Short Reviews [Ray Russell - 2020 - "Fluid Architecture"]

Guitarist-composer Ray Russell has enjoyed two distinct careers: one as an in-demand session player and award-winning film and television composer, and another as an ingenious guitar experimentalist and free-thinking collaborator. He made his professional debut with the John Barry Seven, with whom he recorded the famous James Bond theme in several Barry-scored films, beginning with 1962's ‘Dr. No’. He went on to play in bands such as Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, the Graham Bond Organisation, and the Mike Gibbs Band, while as a session musician, he has recorded and/or toured with the likes of Lulu, Paul McCartney, Cat Stevens, Van Morrison, Bryan Ferry, David Bowie, Phil Collins, Scott Walker, Art Garfunkel, Marvin Gaye, Heaven 17, and Tina Turner. Here we find him back in his second love, pushing the boundaries of music as he has always done (he is reputed to have been the first English guitarist to use a pedalboard). For his first album since 2013’s ‘Now, More Than Ever’, he has brought in some old friends and recording colleagues such as Simon Phillips and Mo Foster, and in that welcoming environment he has let himself just play. This was recorded on analogue, then mixed digitally, and the sessions sound very relaxed indeed. Space is used as an important additional instrument, and nothing is rushed or massively structured. Russell is not on an ego trip and he allows everyone their time and place, and sometimes just sits back and let the other gets on with it as the time is not quite right for him to be involved. There is also room for Simon Phillips to play an incredibly delicate and sympathetic drum solo on “Turn Right At Ventura”, which is even more impressive in terms of the way the music has been put together once one realised that Phillips actually recorded his drums in a different studio so would not have been there at the time the rest of the track was laid down. The album is all about pushing the soundscape, yet always with harmony and control in mind so it is not as antagonistic and overtly experimental as it actually is. The album title is incredibly apt, as together the musicians are weaving together different elements of Ray’s musical past, including library music, fusion, New Age, free jazz, and so much more. As the elements come together, they build something solid, a creation for us all to witness, sliding from one form to the next. This is way more inviting and relaxing than one would normally expect from something so distant from the mainstream and is a delight from start to end.