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Clown Revisited

Flashes of a Normal World

F-IRE CD12

Nick Ramm, pianist/keyboards player, is the composer/leader of Clown Revisited, and the ten pieces on this album were inspired by two trips he took to Denmark and Holland to play in a circus house band, accompanying acrobats, jugglers and clowns.

These last clearly had the most profound effect on the music here, which is played by one of the most unusual and original combinations of instruments you're likely to encounter: flute (Finn Peters), cello (Ben Davis), tuba (Oren Marshall), piano (Nick Ramm) and drums (Dave Price).

There are Afro-Peruvian rhythms ('Samba Mal Au Dos'), the odd cha-cha-cha ('The Beat Root'), a scurrying humorous piece that instantly brings clowns to mind ('The Notestand') and numerous pieces with tricksy rhythms and tempos that manage to balance compositional and improvised elements to perfection.

Texture, however (given the instrumentation), is at least as important to this extraordinary music as straightforward propulsiveness, and in both ensemble passages and occasional solos, the combination of Marshall's consistently dignified, poised 'whump', Davis's sonorous cello contributions and Peters's agile, surprisingly gutsy flute is a beguiling one.

Overall, though, this is very much Ramm's baby: his compositions are pleasingly varied but cohere intelligently as album elements; his piano playing is percussive and forceful, fluent and imaginative as required; his control of the various musical elements at his disposal exemplary.

All in all, a highly entertaining album that reveals fresh subtleties every time it's played.