“Award-winning composer, pianist, and improvisor Elliot Galvin returns with the release of his new album The Ruin, the album is out digitally now with a physical release to follow on 28th Feb via independent London label Gearbox” read tyhe headline. Here’s a taste, the key though is that you need the whole thing to make a judgement. A one-off track, however good, won’t tell you anywhere near the whole story, I mean just listen to the tension of Still Under Storms if you get a chance, there’s all kinds of colour to be found on this album…

No, we can’t just give you the one taste…

“An artist with little need for introductions” reads the press release, I’m guessing that isn’t entirely true? I’m guessing if I stop a random one hundred people on the street outside, three might think he plays for Chelsea but only in the midweek cup squad, one person might ask wasn’t he the bass player in the UK Subs for a bit? But then everyone has been in the UK Subs at one time or another haven’t they? I;m thinking maye he does need an introduction?

Says here that “Elliot Galvin is a long-time trailblazer in the UK jazz firmament with four solo albums that have seen him top album of the year lists at the likes of Downbeat and Jazzwise, as well as being a member of the Mercury nominated Dinosaur, and collaborating with Shabaka Hutchings, Emma-Jean Thackray, Norma Winstone, Marius Neset and Mark Lockheart. Galvin has also earned a fierce reputation as a borderless improvisor having released records with the likes of Mark Sanders and his now labelmate Binker Golding. His latest solo release was an entirely improvised piano album and was named The Guardian’s album of the month and BBC Music magazine’s album of the year. Outside of this Galvin is a composer commissioned by the Sinfonietta, and an audio artist with works exhibited at the likes of Turner Contemporary Gallery, and more”, and no, I’d not heard of him until a few days ago either. What bubbles we all live in, he lives in the twin worlds of imptov and Jazz where he does appear to be highly respected/ A.I didn’t offer anything when asked. By the way when I asked A.I who I was it turned out that Sean Worrall is a Domestic Appliance Service Engineer at Stove Doctor based in Eastern Creek, New South Wales. We have covered Dinosaur around here a few times though…

The Ruin apparently marks a new start for Galvin. Recorded in three sessions with respected recording and mixing engineer Sonny Johns (Tony Allen, Ali Farka Touré, Laura Jurd), he says “this is the most personal album I have made to date, combining all the music that influences me, without worrying about genre or where it would sit. I feel it’s the purest expression of who I am on record.”

The album features a who’s who of estimable guest musicians and friends from the UK scene including renowned bassist and vocalist Ruth Goller, Polar Bear drummer and Patti Smith / Damon Albarn collaborator Sebastian Rochford, and long time collaborators The Ligeti String Quartet (now they really are good)

Okay. let’s cut the nonsense and get into what we actually have here. You see originally I was just going to throw the video (that’s up there at the top of the page) and the one paragraph that’s also at the top of this page and present it as part of one of our Five Pieces of Music pages and just tell you the album was out and here’s a link but hey, all eleven of these pieces need to be explored, this album deserves far more than just a share of a single taster track.

And I really don’t like talking of them just in terms of tracks, each one is a piece of art, each one in the right place on the wall in this exhibition of an album, each one connecting with next via Elliot Galvin’s own finger print, yet each one feeling very different to the previous one. Now don’t let all the jazz labels and the references put you off, this is far too good to be easily pigeonholed and if it is a jazz record then it is equally an experimental avant rock record, a piano record, an experimental set of sound art pieces, a post rock set of treats. It is an album that rightly isn’t concerned with fitting anywhere, it is actually a beautiful record.

A beautifully rewarding album, eleven considered crafted compositions, delicately strong, restrained and crucially Elliot Galvin isn’t afraid to let his collaborators have their own voices, to take each piece to a different place without taking it too far away as to make it disjointed. It is at times bright, at times almost playful, at times dark of hue (rather than heart), it never weighs heavy, it is actually a beautifully uplifting record without ever obviously trying to be. An intriguing sometimes beguiling constantly challenging album that never ever needs to be difficult or awkward to make that challenge (dare I say some of it feels like the beauty of Sea Nymphs or the quietest of Cardiacs moments, can I say that is meant as high compliment?).  

