Steve Banks 'Emboldened'

In the latest episode of Harmonious World, I am joined by guitarist, composer and bandleader Steve Banks. Our discussion is all around his new album - Emboldened - which he is currently playing around the UK with his extraordinary quintet.

This was a fascinating conversation and please do listen to the whole album if you can - Steve and I discuss many of the tracks in our conversation, but the entire collection is worth a listen. Please do try to get to see Steve if you're in the UK.

Thanks to Steve for allowing me to play extracts from Emboldened alongside our conversation.

For a debut album, this is truly an astonishing piece of work. As Steve and I discuss in our podcast conversation, Emboldened comes as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is so much more than a musician's reflections on that difficult period in all our lives - it is also a collection of compositions that allow the guitarist and his ensemble to perform and improvise at a devastatingly high standard.

This quintet has a distinctive sound, with each member bringing their own sound and style, while deftly intertwining: each acting at times as soloist and backing band.

Sam Crockatt on sax, Rebecca Nash on piano, Henrik Jensen on bass and Mark Whitlam on drums all sit alongside Steve Banks's guitar to make this a true quintet album.

Nic Gerpe 'The Makrosmos 50 Project'

Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World, featuring a conversation with pianist Nic Gerpe, in which we discuss The Makrokosmos 50 Project.

The Makrokosmos 50 Project is out now and it features the 12 original movements of Georg Crumb's Makrokosmos Volume 1 for solo piano, followed by the new collection of 12 movements inspired by the former, each one crafted by modern composers.

The album is essentially the whole of Crumb's collection, followed by the 12 responses to each movement. All performed by Nic Gerpe. In our conversation, he told me that he'd recorded all 24 tracks in a ridiculously short period of time. Of course, there was practice before that, but still ...

The interesting thing is that the first 12 tracks are all by one composer and the following 12 by individual composers. Yet there is a sense of unity about the whole album. Nic's playing is consummate, but the writing, too, is quite beautiful. These short individual pieces stand alone and collectively as an incredible tribute to George Crumb's legacy, writ large in 2023.

Thanks to Nic for allowing me to play extracts from The Makrokosmos 50 Project alongside our conversation.