Rise

Format

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  ZEN122Long Player  £22.00

Label

Ninja Tune

The Cinematic Orchestra

Ma Fleur

R'n'B NeoSoul shortly after releasing 'everyday' which achieved great critical and commercial success selling over 100000 units jason swinscoe relocated from east london to paris here he began work on the instrumentals which would form the basis of his new record having completed a rough version by early 2005 he gave this to a friend who disappeared for 3 weeks and came back with short story scripts in which each scene represented a story of a different time in life expressing the emotions which underpin the journey from birth to death jason then took this and worked some more on the tracks and in turn gave this back to his scriptwriter the two aspects of the project developing alongside one another gradually swinscoe recruited suitable vocalists for the atmospheres and themes he wanted to deal with the remarkable fontella bass is the woman behind both legendary soul number 'rescue me' as well as some of the art ensemble of chicago's finest moments had worked on 'everyday' and was an obvious choice to voice the parts of the elderly protagonist that swinscoe envisaged mercurynominated lou rhodes is not only a fantastic singer but a young mother and so perfect for the 'midlife' singer the asyet unheralded patrick watson a remarkable vocalist from montreal became the youngest of the trio dealing with themes of loss and love 'ma fleur' is fertile ground for swinscoe's brand of musicmaking for while people have talked about what he does in terms of jazz the truth is that the basis of his music has always been in raw emotion from the achingly beautiful opener 'to build a home' to the finale 'time and space' this is an album which reaches for and finds a truth and honesty far beyond what we would normally expect from such a record but without losing any of the accessibility which made tco popular in the first place if the mood is melancholy swinscoe and the musicians he works with manage to make it an ultimately uplifting experience perhaps in the end more about the love you find than the love you lose