TBR02
1. Zoological Positivism Blues (promo) mp3
2. Wind and Tree (promo) mp3
3. San Simeon (promo) mp3
4. After Me (promo) mp3
5. Promises, Promises (promo) mp3
6. Long Bones (promo) mp3
7. Big House (promo) mp3
8. PELT (promo) mp3
9. I'd Know You Anywhere (promo) mp3
10. Big Idea (promo) mp3
11. Horses (promo) mp3
12. PELT reprise (promo) mp3
Christine Tobin voice
Phil Robson guitars
Liam Noble piano, prepared piano & rhodes
Gareth Lockrane flutes
Richard Jones violin
Kate Shortt cello
Dave Whitford double & electric bass
Lorraine Baker drums on track 1 & 4
Simon Lea drums on 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10
PELT is Christine’s settings of poems and lyrics by contemporary Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Paul Muldoon. Although a continuation of her alchemy with fine words and music and her exploration of the chemistry between the two, PELT marks a new direction and a new musical soundscape. PELT is both daring and dreamlike, passionate and playful. Tobin leads her musicians across a kaleidoscopic panorama, sometimes as junkyard blues philosopher, or snappy beat seductress, sometimes as a conduit for exquisite zen-like harmonies, or reflective Americana. The result is a rich and engaging collection with Tobin's trademark originality.The seed of the idea for setting Paul Muldoon’s poems came when the pair were invited to collaborate and perform a piece at the Kilkenny Arts Festival back in 2011. Christine had long admired Muldoon’s work and he was greatly impressed by her settings of WB Yeats. When they discussed setting his poems, Paul gave Christine a copy of his collection ‘Paul Muldoon Poems 1968 – 1998’ and gave her carte blanche to choose the poems she wished to work with. He also sent her new lyrics and as the project unfolded, the texts chosen ended up a being mix of poems and lyrics.
Commissioned by BASCA (British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors) with funding from the PRS for Music Foundation, as part of the winner’s prize for the Contemporary Jazz Composition category of the 2012 British Composer Awards. (for the work ‘Sailing To Byzantium’)
"…feisty original music written by Tobin for a programme that covers the Americana waterfront. The album is a masterclass in songcraft.”
BBC Music Magazine *****
"Tobin’s vocals, veering from acrobatic to sultry, are tailored perfectly for the material, her evocations of time and place precise. Classy and lovely.”
The Observer ****
“PELT is marked by its timbral richness and breathtaking imaginative scope... a remarkable equipoise of the hard-hitting and the understated... one of the year’s must-hear albums.”
Jazzwise**** Recommended
"Pelt strikes that most elusive of balances between familiarity and strangeness, by turns recalling Tom Waits, Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell, without being beholden to any particular genre or influence... music that veers from grungy, post-industrial grooves to wispy romanticism to abstracted contemporary classical, all played with punkish attitude..”
The Irish Times ****
“...there’s a patience and clarity to her handling
of fine poetry, but there’s a tough, bluesy assertiveness to this album too. Tobin sounds almost as scornfully sardonic as 60s Dylan... Muldoon and Tobin make a powerful team.”
The Guardian****