Right now with the opening moments of Still Under Storms things feel on the edge, tightly tense until that brooding bass anchors thing down and lets us explore the slow moving darkness and the colour not quite hidden within. It feels big, it feels almost claustrophobic, it feels good. Gold Bright by way of contrast, eases us all back down, it allows us to exhale after the four and a bit minutes of breath held that was Still Under Storms, we’re into the beauty of a gently flowing bass guitar over a quiet background that could almost be early Ullulators before heading towards something that might feel like a nod towards the darker side of Mike Westbrook or maybe a moody Weather Report, something more in tune with the landscapes of jazz rock or even prog rock.

The start of Stone Houses is just a delight. His Instagram tag line reads “pianist/composer/improviser”, I guess that’s a good starting point, his Wikipedia says he wasn’t born until after I had left art school, bastard! And now Shabaka Hutchings is playing flute and anchoring a piece called High and Wide so that he can get as experimentally improvised as Mr. Galvin does get on this album. In Concentric Circles is just brilliant both in the terms of that delicate strength and the way it all flows and skips and dances so so well. Fell Broad is deep into Gazelle Twin’s Black Dog territory…

Back to the press release and “the first taster of this new material came in the form of From Beneath, and was followed up by A House, A City, which in turn was accompanied by a video of Galvin setting a piano on fire. The new single Gold Bright sees Galvin bring another proponent of the UK scene into the fold with his friend and bandmate Shabaka Hutchings playing flute.

Speaking on the track, Galvin says, “This is the only track that features everyone on the album. We couldn’t get together with everyone in the same room for this, so the strings and Shabaka are overdubbed. Shabaka recorded the whole solo in 1 take without hearing the music beforehand, and there are several amazing moments when he just syncs up perfectly with the track, and specifically Seb’s drumming. The two have a long history together and this really comes through on the track. It’s kind of the climax of the record.”

– These Walls is actually the climax to what really is a beautiful record, Gold Bright comes perfectly placed somewhere in the middle and those final quiet piano sounds at the end, complete and conclude the album perfectly

“Gold Bright is actually Named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon poem from the 9th century AD about the former glory of an unnamed ruined city, The Ruin is inspired by the feeling of living in England (“a country that feels like a living ruin”), the bleak landscape of where Galvin grew up (Medway towns), and a kind of self-portrait reflecting how we all live amongst the ruins of our past selves both collectively and individually. All the musical material on The Ruin is taken from iPhone recordings of improvisations that Galvin had played on his first-ever piano – bought using money left by his late grandfather. The whole album is structured cyclically so that it gradually builds up and crumbles away, starting and finishing with solo piano. To this end, the final track of the album finishes with the same reversed recording taken from the lead single and opener playing forwards”.

“At the very heart of all the music is the first phrase I remember ever writing down as a child, which is a little chromatic thing. It all grows from there somehow” says Galvin. Now, in the present, the germination of that initial idea has resulted in a genre-defying, dynamic record which sees free-flowing serpentine piano and modular synth lines weave and collide around the record’s personnel with epiphanic vocalisations, deceivingly groove-heavy percussion, and intricate, soulful flute lines. The record leans into the gentle and introspective with an uneasy tension that simultaneously inspires hope and wistfulness, before erupting into droning slabs of noise that are at times redolent of the kosmische music movement.

Despite the candid and personal nature of the record, Elliot Galvin has succeeded where few other improvisers have. On The Ruin, he has produced possibly his most accessible to date, and one that almost all listeners can relate to on an intimate level. “The Ruin” may be tied inherently to Galvin, but anyone who listens can relate to the sense of self-contemplation and analysis, the memories that make us who we are and their degradation. The realisation that much like the journey Galvin went on to create this album, we must continue to build ourselves up from the ruins only to break ourselves down again”.

The Ruin is out now digitally and on CD and vinyl on 28th February via Gearbox Records. needless to say, it is highly recommended.

Bandcamp / Gearbox Records