Carla Diratz & the Archers of Sorrow, The Scale

 

The good thing about social media to me is the musicians, artists and good people you might not otherwise meet in your life. So Carla Diratz has been that to me, a dear friend but even if not an artist-vocalist-songwriter of a deep sort. She and the Archers of Sorrow have a new one out entitled The Scale (Discus 124CD). It is another gem in a long string of such things.

If you appreciate the Rock-Art song world of such folks as Jack Bruce and Robert Wyatt, along with the kind of adventure the Soft Machine was up to in the original years, well all I can say is that Carla and her compadres are yet another example that perhaps has not gotten the recognition she and they deserve.

So I will not quote from them (you will hear them with a listen)  but an important component of all this is Carla's poetic lyrics. They unfold complex image-thoughts.

Then to the music itself? Carla is a vocalist of absolute originality, just right for the tempered cold-heat of her songs. Then there are the core instrumentalists who form especially the foundation for what goes on. There is Martin Archer who realizes much that is prime on keys, saxophones, clarinets, recorders and software. And then Nick Robinson makes an important presence felt on electric and acoustic guitars, loops and a little keyboard as well. Then we have good showings from a rhythm section of Dave Sturt and Adam Fairclough on bass guitar and drums, respectively. Charlotte Keeffe on trumpet gives us some very nice improvising and then finally there are background vocals by Jan Todd and Julie Archer.

The music has a kind of prog art song aspect that is in its own way distinctive and a joyous listen and there are avant jazzy elements too. I think the best indication of the originality of it is that categories are not sufficient to portray what you will hear.

I give this my highest recommendation in the way it hits me as a beautifully complex, original matrix of music to savor.