Saskatchewan sound sculptors Peace Flag Ensemble are a band who always seem to go about things quietly. No Fanfares, no bombast, a musical collective whose fluent jazz-toned, post rock dynamics thrum with soft power. They aim for an intimate impact.
Their shimmering debut ‘Noteland’ from 2019, balanced ambience and improvisation exquisitely, conjuring up justified Keith Jarrett/Talk Talk references with its percussion-free, textural atmospheres. Two years later came the more expansive, landscape of ‘Astral Plains’, an album which saw Nordic jazz interacting with some dramatic Sigur Ros expressionism. So where does their new album ‘Everything is Possible’, out now via We Are Busy Bodies, find this illusive sextet?
At a surface level, this time around the ensemble’s components remains stable, Michael Scott Dawson (electronics and guitar), Jon Neher (piano), bassist Travis Packer, Paul Gutheil on sax, Dalton Lam (Flugelhorn) and Michael Thievin drumming. So consolidation might be on the agenda although that seems too straightforward for the Peace Flag troop. Yes, the Ensemble’s enveloping approach remains but things have been intricately unpicked here, the fabric rewoven.
Most noticeably Neher’s piano is the guide, sometimes out-front but generally setting the melodic trajectory for the tunes. Take the album’s opener, the panoramic Paint Drying. Neher’s delicate chords set the jazz ballad tone, Gutheil’s pleading sax then responds before the Thievin / Packer rhythmic strokes breeze in. The tune is uncluttered but gently emotional, slow but deeply thoughtful, fringed with Scott Dawson’s exquisite electronic touches. On The Past Is What Changes The Most the tempo lifts to a light shuffling swing as Neher’s piano dovetails with Dalton Lam’s flugelhorn to conjure up this soother of a song. There’s an airy glide to the track, a Kenny Wheeler-esque weightlessness which the Neher/Lam combo reach again on the graceful, yearning Raised Among Catalogues.
Another subtle shift in the Peace Flag Ensemble soundscape this time around is the more defined rhythmic undercurrent carrying each track. Michael Thievin’s drum patterns and Travis Packer’s lyrical bass are foundational to the ‘Everything Is Possible’ collection. Their combination brings groove very much into play here, not to be forceful but to add to each tune’s transporting dynamism. On General Strike, the high-hat whispers, soft padding snare and delicate bass all mingle with the emotional twirl of the tune’s melody, creating a moment of pure Legrand soundtrack escapism. Hot Mic feels similarly filmic, picturing scenes of a clubland street as it struggles to sleep, its ambling soulful beat reviving for one last fling.
There’s a different kind of fusion going on with ‘Everything Is Possible’. Yes, a rich jazz seam runs naturally through the Ensemble’s music but other sensibilities forge the landscape that only this band imagine. Ambient, post rock, experimental, MOR, electronic layers all meander here. Flaming Heights glows with these elements, Lam’s flugel smouldering, Neher’s piano questioning and pools of electronic resonance percolating underneath. The beautifully weary Lover’s Spat goes further, shoegazing and riff driven in one tense EST-like shot. But in amongst these many fine moments it’s Anne Hodges Asleep On The Sofa which is the most complete. A probable reference to the woman from Alabama who, in the Fifties, was hit by a meteorite crashing through her living room roof, the track ascends softly from peaceful slumber to a place of shivering wonder. The detailing is Mark Hollis perfect: Neher’s nimble piano; the sighing pastoral synths; the distant guitar clangs; the curdling bass; the flugelhorn’s song; and the palpitating drum phrases. No sound is wasted in this melancholic, weirdly magical six minutes.
For an album which steers clear of grand gestures the closing tune, I Am Not The Gaugin I Used To Be verges on playfulness beyond the title. It throbs with urgency, flowing around spiralling piano patterns and looping brass phrases, almost conventional but not quite, big music re-imagined. This sums up the distinctiveness of Peace Flag Ensemble and ‘Everything Is Possible’. Here is a group who can work with melodies, tunefulness, rhythms, harmony, taking the combinations that you’ve come to expect and refracting them into something singular, subtly different and equally moving.
Get your copy of ‘Everything Is Possible‘ by Peace Flag Ensemble from your local record store or direct from We Are Busy Bodies HERE
