Still trumpet time: Mark Isham

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:06:38 -0800

Continuing my thread of guys who have played brass instruments on David Sylvian albums, here is Mark Isham, as promised, from his first solo album, Vapor Drawings:

07-Men Before the Mirror

Mark Isham

That's Isham playing everything, unless there are some drums in there that I can't hear, which would be played by Peter Van Hooke. Vapor Drawings was released in 1983 on William Ackerman's Windham Hill label, which both brought New Age music into the mainstream and instigated the New Age backlash. A Sunday Doonesbury cartoon at the time lampooned New Age music by positing the album title Air Pudding--not very far removed from Vapor Drawings. Skimming through this album again I have a hard time finding a focal point in the music; it all seems like background music. It's no surprise, then, that in the intervening two decades Isham has built a career as a movie soundtrack composer, with dozens of titles in his œuvre and no signs of slowing down. He can rock out more than you'd think, though; I once saw him lead his band through a heavy fusion set at Washington's late Bayou nightclub. And of course his trumpet is always a delicious embellishment, as in David Sylvian's "Red Guitar"--

David Sylvian - Red Guitar

When you want that "trumpet heard from afar while sitting in an outdoor Parisian café at twilight, waiting for a lover who is not going to show, or mourning one who has just left forever" sound, Mark Isham's your man. How could I go on about David Sylvian and Mark Isham and not present the pinnacle of their partnership, the song that secured universal recognition of Sylvian's genius (if there is any justice in the world), the sublime "Orpheus"--

David Sylvian - Orpheus

"I wrestle with an outlook on life that shifts between darkness and shadowy light." Jackson Browne has apparently expressed in his lyrics every nuance of emotion that Bob Lefsetz has ever felt, but I get more out of that single line from David Sylvian than from all the Jackson Browne I've ever heard. I have to stop now, before this becomes the All David Sylvian, All the Time blog. But I do reserve the right to bring him up again. Soon.

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Relaxing with Claire Hamill

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:34:28 -0700

I first heard Claire Hamill on Yes guitarist Steve Howe's solo album entitled, imaginatively, The Steve Howe Album. The album was meant to showcase Howe's facility with a range of guitars, but it was Claire Hamill's crystalline singing on "Look Over Your Shoulder" that was the record's highlight for me. I next heard her singing on Wishbone Ash's Number the Brave album, which also featured John Wetton on bass and lead vocals. It wasn't until I was in college (1982) that I discovered her solo records, which she had been making since 1971. Her 1970s albums were in a folky vein, but in the 80s she adapted to the prevailing new wave style and recorded some real stunners: "Ultraviolet Light" (with Gary Numan), and the sublime "The Moon is a Powerful Lover." I never understood why she didn't become as popular as Kate Bush. "Moon" included samples of her voice as backing instrumentation, a technique used in full to create the amazing Voices album in 1986. Voices opens with "Awaken... Larkrise":

01 Awaken...Larkrise

Claire Hamill

The ten songs on the album, mostly in wordless vocals, cycle through the four seasons, starting with Spring and ending with Winter and "Sleep." Oddly, I did not hear the whole album for months after buying it. First of all, it was difficult to get a copy of the CD since it had no US release. I was managing a Record World store at the time, and you would think that would mean I could get any CD I wanted, but not so. 99% of the special orders I submitted were returned as "unavailable." Nice going, import buyers! I didn't manage to get a copy of Voices until I went to Toronto on vacation in 1987. Canada was record-and-CD heaven: many of my favorite bands, being from England, did not have US contracts, so I would have to pay top dollar for UK imports at home in the States. But many of those records did get released in Canada, and the US dollar was quite strong against the Canadian dollar back then (not anymore!), so I went on a record-buying binge every time I went to Canada. Anyway, I got Voices in Canada and brought it back home to Maryland, but whenever I put the CD on, I would find it so relaxing that I would fall asleep. That happened over and over, and to my girlfriend too! But this story has a happy ending: I did eventually hear the whole album, and it's wonderful. And Claire Hamill has a new record contract with a career retrospective coming out next month! Here's her MySpace page, with three more songs (including McAlmont and Butler's "Blue"!) and a video.

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Still trumpet time: Mark Isham

Relaxing with Claire Hamill