Astralfish – Far Corners

Here's another album that I mentioned during the Christmas blogs sequence; essentially an off-shoot of Spirits Burning – or more to the point of the Spirits Burning with Bridget Wishart sequence of records – Astralfish is Don Falcone and Bridget Wishart in instrumental mode producing sixteen tracks that "mixes space, ambient, jazz, rock and symphonic," with support from Daevid Allen (who appears on the track 'Far'), Richard Wileman of Karda Estra, Martin Plumley of Chumley Warner Bros, Culture Shock's Jasper Pattison, Mooch's Steve Palmer and a number of other members of the space rock, Spirits Burning, fraternity.

Don and Bridget certainly do explore all of those genres that they identify in their press release, but the record still sounds like a cohesive whole. These are short, sometimes almost thumbnail sketched tracks – none of the elongated movements that so often appear on records reviewed here – and it's fresh and approachable because of that. At the same time, the textures through the pieces have a nicely varied feel due to the revolving cast of musicians and instrumentations. So 'Summer Snake', gloriously smoky and atmospheric, derives its sense of identity from Purjah's tenor sax, while 'Riding The Seasons' is informed by Cyndee Lee Rule's violin and across all of the tracks there's Bridget's EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) delivering a range of tones from violin to oboe, French horn to pipes, synths to guitars. 'Key Rings' has a bright ease about it that colours-up its repeated electronic rhythms, 'Cloud Gather' cuts a heavier line with some nicely distorted guitar work – it's all about that sense of range.

So, while it's not really possible to describe this simply as a diverting change from standard Don Falcone / Spirits Burning fare, since there are other diversions from the SB format that Don's been releasing recently, such as the ambient-industrial Grindlestone album Tone from late last year, and because SB fare is 'non-standard' and unpredictable in any case, Far Corners clearly represents another angle both on Don's work generally and his collaborations with Bridget more specifically. It's a little 'background' perhaps but again that's part of what makes it work – I do like to have this sort of thing easing the work along when I'm writing – and it's multi-faceted enough to intrigue the listener into following its gentle meanderings, listening out for the next texture change and picking out its nuances and moods.

Band Website (MP3s on-line)