Beresford Hammond

“The Science of Snow”

Charlie Beresford is a guitarist, vocalist, pianist and producer based in the Welsh Borders who combines solo projects with membership of the improvising group Fourth Page alongside pianist Carolyn Hume, bassist Peter Marsh and percussionist Paul May. He has also played with the multi-instrumentalist Mark Emmerson (piano, accordion, viola) under the name Five Turnings Duo. Beresford co-ordinates the Radnor Improvisers, a collective of improvising musicians from around the Welsh Borders and also has a parallel career as a visual artist and photographer. Further information on his numerous activities can be found on his website http://www.brightfieldproductions.co.uk 

Beresford’s latest project finds him working alongside the classically trained cellist Sonia Hammond, also a member of the Radnor Improvisers. Hammond is still involved with various classical ensembles but has also worked in other genres of music with solo artists such as Barb Jungr and Chloe Goodchild and the bands Babysnakes and Ennui. 

“The Science of Snow” is a collection of improvised pieces recorded in the summer of 2014 with Beresford on acoustic guitar and occasional piano and Hammond on her trusty cello. Beresford has undertaken a degree of pre and post production work on the music and the result is an often beautiful album that is probably more accessible to most listeners than the music of Fourth Page or Beresford’s intensely personal 2009 solo album “Dark Transport”. The wintry beauty of the music on “The Science of Snow” is enhanced by the atmospheric black and white images by the Canadian photographer Gaena da Sylva from Quebec who collaborates with Beresford under the generic name the52nd (as in parallel). See http://www.the52nd.com

“The Science of Snow” has received favourable reviews from John Eyles at All About Jazz, Adrian Pallant at AP Reviews, and former Jazzmann writer Tim Owen on his Dalston Sound blog. All have spoken of the uncommon beauty of this improvised recording which begins with the title track and the distinctive sound of Beresford’s guitar, his unconventional style incorporating techniques that sound, as Tim Owen observed, similar to piano preparations – indeed prepared piano is to feature later on the album. Beresford’s highly individual playing forms the backbone of this piece as the melancholic but melodic bowing of Hammond explores the full range of the cello from deep sonority to high register.

Both musicians pluck, strum and strike on “Marking The Hillside”, the percussive sounds combining with fragile guitar melodies and sombre but undeniably beautiful bowed cello. It’s darker in tone than the opener, but no less effective.

Beresford plays piano on “Headless Bluebell” deploying both orthodox and prepared sounds which combine well with Hammond’s deep, grainy, atmospheric bowing. The overall atmosphere is unsettling but there are compensating episodes of rich melody and genuine beauty, like rays of sunlight bursting through dark clouds.   

“Snow Blindness” finds Beresford back on guitar and sounding vaguely like Ralph Towner, indeed there are moments throughout this album when Towner’s collaborations with the cellist David Darling come to mind. Beresford’s playing here is pure and unadorned and combines well with the beauty of Hammond’s bowing which is sometimes almost impossibly light, airy and fragile.

The following “Scratching the Sky” is altogether more brittle with both musicians adopting more threatening, harder edged tones but the piece still maintains a disturbing beauty that is all its own. At one point Beresford picks out a Morse code like rhythmic motif that is accompanied by bowing in a register so deep that it is almost subliminal.

The introduction to “Gecko” combines sparse acoustic guitar with a broad range of exotic percussion effects, presumably generated by Beresford. The guitarist eventually sets up a melodic/rhythmic motif, a riff if you will, around which Hammond’s high register cello writhes and intertwines, authentically lizard like.

Beresford again uses his guitar like a percussion instrument on “Inside and Outside the Head”, his tappings and scrapings framing atmospheric cello sounds that traverse the registers on another of the album’s darker, more unsettling items.

The album concludes with “The Path, the Bridge, and the Otherside”, a more straightforwardly beautiful piece featuring cleanly picked guitar and a rich, deep, more conventional cello sound. There’s an inevitable hint of melancholy but this is music that just seems to hang in the air as it haunts with its loveliness.

It would seem that “The Science of Snow” came about as the result of a happy accident when another session for which both Beresford and Hammond were booked was aborted. The pair decided to utilise the studio time productively and this rather splendid album is the result, for me definitely the most satisfying Charlie Beresford record that I’ve heard. Beresford seems to be particularly adept at bringing genuine beauty to the art of free improvisation and this talent reaches its apotheosis on this recording.

Happy accident or not the Beresford Hammond project is one that appears to have legs. This review comes on the eve of two live performances by the duo in Worcester and Talgarth, both venues within easy reach of me. I’m grateful to Charlie for inviting me to both these events but as it stands I shall be unable to attend either due to other commitments, neither of them musical. This is most unfortunate but at least the news of the performances has prompted me to dig out and enjoy this CD. The array of sounds and textures that the duo produce from just the combination of cello/guitar or cello/piano is quite remarkable and there is much to enjoy here for all adventurous listeners, not just hardcore improv fans.

The Beresford Hammond live shows currently scheduled are as follows;   

 
Charlie Beresford / Sonia Hammond Duo at Elgar School of Music, Worcester.
Friday, October 16, 2015
Website: http://www.elgarschoolofmusic.co.uk
Beresford Hammond
Fri Oct 16th 7.30pm - 10.00pm
Charlie Beresford -  Guitar
Sonia Hammond -  Cello
TICKETS: ?7 (?5 Concessions)
Box Office: 01905 28613

Charlie Beresford / Sonia Hammond Duo, afternoon performance at The Tabernacle, Talgarth, Powys.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Charlie Beresford -  Guitar
Sonia Hammond -  Cello
Website: http://www.thetabernacle.co.uk
More details
From Charlie Beresford;
Part of a concert series: that has been put on for the many faces of Sonia Hammond and we are playing on the 18th Oct at 3pm link with details. http://l.facebook.com/l/kAQFk3cRVAQGefiyFnBfZlGpMFJ_pONPLZuY_Xgcqta0giw/www.thetabernacle.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Sunday-classics-final.jpeg
The Tabernacle
Regent street, Talgarth, POWYS, LD3 0DB
e: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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