Finn Peters

“Music Of The Mind”

(Mantella Records)

Saxophonist, flautist and composer Finn Peters has always adopted an open minded approach to music making. Peters’ jazz credentials are undoubted but he also worked in other fields of contemporary music from pop to the experimental. Artists Peters has collaborated with include Dizzee Rascal, Herbaliser, Matthew Herbert and Jerry Dammers’ Spatial AKA Orchestra. It’s an appropriately eclectic mix.

A one time member of the F-ire Collective Peters also acts as an occasional club DJ and has always maintained an interest in dance culture and the use of electronics in music. His two previous albums “Su Ling” (Babel 2006) and “Butterflies” (2008) have reflected this. “Butterflies” marked the beginning of Peters’ collaboration with computer and electronics whizz Matthew Yee King and the album also spawned an EP of remixes which Peters sold at gigs, including a 2009 performance at The Edge Arts Centre, Much Wenlock which is reviewed elsewhere on this site.

“Music Of The Mind” sees Peters delving further in to the realms of electronica. The inspiration behind the record has attracted a good deal of publicity, including, as I recall, features on Radio 4’s Today programme and GMTV as well as the more predictable appearance on Jazz on 3. The concept has its source in the brain mapping experiments of Dr. Mick Grierson at Goldsmith’s University and it was here that Peters mapped his own brainwaves and translated the resultant patterns into notes and tones. These were then taken as the jumping off points for compositions and improvisations with several pieces on the album developing directly from this source. The BBC radio programme Jazz on 3 later conducted their own research into Peters’ methods using Guardian jazz critic John Fordham as a guinea pig. I don’t doubt that the broadcast can still be heard on line somewhere.

So is Peters’ methodology as innovative as it sounds? Not really, is the answer. Grierson’s thought mapping machines can’t yet translate human thought into melody, the initial brainwave may provide a pattern but it still needs later human involvement to turn it into a tune. Like Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion Project the method has sometimes obscured the music; but whereas Metheny utilised the no doubt very expensive technology at his disposal to make what sounded like pretty much a run of the mill Pat Metheny Group album Peters has at least used his more financially restricted resources to come up with a very good Finn Peters record, one that builds on the foundations laid down by his two previous album length recordings.

Peters’ accredited musical inspirations on this album include mavericks and experimenters such as Kraftwerk, Sun Ra, Julius Hemphill,Arthur Russell and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Eddie Harris and James Brown provide more danceable sources of reference. I’d throw in Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and maybe Weather Report as other possible influences. Peters plays flutes and saxophones plus sundry other instruments, there’s a twin percussive attack featuring drummer Tom Skinner and percussionist Dave Price with the extraordinary Oren Marshall providing a stunning range of sounds from his electronically enhanced tuba. Credited with “electronics” Yee King deploys such devices as virtual theremins, algorithms and an EEG machine plus the now usual laptop and synthesisers. The resultant music is a rich stew of electronica with a range of strange and bizarre sounds mingling with earthy, highly danceable grooves and beats. It’s compulsive, hypnotic and ultimately very interesting listening that blends experimentation with accessibility. 

Opener “Popcorn Brain” begins with a transcription of a brainwave arranged for alto sax and vibraphone. This shimmering duet quickly metamorphoses into something far more funky as Skinner’s drum grooves kick in. Marshall’s galumphing tuba bass lines render the presence of a more orthodox bassist superfluous as Peters and his colleagues cross sci fi with James Brown. The leader’s sax is prominent as he pushes and probes above the beats. It’s an intriguing and invigorating start.

“Meditation” features Yee King controlling a virtual theremin via an EEG and will inevitably remind British listeners of the famous Dr. Who theme. It’s appropriately eerie and spooky despite being based on a blues form. The press release also refers to the influence of composer Nina Rota but I’ll just have to take their word for that. Peters’ sax floats airily above a backdrop of electronics and cymbal splashes, subtly acquiring a greater blues inflected urgency as the piece develops.

“Agitation” has similarly spacey beginnings with long lined saxophone phrases above ambient electronica and what sounds as if it may be bowed vibes- but the piece then abruptly changes direction as the twin percussionists quickly whisk us away somewhere else. Peters switches to some kind of flute, his wispy high register playing contrasting well with Marshall’s low register but amazingly agile tuba pyrotechnics. Powered by Price and Skinner the piece is very much groove based and eventually begins to overstay its welcome despite rallying towards the close with some interesting textures.

The opening of “MTA” contrasts the deep sonorities of Marshall’s tuba with the high pitched tinkling of a glockenspiel before again heading off into groove territory. Marshall is prominent throughout, his sound distorted by the use of a wah wah pedal. As on his solo records it’s simple but hugely effective.

“Amygdala” features a duet for flute and vibes subsequently underscored by long lugubrious tuba lines and ambient electronica.

The record includes two pieces entitled “Sleep Music” in which brainwaves recorded while Peters slept were used as the basis for composition. “Sleep Music 1” sees the group building on the brainwave/computer generated melody with the use of saxophone, drums and later tuba. It adopts a position midway between the more polarised ambient and groove based approaches Peters has adopted elsewhere. The resultant music, a mix of dark timbres and subtle grooves takes the band into the kind of territory occupied by Seb Rochford’s group Polar Bear. It’s an interesting place to be with Yee King perhaps being seen as fulfilling a role similar to the Bear’s sonic maverick Leafcutter John.

“Sleep Music 2” is more frankly ambient, a kind of space lullaby with a gorgeous melody incorporating bleeping electronics, breathy flute, long tuba bass lines and subtly shaded percussion.

Bisecting the two “Sleep” pieces is “One State Of Mind” which takes a nine bar loop of a brainwave sample and uses it as the basis for an insistent and subtly funky groove. The sweetness of Peters’ sax lines contrasts well with the low register rumble of Marshall’s tuba. The drumming is deliberately stark and simple but Yee King counters this with his colourful electronic embellishment. 

The album closes with the rousing techno funk of “Virus”. According to the press release Yee King wrote a programme that played an algorithm on a Virus synthesiser. Allegedly he left it running and Yee King’s computer wrote the music itself. Whatever, there’s still plenty of human input here, the gutbucket rasp of Marshall’s tuba, Peters’ boppish alto and more. It’s a good antidote to the more obviously computer generated material, but in fairness this is never less than interesting. Thus the album ends as it began with a fascinating synthesis between man and machine.

Whatever the genesis of this music it’s mostly excellent stuff, full of interesting ideas and textures, both acoustic and electronic. The playing of the conventional instruments is consistently excellent with Peters equally competent on alto and his various flutes and the astonishing Marshall always makes for compulsive listening. Occasionally the up tempo pieces come close to breaking the golden rule “a groove should never become a rut” but this is comparatively rare.

“Music Of The Mind” is fascinating record, perhaps not quite as revolutionary as it claims to be,  but nonetheless a fine album in it’s own right.

Peters and Yee King can be seen discussing the ideas and science behind the album at http://www.musicofthemind.com

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