Artist : The Cinematic Orchestra
Album : Breath
Label : Ninja Tune
Genre : Electronic
Bitrate : 167 kbps avg
Source : CD Maxi (3-5+ tracks)
Playtime : 00:14:22 (18.0MB)
Rls date : 2007-04-18
Store date : 2007-04-00
[Track List]
1. Breathe (radio edit) 2:31
2. Breathe (album version) 6:37
3. Child Song 5:14
The first full single from the Cinematic Orchestra's
forthcoming album, "Ma Fleur," is the scintillating
"Breathe," a devastatingly beautiful piece of music, a
contemporary requiem or spiritual featuring Fontella Bass.
The overall structure of "Ma Fleur" required that Jason
Swinscoe worked with a range of vocalists who would, in
some way, reflect the differing stages of life we each go
through. When he was thinking of an older singer, it was
obvious who he would turn to. Fontella Bass was the singer
behind the huge 60s hit (and Vietnam soldier's anthem)
"Rescue Me". She married Lester Bowie and worked
extensively with his legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago.
She also collaborated with Swinscoe on his last full
album, "Everyday," contributing the vocal to "All That You
Give" - a memorial to her dead husband.
She herself is now in frail health so when Swinscoe got
together with her to record "Breathe" it's only surprising
that she could approach her own mortality with such
clear-eyed and beautiful sentiment. Drawing on her
heritage as a gospel singer as much as her background in
soul and jazz, Bass strips everything back to the
uplifting beauty of her unadorned voice.
Swinscoe, meanwhile, starts with a simple acoustic guitar
riff from the group's Stuart MacCallum and gradually
builds the tune into a series of emotional and dynamic
peaks, before, in the words of the song, allowing
Fontella's voice to be carried "out to the sea".
Also featured on the single is exclusive track, "Colours".
Built up from lines played by saxophonist Tom Chant and
Stuart MacCallum's acoustic picking, it manages to
encapsulate the mixture of melancholy and uplift, which in
some ways characterises Swinscoe's work as and with the
Cinematic Orchestra.
"Ma Fleur," was written as the soundtrack to a specially
commissioned screenplay for an imagined film (which may
yet still be made). Jason completed a rough instrumental
version of the record whilst living in Paris - more moods
than finished tracks, a series of sketches or diagrams of
directions to follow. Early in 2005 he gave this to a
friend who disappeared for 3 weeks and came back with
short story scripts where each track was a scene. Jason,
who had by now relocated to New York, then took these
scripts and worked some more on the tracks, and in turn
gave this back to the art director, the two aspects of the
project developing alongside one another.