Madalena
Murmur
BDV 2027

Personnel:
Madalena - violin, viola, saxophones, clarinet, treble recorder, whistle; Huw Warren - piano and accordian, cello, percussion; Mark Lockheart - saxophones, clarinet; Dudley Phillips - electric bass, double bass and guitar; Marios Argiros - oboe, cor anglais; DJ Milo - turntables; Gus Munro - narrator; Martin France - drums and percussion

"My 18th birthday was 3 weeks before the sudden death of my 39 year old Dad. He had toasted me in that party with a pride that I had not known existed in him. I ran into Wallace Stephen's Of Mere Being somewhere in the bookshelves the week after his death. It was a gem of intrigue, and strangely imbued with a sense which had been dormant in me until then. In the same life, in different circumstances 20 years later Murmur emerged from the same source – it is a further working of my original perception of the poem, using the original music setting as a wordless song, accompanied by a text narration describing the dream of a woman who had that night conceived. All life overlaps, ebbs and flows, spins and turns, inside out, outside in, over and over into apparent stasis, mutations and transformations.' Maria Lamburn (Madalena).

These are the bare bones of the material and intimations emerging through the CD Murmur, a collection of tunes by composer/performer Maria Lamburn – Madalena. On her first solo Babel CD you will hear resonances of a Moroccan mountain chant, a classical reverie, words both sung and spoken, wispy folk renditions, a haunting and meditative whirlwind of folk and global sounds presented by a brilliant troupe of musicians speaking the relaxed multi-lingual diversity of Madalena's music with eloquent simplicity. Stunning, lyrical singing qualities and snaking, haunting textures – calling Kyffin Williams' painting to mind – are merged to form an intruguing soundscape. There is an embroidery of ‘life lived to the full' threaded through the fabric of this CD: the sopranos' ‘call and answer' - Mark Lockheart and Madealena - in Eleri is reminiscent of a Breton Fez Noz; DJ Milo's turntables summon the spirits of the1000 Saints buried on Ynys Enlli – Boat to Bardsey; Huw Warren's happy mood prevails in his bright and dazzling phrases on Aperture whilst his accordion, along with Dudley Phillips' bass lures us into a Bedouin tent in Baddie Thiassi; Dudley's insistent guitar offsets the stark, gut wailing in Paper Aeroplanes; the darkest beauty of Marios Argiros' cor anglais emerges on his playing of the theme song Murmur in which Gus Munro sensually wordpaints the dream; a cock-crow, the sound of a 9-week embryo's heartbeat and the birthcry of the footling breech born on Bonfire Night happen somewhere in Nufun Ledled …Martin Frances' drumming holds the baby in the lullaby Enid Querida; and the earth is turned vigorously with Madalena's piano and Mark Lockheart's sax screaming in the middle of Tree Planting...whilst her whistle summons the birds and paints the flying maypole ribbons in May Tune. Winner of the 1983 Cornelius Cardew Prize for Composition, Maria Lamburn's compositional roots are in contemporary experimental, medieval, folk, and jazz music. Commissioned work has come from many sources ranging from the contemporary classical arena such as the group Gemini, to scores for videos about subjects as diametrically opposed as home-birth (by independent midwife and writer Nicky Leap) and the loss of working class women's roots (Valerie Walkerdine). She has written in varied mediums - vocal works, dance, film, world music, protest music for the back of lorries, mergers between DJ technology and strings, walking a path between worlds – or so guardians of the traditionally furrowed divisions of music might say.

In addition to her work as a composer, Maria Lamburn has worked with luminaries such as John Cage and June Tabor, performed with her own bands She Looketh Well and Ragged Edges, as a member of a diversity of projects including Rough Trade's Shelleyan Orphan, Charles Hayward's Camberwell Now, Billy Jenkins' Voice of God Collective, Jeremy Peyton-Jones' Regular Music, and Huw Warren's Orchestra Helclecs and his Barrel Organ Band - whose recent release Hundreds of Things a Boy Can Make is also on the Babel Label. The concept of the Murmur launch in itself is unique – Maria is running a solo marathon down North Wales' Lleyn Peninsula on 17th April 2005 in aid of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, planting a locally seeded tree at the end of the run at Rhiw, then pursuing her Pan-Celtic Pilgrimage of Cultural Awareness through Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Glastonbury, Cornwall and Brittany.

