Jonathan Coleclough, Theo Travis & Jeph Jerman 'Slowed Life' CD
February 2024
We are delighted to announce the release on ICR of Jonathan's first physical album in a long time. A 72 minute long piece housed in a beautiful 6-panel Ecopack.
This monumental work, which took many years to construct, sees Jonathan working with samples of the flute playing of Theo Travis, weaving repeating phrases harmonising and looping around each other, moving towards an unusual break in the flow provided by a field recording by Jeph Jerman. After which the flute based sounds return to form a vast shifting drone. It is a quite unique piece, very much in the tradition of Jonathan's other long-form works & is highly recommended.
Mastered at IC Studio
Review by Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly : "We are delighted to announce the release on ICR of Jonathan's first physical album in a long time". As said by the label. It made me think there are probably a few
digital-only releases I missed out on. A quick search confirmed. If ever things slow down, I will investigate those, as I like the older releases from Coleclough quite a bit. Coleclough is the composer on his new album, while Theo Travis and Jeph Jerman provide sound material, albeit very different. While Jerman delivers field recordings, Travis is best known as a flute player (I think I only know his work with Steven Wilson). As with many of his works, this CD has one long track of seventy minutes. It's not one long, continuous piece of music. There are three parts to be noted. The first deals with Travis' flute playing, the second is a short interlude with Jerman's field recordings, and the third is another lengthy flute piece. These two flute pieces are quite different. One recognises the flute playing in the first section, even in this mildly processed version. Travis plays a few phrases which Coleclough processes in some (no doubt, digital) way, and these pieces go beyond the
attack; they remain single phrases, which slowly shift in pitches and intertwine, and yet never become a fully-fledged drone piece. That Coleclough keeps for the end section, taking up over half the CD. In this section, the flutes all mass up, receive a computer treatment, and then are cut to form a drone. Not along the lines of Phill Niblock, as the computer treatments of Coleclough create an effectively different kind of sound, warmer, digital, fuzzy and, perhaps, less massive. Also, Coleclough uses more variation in his piece; the ending differs quite from the beginning. The short interlude of Jerman's field recordings is a neat break, allowing the listener to grasp for breath before diving into the all-immersive second part. All-around excellent work and a great reminder to play more of his work (soon, I hope) ''
Review by Massimo Ricci, Beyond the Dust : 'With an equal measure of surprise and delight we embrace, after quite a long time, a new composition by Jonathan Coleclough, a still-too-unsung master of unadulterated trance derived from minimal constituents. Coleclough is here assisted by Theo Travis, whose flute informs a sizable chunk of the work, and Jeph Jerman, with environmental contributions finely symbolized by an interlude featuring the murmur of a passing airplane. This particular scene materializes about halfway through this 72+ minute track; it follows Coleclough’s expert transposition of Travis’ unhurried articulation, where tone fragments of various length – interwoven with snippets of stillness – produce an utterly mesmerizing effect. It is perhaps from that very moment of transition that the purest traits of this music are disclosed. Reiterative ripples start to overlap seamlessly, a calm lake of frequencies gradually shaping a translucent harmonic texture. The layered flutes metamorphose into a dampened choir in which the ears – deluded by the shifting resonances – detect human voices and keyboard instruments that do not exist in the piece’s reality. As the droning matter becomes thicker and less static due to the proximity of Jerman’s sources, a state of intimate composure is nevertheless achieved as one feels shielded from any disturbance. Such a response is exclusively obtained when listening to sounds arising from an acute awareness. Most definitely, the whole content of Slowed Life belongs to that class'.
