Album Notes

Q - when is a bass and sax duo not a bass and sax duo
A - when it's a bass and sax orchestra!

On 'For The Love Of Open Spaces', bassist Steve Lawson and saxophonist/flautist Theo Travis conjure up the sound of bass, strings, synthesiser and just about every imaginable member of the woodwind family without resorting to pre-recorded sounds, keyboards or session musicians.

Both experienced musicians in the field of 'live looping', Steve and Theo set about recording a live-in-the-studio album of layered improvisations, using cutting edge real time sampling technology to layer sound-on-sound into a rich sonic landscape.

The result is a deeply engaging, relaxing, and at times awe-inspiring collection of musical dialogues, each of them improvised in one take, with very little editing and no additional studio re-recording and overdubbing. Everything you hear was conceived played and even mixed in real time.

Steve Lawson is no stranger to the world of looping. Having released two solo CDs on Pillow Mountain Records, exploring the outer reaches of what's possible with a bass guitar and real time looping technology, Steve has gathered international critical acclaim for his deep musicality and expansive melodic vocabulary. A sought-after collaborator by such musical luminaries as vibes-man Orphy Robinson, pedal steel maestro BJ Cole, and American fellow bass experimenter Michael Manring, Steve has spent a lot of time in 2003 exploring the interactive possibilities of his bass-as-orchestra approach to music, culminating in the release of 'For The Love Of Open Spaces'.

Likewise Theo Travis - known throughout the music world for his virtuosity and soulful style as well as his fine compositions, he has been on the vanguard of progressive improvised music for many years as part of space-rock legends, Gong, leading his own celebrated Quartet and as half of the experimental jazz/world/electronica duo Cipher. Earlier in 2003, Theo took the remarkable step of releasing an album of solo performances on alto flute and 'ambitronics' - Travis' name for his live looping and layering process. The resulting album - 'Slow Life' - is notable for its beauty, spaciousness and textural depth. On 'Slow Life', Theo also evidenced an affinity for the process of playing loop-based music whilst still keeping the music evolving and alive - a quality very much in evidence on 'For The Love Of Open Spaces'.

The combination of Lawson and Travis, bringing together their respective sound-worlds on this their debut collaborative CD, is everything it promises to be and more - each liberated by the other's presence and musical contributions - Travis ever more melodic and expressive on both soprano sax and alto flute, Lawson pushing even further the boundaries of what is achievable on the bass guitar. Trading the roles of melody instrument and sonic texturalist back and forth, they manage to create music that is both refreshingly direct in its melodic statement and adventurous in the extreme with its tonal palette.

'For The Love Of Open Spaces' is an album of great depth and melodic beauty, and is sure to bring together Steve and Theo's respective fan-bases for a mutually uplifting listening experience.