13th August 2015: Partikel’s ‘String Theory’ and Joel Harrison’s ‘Spirit House’ make The Telegraph’s list of ‘Best Jazz Albums of 2015’

Two recent Whirlwind releases String Theory from Partikel and Spirit House from Joel Harrison have made The Telegraph’s ‘Best Jazz Albums of 2015’ list. (full article)

Spirit House was also reviewed on Radio Cardiff’s ‘Jazz Breakfast’ at the weekend. (listen again)
Here are the promotional videos for both albums:

The approach to String Theory differs to Partikel’s previous albums where fine-tuning and non-stop rehearsing of arrangements characterized the lead up to the studio recordings. Eagles describes the process: “With this album the charts I wrote for the trio were purposefully more open and melodic than previous material and the arrangements were developed through touring with the band— rather than all the rehearsing— which I think gives the trio performance on this album a much more natural and spontaneous dynamic.”

Harrison uses the album title Spirit House as an appropriate metaphor for the musical ‘sacred space’ this accomplished ensemble occupied to magically fashion an hour of inspired music greater than the sum of its parts. Amongst the leader’s ambitions for this album is the hope that its musical accessibility, including a peppering of song-based tracks, might reach still farther than the complexity of some of his previous releases: