| “a quiet mystical space at the boundary of jazz, rock and ambient music” – Uncut “Soothing ambient jazz where spiraling trumpet swirls in billowing clouds of synth” – Bandcamp Blue Hour is Nick Schofield’s first foray into ambient jazz music. An ambient ode to Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way, the album opens up Schofield’s sonic palette to introduce his childhood instrument, drums, with his contemporary ambient-electronic practice. Schofield grew up playing drums, but turned to creating experimental-electronic music when studying Electroacoustics at Concordia University. Well-known for his signature ambient aesthetic, Blue Hour marks the first time that he has merged his percussion practice with his ambient electronic explorations. |
| Nick Schofield – Blue Hour listen // order LP/DIG // watch ‘Dream On‘ / ‘Sky Cafe‘ / ‘Magic Touch‘ “fantastic” – KEXP “ephemeral, mystical, astro jazz” – Spectrum Culture “inventive, inspired and well-versed” – Echoes and Dust |
| The source of inspiration, In A Silent Way, was an album Schofield had on CD in his car for years, often dreaming of one day creating his own ambient interpretation. Using a similar instrument palette and rhythmic motifs, Schofield manifests this dream in Blue Hour. In a Silent Way itself anticipated ambient music with spacious arrangements and expressive tonal textures. Schofield’s adaptation of the record’s sonic palette and rhythmic motifs to his own electronic ambient approach results in a modernized stylistic harmony which is at once charismatically familiar and deeply personal. “Where jazz and ambient meet without haste, without explanation, Blue Hour invites bright, limitless stillness to reflect on the now, while revelling in the excitement of what’s next.” – Also Cool Mag Schofield improvised all of the drumming and main synthesizer parts over the course of a single day, recording in a church in Ottawa. These foundational layers comprise tender Moog pulses and Roland Juno-6 pads, some of which would not be out of place on the back half of Brian Eno’s Another Green Worldor Boards of Canada’sMusic Has the Right to Children. If this was to be a reflection of In a Silent Way, of course there would need to be trumpet. Not long after laying down the drums, Schofield ran into Montreal-based trumpeter Scott Bevins (No Cosmos, Busty and the Bass), who suggested that the two musicians get together to jam. Seizing the moment, Schofield invited Bevins to record the missing piece of the album during a one day recording session, where Bevins improvised all his trumpet parts having never heard the songs before. Scott Bevins’ contribution gives the music a leading instrumental voice, and his intuitive approach shows a perfect understanding of how to both integrate and elevate the compositions. Blue Hour is itself a profound reference, an ambient adaptation, a dream realized and an uncanny synthesis of sounds, styles, and personal history. |