Description
Blue Plum Bloom is the debut album from the improvising trio of David Brown (prepared guitar, electronics), Tony Buck (drums, percussion) and Magda Mayas (piano, objects).
The trio is an expansion of Buck (The Necks) and Mayas’ long-time Berlin-based duo, Spill, but with the expansive addition of Melbourne-based Brown (Pateras/Baxter/Brown, Western Grey, Stone Echidna, Dumb & the Ugly, and countless other sonic explorations) making the ensemble behind this album a unique beast indeed. The trio has been playing sporadically now for about a decade; usually low-key shows in Australia when Buck and Mayas are visiting or when Brown returns the favour in Europe. The trio describe their music as “pointalistic interactions combined with contrasting timbral sonorities expanding the language developed by Spill into a new, more expansive whole; piano with objects and guitar and drums intertwined and subtlety shifting in focus, like a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of sound”.
To release this album is a personal thrill, given that Brown/Buck/Mayas are individually musical heroes of mine. David Brown plays the guitar like no one else before or since.He’s been a constant presence in Melbourne musical life as long as I can remember. When he plays, you can almost see him sidle his way in between sounds, finding forever-new angles and perspectives. Magda Mayas is a forager with piano and objects (and also clavinet, not heard on this album), a restless improvisor constantly moving through episodes of musical exploration, yet somehow always connected to her fellow musicians. And Tony Buck is a towering figure in improvised drums, who still grounds his playing in a humility and subtlety that continues to defy expectation or categorisation.
Fellow musical travellers: do not mistake the absence of capes or egos from these musical crusaders. Their powers are mighty and transcendent. They have organically worked this trio into a unique improvisatory experience, captured here in a crystal clear audio (recorded, mixed and mastered by Jem Savage) – Clinton Green, Shame File Music
Blue Plum Bloom was recorded live at the New and Experimental Arts Lab on Wadawurung Country (Geelong, Australia) in December 2019. The album is issued on a limited edition of 150 copies of marbled royal blue and white vinyl, pressed at Program Records in Melbourne. It comes housed in full colour sleeve printed on reverse board, with a postcard insert + download code.
“…noise complements melody, sonorities are engaging and often luminous. Buck’s percussion is – as expected from this master – richly varied, with brilliant use of tintinnabular textures; Brown’s electronics are subtly fused with acoustics. The trio’s intense musicality informs their forms and gestures, and makes for a totally beguiling album” – The Wire
“Throughout these three pieces, there is something laid back in the music, an aspect I also hear in the music by The Necks (…) and some other improvised music releases from Australia. Let’s say there is a very subtle approach here, in which the music stays very much on the same dynamic level, allowing the listener to sit back and experience the music in a more immersive way, not in the sense of drone music, but via a wildly varied, ever-changing play of sounds and textures. Sometimes, they merely hint towards something and leave out certain aspects, maybe a sketch-like approach, which nevertheless tells the complete story. As is to be expected, this is a live recording, perhaps with some mixing and editing, maybe not at all, but it’s a great release. It is a very limited release, to 150 copies only, so act swiftly” – Vital Weekly 1453
