press

Download Michelson Morley press release, April 2016

Strange Courage

**** It’s really imaginative contemporary music, with a hot free-jazz core
John Fordham, The Guardian, 17.06.2016
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**** Michelson Morley’s spacious, menacing avant jazztronica … With Michelson Morley, jazz in the age of the electroacoustic loop is in safe hands.
Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise magazine, July 2016
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Live

If the album is an assured, gripping group performance, the live show is an even more pulsating ride… The two sets were a celebration of some of the more creative and imaginative music that has been brewing gently in Bristol over recent years and now, happily getting wider recognition.
Mike Collins, Jazzyblogman

It feels like the start of a new “Bristol sound”, a mixture of the acoustic and electronic, using floor boxes rather than racks of processors, playing acoustically generated music with the form of electronic music. Whatever it is, it is good, it is exciting, and Michelson Morley are leading the charge.
Charley Dunlap, Listomania

[Rice Rage] was a brilliant final flourish that underlined how well this project had found an identity that promises great things of which Strange Courage is only the first.
Tony Benjamin, Bristol 24/7

**** Gravitational waves greet Michelson Morley playing live as they return two years on from Aether Drift, a quartet that thrives on open improvisation contoured by effects triggered by leader/composer Jake McMurchie and drummer Mark Whitlam… early on like a lot of the wide screen band vision delved beneath the sonic legato patina to excavate meticulously a treasure trove of hidden detail… entering a Food-like space and then much later in the set emptying the larder to make way for some chilled minimalist Terry Riley-like fashioning.”
Stephen Graham, Marlbank, 18.02.2016
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I’d been waiting a long time to see Michelson Morley play live and Im pleased to report that they didn’t disappoint with this involving and often exciting set. The band’s second album, this time with the excellent Messore on board, will be eagerly awaited.
Ian Mann, The JazzMann 13.01.2016
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“…the delicately constructed tunes from debut album Aether Drift unfolded in a combination of minimal repetitions, hypnotic riffing, electronic dissolution and reflective improvisation … Michelson Morley is a very tightly structured project that can rely on the excellent judgement of its members to use their freedom with discretion and thus produced a stimulating evening of highly original music.”
Tony Benjamin, Bristol247, 12.03.2015
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… the confident fearlessness of the players seeming capable of taking things afresh every time.
Bristol 24/7
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“… this band has a subtle range of textures that really needs our attention. The line-up is predictable and promising, with Get The Blessing saxman McMurchie joined by Will Harris (bass) and Mark Whitlam (drums), but the idea is more surprising – loose modal improvisational pieces based on insistence and evolution. It’s a mix of acoustic and electric, with McMurchie’s synth-sax and pedals and Whitlam’s fancy-pad augmented kit adding loops and language beyond the expected. Harris, standing centrally and stooped around his bass, roots much of it with single note repetitions, playing rhythm while Whitlam flourishes around his cymbals or sparks up the electrics. McMurchie coaxes, loops, stutters and wails each piece to life, giving it flavour. Now and then there’s a snappy little tune and, for one number, a surf-pop drumbeat and a wig-out bass like jazz on a 60s Californian beach.” Venue Magazine

Aether Drift

**** … the sparse textures and nu-groove-with-loops aspects link to post-rock aesthetic as much as they do contemporary UK jazz. But it’s more than good enough to get the blessing from Jazzwise.”
Jazzwise Magazine

… it’s minimalism on steroids with huge dollops of collective improvisation, electronic atmospherics and some irresistibly catchy melodic phrases … There’s an organic feel to the collective sound, recorded live including all the electronic effects. Their joint, extended explorations make for compelling listening. This is a supremely confident debut
London Jazz News
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**** “Michelson Morley is carving its own niche… Eerie, menacing, furtive and wistful, Michelson Morley creates a sense of compelling unease.”
Neil McKim, BBC Music Magazine
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*** “liberating flexibilities of time and space certainly characterise McMurchie’s fine first album as a composer/leader â… The compositions are imaginative and the collective creativity gives the set an unapologetically jazz-rooted feel”
The Guardian 01.05.2014
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**** Strong melodies, inventive rhythms and grooves, plus imaginative use of electronics adds up to a winning formula that is thoroughly convincing
The JazzMann 23.07.2014
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“There is really nothing like it, especially by a saxophonist … This album was recorded live without overdubs, which, in some way makes it more jazz, as well as a testament to the extraordinary cohesion of the three musicians.”
Listomania 28.04.2014
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**** “The album successfully bridges a bluesy freebop acoustic jazz sensibility and futurejazz electronica… A fine debut.”
Marlbank 07.04.2014
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