The Musicians:

Huw Warren emerged from the generation of musicians based around the acclaimed 1980s big band Loose Tubes, working as a contemporary of the likes of Django Bates, Iain Ballamy and others. Studying at Goldsmith's College with pianist John Tilbury, he played at John Cage's 80th birthday concert at that time. His subsequent career has led him on a variety of paths. He primarily calls himself a jazz musician, and this is shown in his range of work with Perfect Houseplants, Christine Tobin, Billy Jenkins, John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler. But he also has brought this experience to bear in a range of other contexts, such as African and Latin music, where he is a member of the Hermeto Pascoal tribute band, the Hermetologists. On the contemporary folk scene, he has worked for over ten years with folk diva June Tabor, arranging much of her music. Meanwhile he has also collaborated with leading baroque violinist Andrew Manze and award-winning vocal ensemble The Orlando Consort and is currently working on a commission for the Scottish Chamber orchestra. Born in Swansea in 1962, Huw studied piano and cello and, as a teenager, he first worked playing Hammond organ in the working men's clubs of South Wales. He discovered jazz by chance from radio broadcasts and also became interested in the English experimental music scene after studying with John Tilbury in London during 1980-83. In 1988, Huw started a long collaboration with English singer June Tabor. As pianist/arranger this has since involved worldwide tours and several CDs, including the 1999 commission A Quiet Eye with the Creative Jazz Orchestra). A widely experienced performer, Huw has also worked with Kenny Wheeler, Billy Bragg, Steve Arguelles, Julian Arguelles, Billy Jenkins, Christine Tobin, Eddi Reader, and African guitarist Mose Se 'Fan-Fan' and has featured on film scores by Stephen Warbeck and Michael Gibbs. Having appeared on over thirty CDs, his debut release as a bandleader was on the Babel Label in 1997. A Barrel Organ Far from Home was a suite of pieces for a nine-piece ensemble based on early photographs by English photographer John Topham. 2001 saw the release of his critically acclaimed solo CD Infinite Riches in a Little Room. His solo piano performances have included the Bath, Cheltenham, Norwich and Norfolk, and Jyväskylä Festivals, as well as London and Brecon jazz festivals. Huw has completed several commissions including Riot (for Piano Circus), Steamboat Bill Jnr (a new score for the classic Buster Keaton movie), Lullaby Exit Bear (for the RSC) and music for a new production of Jean Cocteau's Monologues at the Lyric theatre in London. Recently he has composed for the ABRSM jazz syllabus and the Palladian Ensemble.

Mark Lockheart Admired as a sax player by many, one of the most eloquently sumptuous jazz voices on the UK scene, Mark came to prominence in the mid-1980s with the popular British big band Loose Tubes. Born in Lymington in 1961, he recorded and toured with Django Bates, Prefab Sprout and Annie Whitehead, starting his own group in 1989. This group, which also includes Huw Warren and Dudley Phillips, performed at various European festivals and played two stints at Ronnie Scott's in London before becoming the co-led Perfect Houseplants. In 1993 Mark collaborated on a album with guitarist John Parricelli that fused jazz, Brazilian and world music. The resulting album, Matheran (Isis, 1993), received rave reviews. The early 1990s also saw Mark establishing himself as a composer, commissioned by Scottish Arts to write a multi-media piece based on the religious festival of Semana Santa (1991), a piece for the Avis von Herder Dance Company entitled Dance for Anne Frank (1992), and a saxophone quintet entitled Chorinho (1995). During the mid-1990s, Mark toured and recorded with Django Bates' Delightful Precipice, Mike Gibbs, June Tabor, and indie electro-pop band Stereolab. In 1997 Mark received the Peter Whittingham Award to record his 11-piece Scratch Band. Mark's semi-orchestral compositions for this line-up were released on his album Through Rose-Coloured Glasses, which was voted by Time Out as one of its Top Ten records of 1998. A commission from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and Birmingham Jazz followed, and the resulting suite of new music formed the basis of the band's Imaginary Dances (Staytuned, ST 004), released in 2002. Currently Mark is a member of John Parricelli's Group and Babel's own Sebastian Rochford's Polar Bear.

Dudley Phillips One of the UK's foremost bass players, Dudley is a self-taught musician and composer who won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music in 1979. On leaving, he toured the world for several years gaining valuable experience with artists as diverse as Annie Whitehead, Bill Withers and Womack and Womack. In addition to his partnership with the Perfect Houseplants, he has developed his work with other artists, recording two albums on Blue Note Records with vibraphonist Orphy Robinson, with folk singer June Tabor; with John Etheridge, and with Colin Towns' Mask Orchestra. In 1996 he joined Andy Sheppard's group Moving Image, recording and touring an acclaimed album. Recently projects include recording his own Trio album on Babel with Nic France and Karl Orr and recording projects with ex-Fairground Attraction singer Mark Nevin and Anja Garbarek

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