Different

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To a great extent, bassist, composer and bandleader Hugh Hopper deserves the epithet "legendary"; as the solid anchor at the heart of Soft Machine he was part of one of the must woefully undersung British musical projects in rock music history (not that "rock" music ever successfully contained SM). His career since the 70s has been one of unique intelligence, his various groups and collaborations embracing out-rock, contemporary jazz, improv and, "art music" compositional techniques. It's been a consistently non-fashionable career, following its own heart rather than the vagaries of music trends. Music needs far more of Hugh Hopper's ilk. His collaborator on this album of original songs is, on the other hand, almost completely unknown. Lisa S. Klossner had come to Hopper's attention through fusion guitarist Mark Hewins; Hopper had been looking for a singer to make the grade with a particular song he and Hewins had penned, and Hopper was immediately impressed - quite rightly - by Klossner's ability to get round some very angular melodies. Klossner and Hopper continued to write together over the next few years, Klossner sending her abstract, dream-like lyrics to Hopper, who would would work on finding the right melodies and rhythms to fit the often angular scansion. Eventually the duo began recording the songs, bringing in various compatriots to flesh out Hopper's delightfully skeletal cubase backing tracks: soprano saxist Peter Cook, guitarist Richard Carlile, long-time collaborator Elton Dean on saxello, trumpeter Christine Janet, flautist Chrystelle Blanc-Lanaute. Still the show is really Hopper and Klossner's, the latter's crystal-clear voice, often multi-tracked, winding her its way through skewed, oddly discomforting songs underpinned by an insistently lo-fi keyboard accompaniment and Hopper's trademark heavy-duty fuzz bass. A delight from start to finish.