Olivia’s Owls

“Moments Arriving”

(F-ire Presents F-IRE CD73)

Olivia’s Owls is a quartet of young London based musicians led by bassist and occasional guitarist Hedi Pinkerfeld. The all male group also features tenor saxophonist Alex Coppard, guitarist Charlie Laffer and drummer Josh Stadlen. Coppard has played with the likes of Bombay Bicycle Club and Lana Del Rey and Stadlen with Nile Rodgers, Paloma Faith, Say Lou Lou among others. As a band Olivia’s Owls have been involved in effective live collaborations with the folk group Tir Eolas and videos of some of these performances can be found on the band’s website

“Moments Arriving” sees these experienced sessioneers donning their jazz hats to play a series of compositions by Hedi Pinkerfeld. The group’s music has been described as being “driven by a love of harmony dating back over the last 150 years. Ideas effected by Faure, Scriabin and others are expanded upon and brought to you with a powerful modern jazz sensibility and the energy of an intemperate indie band”. The album was recorded in January 2014 at a two day “live in the studio” session at the Cowshed Studio in London. The thirteen pieces are all relatively brief with no one item exceeding a running time of four minutes. The music is described as being written by Hedi Pinkerfeld and Olivia’s Owls, this indicating a a high degree of collaboration, interaction and improvisation.

The opening piece, “Closure” begins with a gentle mix of rippling guitar arpeggios and breathy tenor sax. The subsequent addition of bass and drums adds a harder edged sound and the music suddenly soars into positively anthemic territory. The structure of the tune is very song like and perhaps reflects the fact that some members of the group also ply their trade in pop and rock bands. On the band’s website there is a short, highly atmospheric animated film entitled “Rain” that complements the music perfectly. There are also two videos of the band performing other pieces from the album live, one of them filmed at the Spice of Life jazz club in London’s Soho. Please visit http://www.oliviasowls.com to view.

Many of Pinkerfield’s tunes seem to feature a similar structure and narrative arc to the opener. His melodies are simple but attractive and allow for a degree of interaction in the true jazz manner. “Another Stage of Separation” illustrates this perfectly with the four instrumentalists circling around each other. The imagination of Stadlen behind the kit is a key factor in the success of the music with his consistently inventive use of different sounds, colours and accents.

The blend of saxophone and guitar sometimes suggests a more genteel Roller Trio as on “Another Minute” although the following “Resigned To The Unresolved” introduces a spikier, more confrontational side of the band with its angular riffing and garrulous saxophone. Conventional jazz solos are comparatively in the Owls’ sound world where the ensemble sound is paramount and instrumental integration is key.

“Intro” is just that, a brief snippet of guitar, tenor and studio chatter that paves the way for the melodic “Flexible Intentions” with its long, graceful sax melody lines and pellucid guitar. Coppard’s saxophone playing becomes more forceful and animated as the track progresses before the piece resolves itself by coming full circle. The contours of the piece are reflected by Stadlen’s consistently imaginative and colourful drumming.

“The Motion” is almost courtly, its elegant guitar and saxophone melodies suggesting something of the band’s declared classical influences.

“Losing the OFF Button” is one of the band’s more assertive tracks and features some of Coppard’s most impassioned playing, both as a soloist and in tandem with Laffer’s guitar. The more aggressive episodes are leavened with fleeting moments of comparative sweetness. The video of a live performance of this tune on the band’s website is pretty much full on throughout.

The gently floating “Gone To The Stars” represents Olivia’s Owls at their most impressionistic and atmospheric with its gauzy saxophone, shimmering Bill Frisell styled guitar and almost subliminal mallet rumbles.

“Pyjama Days” is rather more outgoing with its sunny, accessible melodies and contemporary bass and drum grooves. There’s something of Frisell again in Laffer’s solo but this time it’s the playful Americana style Bill. The video from the Spice on the band’s website shows them stretching out on this tune for over five minutes.

Pinkerfeld is a highly melodic composer and “Fish Kiss” features one of his most engaging tunes and includes some characteristically delicate interplay between Coppard and Laffer intelligently supported by Stadlen and the composer.

The slow burning “Holding The Bomb” brings the composer’s electric bass to the fore for the first time as he introduces and underpins the track and also undertakes a short solo. Coppard’s smouldering tenor is a significant presence throughout on another assured group performance.

It’s left to Pinkerfeld to round off the album with a solo performance of his composition “For Shooo” which features his work on delicately picked acoustic guitar.

Reviewing this album for London Jazz News Patrick Hadfield commented that with thirteen tunes crammed into less than forty minutes he felt that some of the tracks were little more than sketches. Like Patrick I also found the album frustrating at times and sometimes found the music a little bloodless and lacking in variation. That said Pinkerfeld writes some very attractive tunes and the playing itself is excellent with drummer Stadlen particularly impressive. Overall I enjoyed this album and it’s obvious that as a band Olivia’s Owls have considerable potential. The videos on the group’s website suggest that they would be an exciting live proposition, particularly when they start stretching out on their material. (An aside, readers of a certain age might know what I’m referring to when I allude to “Owl Stretching Time”).  I suspect that the second Olivia’s Owls albums might be a very intriguing proposition if the band are able to add a greater degree of improvisational flesh to the already strong bones of Pinkerfeld’s compositions. 

 

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