“Live at SpaceFest” by “Pure Phase Ensemble” is a live album recorded in December 2011. It showcases the talent of 13 musicans from Poland and the UK, including “Marion’s” Jaime Harding and Raymond Dickaty, a saxophonist improviser and member of the band “Spiritualized”. It’s a spontaneous, shoegazing, jazzy and psychedelic album, whose emotions transcend through an awakening of musical souls merging as one. It’s an album whose multi-layered soundscape drifts and nestles, producing what could only be described as a “voyeuristic and avant-garde work of art.”
Opening with the perplexing and entrancing. “Electra Glide”, “Live at Spacefest’s” brilliance is soon cemented by the mesmerising “No Movement”. Led by the Bono-esque vocals of Harding, “No Movement” illustrates Harding’s skill at producing laconic lyrics such: “No movement, no movement with pain….”, which penetrates to the emotional core of the song. Along with the drowsy trumpets and broody bass, “No Movement’s” intensity is heightened by the assault of screeching, shoegazing and psychedelic riffs. Plunging into more arcane depths, “No Movement” builds to a crescendo, dragging its weighty feet by the hazy riffs which resonate against the spectral backing vocals of Joanna Kuzma.
“High Flats” swings with a Vegas swagger, whose intoxicated trumpets, farisa organs and droning and wah guitars provide the offbeat pulse for this musical mayhem. Through the wayward vocals of Harding, “High Flats” also breathes with a nonchalant airflow. Encapsulated in the lyrics: “We Live in a high flats, we can see everything”, Harding commands the song, whilst revelling in the high energy circuits of sounds.
“Crucifixion( Traditional)” is perhaps the album’s most abstract song, whose torpid trumpets and saxs synchronise creating what sounds like a funeral march, only to be woken by the sonic splodges and zig-zag of Industrial chainsaw fusion of guitar effects and synths. With the same innovation, likened to Bjork’s “Biophilia” “Crucifixion” drones from the tsunami of synths and regenerated from the electro waves of bleeps and clatter.
“Bowie” again illustrates the innovative experimentation of “Pure Phase Esemble”. With the opening drones, subtle taps and spinning deflated balloon synths, “Bowie” continues its ambient journey through the smoochy union of the sax and trumpets and the Brian Eno-esque synths. It’s a gentle euphoric number, pulsated by the primitive bongo drums and comforted by the fleeting vocals of Karol Schwarz and Kuzma, indicating that paradise is in reach.
“The Frost” is led by the exquisite, drawn-out vocals of Kuzma, which reverberate against the shimmering guitars. With dreamy lyrics such as: “the morning is brighter than ever, I wish it could last forever, it’s all covered in frost…”, Kuzma encapsulates the emotive sentiments of the song. Along with the ethereal flutes, curving riffs and droning industrial synths “The Frost” manifests into a hauntingly beautiful song, before drifting into obscurity.
“Darkest Sun” is very much the signature song of the album, benchmarking the talent of those who contributed. Led by Harding, the “Darkest Sun” does what it says on the tin. It’s a paradoxical song, whose white noise ambience is customised by the shaky percussions and spinning synths that stream and awaken the suspended bass. It’s an epic intro, where tension is mounting and engulfed by the mass shoegazing and screechy guitars hysteria. With remnants of early Verve, “Darkest Sun” is resonated by Harding’s vocals that bellow amongst the chaos. Driven by a caged intensity, “Darkest Sun” is a song which percolates with passion and hangs with tenterhooks. With intriguing lyrics such as “Well the people have gone looking into the darkest sun…”, “Darkest Sun” exudes an intangible vulnerability, which is amplified through the smudgy trumpets and frenzy of scratchy riffs. However, it’s once the ethereal vocals of Kuzma merge that “Darkest Sun” casts its demonic shadows. Like a banshee from afar Kuzma wails her dreamy tones over the transfigured soundscape, leaving a hauntingly beautiful aftermath.