Music Spoken Here presents Dreamscapes
On Thursday 12th June – The Marrs Bar
London-based Dreamscapes make their Worcester debut on the Music Spoken Here fortnightly program of contemporary improvised music at The Marr’s Bar.
The six-piece ensemble was formed by guitarist Julien Durand, with friends he met while studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Julien started out playing rock, influenced by Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin and Metallica, but became interested in improvisation through a guitar teacher named Vlad, who he describes as “a really cool, classic death metal kind of guitarist”. His next teacher was really into gypsy jazz and inspired Julien to join the school big band, playing jazz fusion and jazz funk, where he also learned to read music.
While Dreamscapes is described as “post-fusion nu-jazz”, Julien is reluctant to put labels on their music as it draws from a broad range of styles, strong characters and musical identities in the band, which pulled together Julien’s musical acquaintances through various circumstances over a number of years.
Keyboardist Cenk Esen, who Julien had met in Italy back in 2017, was snapped up when Julien later saw him perform in the UK with drummer Romarna Campbell’s Trio, playing several electronic keyboards. Julien explained his choice in an interview with Music Spoken Here instigator Dave Fuller, “In Birmingham there was nobody playing electric keyboards, everyone was playing acoustic piano, pretty straight ahead.” The music Julien wanted to make was more influenced by rock and jazz fusion of guitarists like Pat Metheny. The band’s original drummer Jonno Gaze had set up a jam with Julien and saxophonist George Garford, which worked out with George being recruited. The lineup was completed with vocalist Lucy-Anne Daniels from Leeds, who Jazzwise Magazine accoladed “If the weekend had a standout star it would probably be vocalist and composer Lucy-Anne Daniels” in their 2-page writeup of this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival.
The band released their debut eponymous three-track EP in January 2024, which includes a cover of ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ and their first album has already been recorded, expected later this year. They performed at the EFG London Jazz Festival and Cheltenham Jazz Festival last year and toured in September, performing in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kidderminster, Birmingham, Sheffield, London and Bristol. Recent changes to the lineup include the addition of bassist John Jones (who appeared with the Karim Saber Quintet on the Music Spoken Here program at The Marr’s Bar last month) and Jack Robson replacing Jonno Gaze on drums. Doors open at 8pm for an 8:30 start. Admission is complementary for Music Spoken Here Club Members, with non-members asked to contribute £10-15 on the door. For more information go to the Music Spoken Here website.