27/12/2024
"Odd Unit is a project by the young violinist and composer Theo May, in which he brought together various graduates of renowned London music schools in 2019 to make music beyond strict genre boundaries. At the end of 2022, the tracks were recorded, which were then released in early 2024 with the title "Alive in the Forest of Odd" on the formation's debut album on Discus Music from Sheffield. On May's website, one learns that he sees himself strongly influenced by Keith Tippett, who died in 2020, whom he also met through his father and won as a teacher. You can hear that in "Alive in the Forest of Odd", composed throughout by May. A jazzy-rock, consistently acoustic, but very extensively instrumented ensemble music is offered here, which has a certain kinship to Tippett's works for larger groups of musicians, even if it is much more rounded and catchy. Dominated by violin and clarinets, sometimes one of the other string instruments or the piano works its way into the foreground as a soloist, the composition surges forward solemnly to swingingly, dynamically and committedly performed, chamber music swaying, jazzy virtuoso and folky rocking (listen to the introductory "Voyager" in a moment), whereby – as already indicated – no rock instrument is used except for the drums. British and Eastern European folk tracks are often discernible, characterized by May's lively fiddling and trumpeting clarinet sounds, but in the end this music is probably best accommodated in the genre of chamber rock (or chamber prog). If Jean-Luc Ponty had recorded an album of jazzy folk (rock) with a few college graduates, something like "Alive in the Forest of Odd" might have come out of it. With his debut album, May does not need to hide from this and other 'rock violinists', especially not from his almost surnamesake Darryl Way, whose last works this album is almost light years superior to. If you appreciate acoustic chamber rock, e.g. the music of Aranis or Metamorphosis, and don't have an aversion to folky violin excursions, you should definitely give "Alive in the Forest of Odd" a try. I hope there will be more from the young formation." - Achim Breiling, BABYBLAUE SEITEN
10 track album
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