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Riley’s newest band Moov, who performed one of the last gigs of the festival here tonight, also tests the boundaries between different genres, and between improvisation and composition, but there are no jazz solos - or anything that could be easily labelled jazz. The members of Moov respond to and interact with each other in a way that has much in common with collective improvisation. Moov consists of an ensemble of genre-phobic artists who between them usually orbit the worlds of computer-based music, contemporary classical, jazz and film: they are electric bassist Pete Wilson, cellist Zoe Martlin, digital/electronics programmer Ben Jarlett, percussionist/vibraphonist Rob Millett, singer Olivia Chaney, Riley on keyboards and video projectionist Howie Bailey. Riley likes to compose phrases or sequences in his music that rise and fall like waves and then reach a momentary silence. Young hippy-chick singer Olivia Chaney - someone who has worked on the fringes of London’s F-IRE collective - joins the band for a large part of the two sets. Alongside Riley’s ambiguous ghostly synth patches, Millet’s minimal bell-like vibes and percussion, and Aphex Twin-influenced Jarlett’s well-placed subtle electronica the result often recalls the work of singer/songwriter David Sylvian and to a lesser extent Robert Wyatt. Chaney’s excellent, unpredictable vocal lies somewhere between Sandy Denny and Norma Winstone, and she improvises incredibly effectively considering the music’s ambiguous harmonies and shifting textures. Brian Eno has spoken of his approach as being like painting in sound and this will be something Riley will have much empathy with. So it was no accident that Howie Bailey’s watery projected images, which can on other occasions seem an unnecessary diversion, tonight dovetailed naturally with Moov’s music. Although Riley usually operates in the classical oeuvre, Moov comes closer to a kind of post-rock/electronica songs-based music. If the album release on Riley’s label, scheduled for release later this year is anything like tonight’s performance we’re in for a real treat.
Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise
Riley’s MooV ensemble thrives on the tension between fragmented, minimalist instrumental textures and the ecstatic, lyrical melodies that float across them, suggesting the voice of the impassioned individual surrounded by the indifferent chatter of 21st-century life. Rob Millet’s diaphanous percussion and Pete Wilson’s agile six-string bass merged with the fine haze of sound generated by Ben Jarlett. Behind them was Howie Bailey’s modishly abstract graphics: figures in a shimmering heat haze for Slow Shadow, juddering waveforms for Beautiful Wounds. This was the first number to feature Olivia Chaney, whose warm and soulful voice was the perfect complement to her musical surroundings. There was much to enjoy, particularly Fall Away, in which pitched and unpitched percussion sounds were artfully shaded together, and Chaney’s sampled voice was looped into plaintive repetition: the ghost in the machine.
The Classical Source, March 2006
Soprano Claron McFadden, in mourning dress as writer Mary Shelley, is singing to her dead husband, whose ghostly image appears in the chair beside her. Behind her head, clouds boil in an unnatural frenzy. The music, which has up to now suggested the subdued foreboding of a Romantic string quartet, is energised by a funk-inflected bass line and swirling electronic sounds.Is this the future of new music? Riverside Studios saw the debut performance of Riley’s group MOOV, founded to “revitalize the look and feel of new music events”. This experiment was a success, among the best of its kind I have seen.
I enjoyed Riley’s subdued lyricism in these pieces, which merged the versatile live ensemble with subtle electronics “On The Sheltering Bars”, which falls somewhere between chamber-opera and (pop) song-cycle sets nine poems by contemporary women poets, which together offer a meditation on the difficulties of love and relationships. His music’s directness of expression suited the subject matter admirably, and his subtle and unpredictable melodies were sensitive to the poets’ voices. The standout moment was the spare setting of Wendy Cope’s “at 3 am”, which brought out the poem’s quiet desperation with effective economy. Claron McFadden was excellent, coquettish and despondent by turns, filling the vignettes with human warmth. The recording, out next month on Riley’s own label, will be worth seeking out for anyone interested in sassy, sophisticated new music.
The Classical Source, February 2005
- squeaky kate music