Echo Location by Bradfield Dumpleton / Malcolm Martin

Chronologically, these recordings were completed eight albums ago during May-July 2019 - between editing "and then i wasn't..." and commencing the "Music For.." album experiments, and while still exploring cleaner 'jazzier' guitar tones persisting from the Cupcake album.

Originally the pieces on this album were written specifically with the trumpet playing of local jazz musician Malcolm Martin in mind. My friend Ross Douglas suggested the collaboration as a possible project for his experimental ambient jazz label S.E.A. (https://searec.bandcamp.com/), so I began recording ideas using a faux "jazz trio" of me on guitar / cello bass / drums. I wanted the music to retain elements of spaciousness and subtlety, with floating guitar twists and semi-ambient percussion, so that Malcolm could improvise freely within the space.

I then approached Malcolm with the recorded structures, and he contributed a series of spontaneous textural responses on trumpet, trombone & flugelhorn, which I later edited minimally. Usually we recorded multiple takes in one session, and I was particularly drawn to the chordal effect when Malcolm's tracks were played back simultaneously.

Seven of these tracks feature Malcolm's sensitive textures, while the rest appear in their original (untrumpeted) incarnations as atmospheric guitar experiments.

Musical reference points at this time included Jakob Bro, Sun Ra, Thelonious Monk, Frank Zappa, Tom Verlaine, early Miles Davis, Gabor Szabo, South Of Nowhere and Eno, smudged in places with a kind of aesthetic particular to 70s TV cop show theme musics.

A library of musical sketchbooks, mapping my various evolutions from 2005 to next week. Dedicated to exploring sound for its own sake. Many diverse delights here for the patient & attentive listener.

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