyndŵr. An unaccompanied bass intro incorporated the sounds of percussive bowing and was later joined by shimmering guitar, with Ball deploying arpeggiated hammering on techniques. Thorne stated the folk melody with the bow before switching to pizzicato to underpin the luminous sounds of Ball’s guitar soloing, before picking up the bow again at the close.

After some debate the duo elected to play a brief third set, giving them the opportunity to perform all of the tunes that they had contemplated playing. Although this third segment only featured two tunes it allowed the duo to take things even further out as the audience at this free entry event began to drift away.

“Ffarwel i Aberystwyth”, one of several tunes in today’s repertoire that had previously been interpreted by the Burum group. Played in the key of F minor this featured an arpeggiated guitar motif underpinning eerie, ambient bowed bass and keyboard sounds, with Thorne subsequently picking out the melody on plucked double bass before soloing more expansively.

Finally “Dod dy law”, played in F major, saw Thorne delicately playing the melody with the bow, gently shadowed by Ball’s guitar. It was a serenely beautiful way to conclude an afternoon of magical music making.

The beauty of the playing and the uniqueness of the intimate setting combined to make this afternoon an unforgettable experience. My thanks to Aidan and Jason for their wonderful playing and to Aidan for clarifying the set list for me, I may live just over the border but my knowledge of the Welsh language isn’t extensive.

Thanks too to the friendly and generous team at Erwood Station, who also played their part in making this such a memorable day. I look forward returning to the venue and using it as a base to explore the glorious countryside around it, followed by refreshments at the cafe. This is a location that is more than just a music venue.

Meanwhile I’m looking forward to seeing Thorne perform with his other duo partner, Toby Hay, when the pair appear at Bill’s Kitchen at Ludlow Assembly Rooms on the evening of Monday April 7th – more food and music!

The “Archwilio’r Traddodiad: Exploring The Tradition” album is available via the Cambrian Records Facebook page.
https://cambrianrecords.bandcamp.com/

Track listing;

1. Pan o’wn y gwanwyn
2. Aderyn du
3. Beth yw’r haf I mi
4.Yr awyr
5. Ffarwel I Aberystwyth
6. Yr haul
7. Mynwent Eglywys

Recorded a full twelve months ago some of the album tracks differ substantially to today’s performances, but such is the nature of essentially improvised music. Nevertheless the album makes for similarly beautiful and immersive listening and remains the touchstone for the “Archwilio’r Traddodiad: Exploring The Tradition” project.

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