Zoji

Mark Wingfield - Guitar, Soundscapes (Uk)

Jane Chapman - Harpsichord (Uk)

Adriano Adewale - Percussion, Vocals (Brazil)

Parallel Times. Dizzying constellations of notes netted within the soundboard of the harpsichord, quill-plucked and sent spinning in darting arcs and ascending steps. . . Harmonic fog adrift from which notes slip out in silvery streaks, gleaming with passion, while some, disconsolate, fall into dark silence snuffing out their glow. . . Cymbals sizzle and resonate, ceding space to the crackle of shells shaken. Wood, skin, clay all brushed, touched and tamped, honed into accents and beats, breathing between the firefly flurries criss-crossing through their time. . .

When Mark Wingfield, Jane Chapman and Adriano Adewale came to breathe life into these ornate and dazzling compositions they collectively embarked on a process that would have them prospecting in the eddying silt of imagination and intuition. As each player exchanged ideas, modified aspects of the pieces, and brought their energy, momentum, and focus to the work, new and exciting music swirled into being.

Given the mesh of ancient and contemporary sounds emanating from the performances captured here, it's entirely fitting that one of the first joint performances by Mark Wingfield and Jane Chapman in 2006 should have taken place in the auspicious surroundings of what was once composer George Frideric Handel's house in London's Brook Street from 1723 until his death in 1759. That Jimi Hendrix was resident in the next-door flat for a year during the late 1960s also provides an intriguing convergence; two very different and diverse worlds separated by a layer of bricks, mortar, and time.

Wingfield's attraction to the harpsichord, he says, stems in part from seeing of the venerable instrument as a giant guitar. "From a composer's point of view, this is the ultimate guitar composing landscape. I also liked the challenge of writing something that doesn't have any dynamics to it. With the harpsichord, every note is exactly the same volume. So it's all got to be done with subtle changes in timing to give the feeling of a dynamic." The layering of the harpsichord which is a feature of this record is achieved without double-tracking but by means of Chapman's instrument, a copy of an 18th Century French harpsichord, with two keyboards, enabling Chapman to play notes on both manuals quickly in order to create the vibrant patterns that reverberate across the album.

It was in listening back to the recordings that Chapman and Wingfield began working on the fine detail and structure of the music, and only then it became apparent that an extra dimension was needed and that it would come from percussion. A recommendation from his frequent collaborator, drummer Asaf Sirkis, led the guitarist to contact Brazilian-born Adriano Adewale. Finding a distinctive niche within the music that had already been recorded could have presented some difficulties but London-based Adewale relished the challenge and welcomed the opportunity to extend his playing. The result is a remarkable collection of music that sits beyond the usual stylistic considerations or generic boundaries, creating its own parallel time existing alongside our own time but not fully part of it.