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Metamorphic
Coalescence
F-IRE ***
Unique probably in the long and chequered annals of popular music and jazz in featuring a song based on a dream about becoming a puma Coalescence in no way amounts to a ‘dreamy’ soundscape. Instead it’s the polar opposite, an intense and at times quite dark world, the vision of Leeds pianist Laura Cole whose squalling six-piece Metamorphic are identified in one main aspect by the vocals of Kerry Andrew and in another by the alto saxophone of Led Bib’s Chris Williams. A step up from debut album The Rock Between released in 2011, most of the dystopian tunes are Cole’s but the leader has also included an arrangement of Kenny Wheeler’s ‘Gentle Piece’ (from Music for Large and Small Ensembles), fused Ornette’s ‘Lonely Woman’ and Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing’ into a brand new piece, and arranged Radiohead’s ‘Reckoner’ from their album In Rainbows, which is the best thing here. The Latinate ‘Light Up Yourself’ is untypical of the album as a whole but may actually show the breadth of this adventurously inclined band in the best light. SG
Released on 17 June
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