While working on One Year, trumpet player Tom Arthurs kept
reshaping the scores. Since the bulk of the original material
comprised of fragments, he was able to shift sections from one
piece to the next in search of their ideal position. The
inspiration had come from film: "For his masterpiece 'Mirror',
Tarkovsky had no story, no plan, no storyboard. He just shot a
lot of material and then, for two years, he had these clothes
lines in his house and was putting together the scene into
different forms until he had the movie."
Most of the material is the result of a one-and-a-half month
long stretch of quiet in between very busy phases in 2014.
Three years later, the music from that bout of intense creativity
is now released in a new ensemble constellation that sees
Arthurs expand his long-time duo with pianist Richard Fairhurst
to a trio with the inclusion of Finnish percussionist Markku
Ounaskari: "The poetry of Markkus's playing is astounding, he's
never showing off, never pushing, his touch is so beautiful. He
uses a pretty special drum kit with a concert bass drum."
As a consequence of the open-ended composition approach,
many of the pieces juxtapose different approaches, from almost
pure sound art via Feldman's long works to the essentialism of
the Berlin reductionist movement. One Year opens up a space
where everything feels connected and anything is possible,
where quiet really is the new loud. It is one of those records
that feel like they could change your life – now all you need is
to find the time to sit down and listen to it.