In Each and Every One (Leaf Label)
Polar Bear
Released March 24, 2014
JAZZ FM Album of The Year Nominee 2014
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mYJvZ0gtu-1_gccwHn_jHWoN8R8vjeBrs
Spotify:
About:
“For me, this album is about heart, and I hope that when people listen to it, it makes them feel theirs,” says Sebastian Rochford. “I want people to let go, I want it to be an experience.”
In Each And Every One is Polar Bear’s 5th album, the follow-up to the acclaimed Peepers. A remarkable song cycle, offering an expansive arc across deep emotional terrain, it evokes a range of atmospheres: post-industrial scrub, grimy metropolitan house parties, snowy wastelands, dark mountain gatherings.
Perhaps the defining feature of In Each And Every One is space. The band seems to occupy a fixed point in a vast three-dimensional setting: an electronic abyss. At times the players evaporate in a swirling mass of digital distortion, before reappearing through the mist. Saxophonists Pete Warehamand Mark Lockheart together posses a broad emotional vocabulary, yet here they appear translucent, elusive. Bassist Tom Herbert is irresistible when he plays inside the groove, but does so only occasionally, giving these moments rare power.
Track Listing:
1. Open See 07:04
2. Be Free 04:36
3. Chotpot 05:34
4. They’re All Ks and Qs Lucien 07:18
5. WW 04:22
6. Lost In Death Part 2 04:58
7. Maliana 08:39
8. Lost In Death Part 1 06:51
9. Life And Life 06:41
10. Two Storms 03:37
11. Sometimes 08:13
12. Two Storms (Facing Loss Version) [Bonus Track] 03:36
All Music Written by Sebastian Rochford
Personnel:
Sebastian Rochford: drums
Tom Herbert: double bass
Mark Lockheart, Pete Wareham: tenor saxophone
Leafcutter John: electronics
Jin Jin: additional vocals (4)
Recorded at Livingston Studios, by Sonny, assisted by Mark Allaway
Produced and Mixed by Sebastian Rochford
Mixed Assistant: Manon Grandjean
Mastered by Shawn Joseph
Artwork: Craig Keenan
Review:
Polar Bear is back. Not just with a bang, but with a whole array of other sounds, including the occasional whimper. In Each And Every One brings together 11 tunes from the pen of drummer Sebastian Rochford—from the gently bucolic to the downright macabre. There’s also an early front runner for the Best Song Title Of 2014 award.
In Each And Every One is the British band’s fifth album. It appears four years after Peepers (Leaf Label, 2010) and ten years into a career that’s included the Mercury Music Prize nominated Held On The Tips Of Fingers (Babel Label, 2005). The four year gap between releases hasn’t exactly been filled with thumb twiddling and idle reflection. Rochford has worked with a host of musicians including Brian Eno and Jason Moran. Saxophonist Pete Wareham and electronics maestro Leafcutter John have enlivened the scene with Melt Yourself Down. Saxophonist Mark Lockheart produced the excellent Ellington In Anticipation (Subtone Records, 2012)—which featured Rochford and bassist Tom Herbert. Herbert also plays bass with another Mercury nominated band, The Invisible.
The 2014 Polar Bear has lost none of its creative spark. Starting with Rochford’s compositions, the band takes off in all sorts of directions. Leafcutter John’s electronics are at the heart of much of this music, whether creating the dreamlike soundscape of “Open See” or the darker moods of “WW.”
Whatever the mood, whatever the tempo, there’s a beautifully unforced feel to this music. Rochford’s percussion, often underpinned by Leafcutter John’s electronic beats, is key to this sense of relaxed cool. Wareham and/or Lockheart sound similarly unhurried much of the time—on the quirky “Be Free” for example—although they occasionally break into more frenetic flurries of sound.
“Lost In Death Part 2” (which appears before the rather slinky “Lost In Death Part 1”) finds the band at its most graceful. It’s a beautiful tune, centred on melodic tenor sax and driven by Herbert’s pulsing bass. In stark contrast “Life And Life” belies its title—this is Polar Bear at its most harrowing, the playing at its most intense.
And the early favorite for Song Title Of The Year? “They’re All Ks And Qs Lucien” takes that accolade. Blessed with a fine groove and some of Rochford’s most imaginative percussion, it builds slowly to what appears to be a rousing finale before re-emerging with a somewhat mystifying coda. High drama. Indeed, there’s excitement in all of these tunes, there’s drama In Each And Every One.
Bruce Lindsay (All About Jazz)
