Kit Downes & Lucy Rialton – “Tricko Tareco”

 

As it turns out, Kit Downes wanted to play the cello.

It’s our good fortune that he was frustrated in those attempts and turned to piano, because as any regular reader of this site would know, Downes is one of the more exciting musicians on the UK scene today.  He’s been a member of outfits like Golden Age of Steam, Troyka, Threads Orchestra, Empirical, and his own trio and quintet ensembles.  On his most recent Quintet recording, Light From Old Stars (review HERE), he brings cellist Lucy Railton into the fold.

But this wasn’t his first collaboration with Railton.  During a residency at the Huddersfield University back in 2012, Downes and Railton, with the help of Alex Killpartrick, recorded an EP of material under the project header of Tricko Tareco.  A mix of minimalist jazz, classical leanings, and ambient soundscapes, it’s the kind of peaceful music that incites daydream fogs even as it twitters with life.

Downes never stopped writing for this project, and now in 2014, the duo are back recording music, with the intention of releasing an album later this year, which will be entitled Trickotareco.  Here’s “Alliri,” an advance song from that album…

That original EP of music recorded in 2012 was released by Impossible Ark Records, and combined with an EP of material from the Impermanence Trio (pianist Matthew Bourne, drummer Tim Giles, and bassist Riann Vosloo), and you can purchase it on the Impossible Ark’s Bandcamp page.  The first embedded player in this column is from that recording.