FULL REVIEW HERE

Watching The Well is the latest release from Lamb bassist Jon Thorne and is quite frankly nothing short of a masterpiece.

A twelve part suite in three movements for double bass and orchestral ensemble, Watching The Well was written by Thorne for his friend, mentor and fellow bassist Danny Thompson. Don’t be deterred by the classical music appearance, what lurks within this recording is not what’s preconceived as classical music, it combines elements of jazz, classical, electronica and folk to create an intense work containing hints of Jan Garbarek, Sigur Ros, E.S.T, Michael Nyman, the electronica of Thorne’s other musical endeavours, Lamb, and even, on track eleven, a lute-like plucked guitar part suggesting medieval influence. Also featuring Cinematic Orchestra guitarist Stuart McCallum and jazz saxophonist Gilad Atzman, Watching The Well is a selection of entrancing and atmospheric soundscapes that would be well suited as a film soundtrack.

Opening track ‘The Light That Guides’ sets the scene for the eleven tracks that follow. It all begins with heavily delayed solo guitar whose part gently develops out of small motives. A cloud of electronic background ambience gradually seeps in to join the echoing guitar creating an eerie soundscape that Thorne has panned to fill the listeners’ environment. Just before the two minute mark, a lush, rich ensemble of strings gently oozes into the mix together with atmospheric cymbal rolls and intermittent gestures of Garbarek-like saxophone. 

The piece continues to build with the addition of a female voice as another instrumental layer with the strings to form a bed over which the guitar, clarinet and saxophone dialogue unfolds. It’s around five minutes in that Thompson’s picked double bass sounds a slow-moving, beautiful melody underneath the string bed.

Watching The Well continues in a similar vein with melodies evolving through gradually progressing harmony nodding to the techniques of minimalism. Thorne creates mesmerising soundscapes through the sonic colours of different instruments which imitate and bounce off one another; sometimes, the instrumental tones complement each other so well that they blend seamlessly in and out of one another’s musical gestures. What is of utmost significance in Watching The Well, however, is the centrality of the double bass and the use of the double bass as a melody instrument, something that is unusual and therefore all the more enjoyable. Thorne intended this piece entirely for Thompson as a multi genre orchestral setting in which his bass had never been heard in before.

This release is neither toe-tapping jazz nor popular classical; in composing Watching The Well, Thorne has sensitively absorbed and taken influence from the most subtle and beautiful elements across a range of genres to create a moving, sensitive and wholly enjoyable composition in his own unique style.