The wake of Jasper Leyland's earthy tones
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Label: Stray Dog Army, 12x50, MOAR
Format: CD
We recently shed light on a favourite of ours from last year in our feature on Skelton, and for this dig in the vault, we also feel satisfied simply pressing the rewind button to 2008 which in retrospect has struck me as a good year for electronic music after all. Another favourite of 2008 was namely Jasper Leyland, behind which we find the English sound artist, Jonathan Brewster, who lives in North Yorkshire. His first release the Capsize EP came out in 2005 on the Bristol-based label, Stray Dog Army, run by his brother James Brewster, who had started the imprint to release his own music as Mole Harness, prior to that released on fellow Bristol labels Float and Silent Age. With Johnathan’s brother moving to Malmö, Sweden, Jonathan became more involved in the process of running the label the two had used for their own output thus far. By 2007, Jonathan Brewster had released two more albums, Margin in 2006 on Stray Dog Army and Fieldstone on Benbecula in 2007 as part of a themed series, Minerals. For last year’s release, Jonathan released under his usual moniker, Jasper Leyland, on the London-based label, 12×50, for their Carbon series of recordings; the home listening classic of Wake which shows a maturing in Brewster’s sound.
Wake is amazing, restrained and minimalistic in its approach and the subtlety of sounds and textures does not strip the work from its ingenuity nor render it monotonous; rather instead allowing the sparse elements and instruments of Leyland’s repertoire to be investigated in full. One of Brewster’s strengths stems from a clever and masterful use of atmospheric and organic-sounding field recordings, and melded with the flowing sounds of Brewster’s instruments (accordion, melodica, guitars, tinkling bells and chimes) creates very lovely and lush hummed soundscapes to revel in. “Harrow Fare” stands out as a brilliant centerpiece for yours truly; utterly blissful with low, static noise in the background fray and a chiming, fuzzy synth with some very tantalizing, nostalgic qualities and a sublime acoustic guitar strummed with delicate touch, each chord struck with exquisite timing and allowing the notes to linger as the backing clicks and field recordings ensure the track moves forward.
At this time of writing, Jasper Leyland is again out with a new release, this time featuring on Dale Lloyd’s new offshoot imprint mOAR from the and/OAR camp. This is even given away as a free download, and comes highly recommended – possibly achieving his finest musical offering with this album as both the melodic and influence of carefully chosen field recordings create a wonderful result – a showcase of Jonathan Brewster’s sound bearing the title “Sediments”, and at this point there does seem to be some pattern following Brewster in terms of minerals or geological terms with his prior releases on both Minerals and Carbon series and now adding his own sediments.
From the label’s press release, the title refers to the settling of small particles in water, which connects with the music on two levels. Sonically the album evokes these particles before they become layers of sediment, when they are still individual specks of matter; hanging in the water and at one with it in parallel to the sonic unity mentioned above. On “Sediments”, Brewster incorporates a perfected blend of the fuzzy and coarse synth washes and hummed passages that he combines with expert handling of traditional, acoustic instruments, again some artistic trickery with the guitar stands out as a central instrument Brewster allows chords both time and space to linger before dispelling one tone and the silence between with another. Over a series of six tracks, Jasper Leyland does not stray wide from his chosen formula, but also manages to avoid one pitfall of sparsity and subtle instrumentation which is that of sounding samey – and rather finds new ways to concoct lovely atmospheres from his processed instruments and intriguing – and at times harrowing and chilling – field recordings.
Both releases come highly recommended for fans of Fennesz, Tape, Jasper TX, Peter Broderick, Alva Noto.
Below are some more resources with information on Jonathan Brewster and his work:
Jasper Leyland website
Jasper Leyland – Sediments album on mOAR
Stray Dog Army label website
12×50 Recordings label website
