The best new jazz outfit to debut in 2014 so far has got to be Michelson Morley, and tonight the Bristolians play the Vortex just over a month after the release of Aether Drift.

In the band Get the Blessing saxophonist Jake McMurchie is joined by Moonlight Saving Time double bassist Will Harris and drummer Mark Whitlam, and their first album was recorded in July 2012 the Morleys taking their name from a 19th century physics experiment that confounded the existence of the luminiferous aether.

McMurchie speaking earlier this year offered a few less oblique clues to his approach: “I’ve been very inspired by bands like Iain Ballamy’s Food, Angel Song (with Lee Konitz, Kenny Wheeler, Bill Frisell and Dave Holland), and the Paul Motian Trio. Tortoise, Radiohead and Boards of Canada are also important influences, as is the music of Brian Eno and the great minimalist composers. And the presence of the saxophone probably means comparisons with the output of John Surman and Jan Garbarek are relevant, though I feel very uncomfortable with my name being in the same sentence as either!”

The MMs touch on Get the Blessing territory a bit on ‘Rice Rage’ McMurchie tearing away with thunderous tribal drum accompaniment and tumbling bass as a backdrop but the sound then moves into its own space on the long title track ‘Aether Drift’ signalling a whispery Nordic dimension to it as the band enters that soundspace more familiar to bands such as Food or Nils Petter Molvær.

Not quite sure what ‘Your Eyebrows Go Well With Your Face’ means, a good question to ask the personable Mr McM if you spot him propping up the bar after the gig tonight at the Vortex where the Morleys are joined by Indigo Kid's Dan Messore. But whatever it means and whether the band play it or not the track is nicely uncluttered in an early free-jazz sense with Harris’ excellent low-note tinkering, the spacey electronics compatible with the retro jazz sound. The album successfully bridges a bluesy freebop acoustic jazz sensibility and futurejazz electronica without making too many compromises, and this live show, surely, will add that extra frisson. 

 Michelson Morley, above