Light at Night is the debut album from 25 year old musician, drummer and composer Dave Hamblett. Recorded with five of his closest musical colleagues, the album boasts an enormous range of emotions, textures, and stellar performances by a group of highly creative musicians barely in their mid-twenties, and will do doubt put Dave Hamblett strongly on the map as a new artist with a very personal and honest take on contemporary improvised music. Dave Hamblett is fast becoming one of the most talked about musicians on the UK creative music scene, combining his formidable skills as a first call drummer with his growing reputation as a composer of powerful and original contemporary improvised music. Hamblett s performances display a deep understanding of a multitude of genres and he shows a maturity in both his drumming and composing rarely heard from a musician aged twenty-five. As a leader and composer Hamblett has been forging his voice and musical direction by performing with his own sextet The Dave Hamblett Group, his main compositional outlet. The ensemble features the leading lights of their generation Ivo Neame, Calum Gourlay, Josh Arcoleo, Joe Wright and Alex Munk and they have been performing steadily on the London scene for the past three years, developing a unique voice and a tight cohesive group sound. Hamblett s debut album Light At Night presents music that is powerful, joyful and direct, while also sophisticated and intricate. It weaves simple melodies over unexpected shifts through harmonies and grooves and creates vibrant landscapes for improvisations that transform as the pieces develop. Whirlwind Recordings is proud to help introduce David's original music to the world, and we invite you to enter the sound-world of one of the guiding-lights of his generation.
Review
Hamblett's assured drumming, Arcoleo's dark sax sound and Munk's tremulous, butterfly-wings guitar effects combine to produce some eloquent original music. --John Fordham, The Guardian, February 22nd 2013
A debut album of unusual maturity, with Neame and Arcoleo slipping some solo steel inside its velvet glove. --Jack Massarik, Evening Standard
The UK jazz scene is experiencing a purple patch, at least in terms of creativity, and the vitality of the new generation is amply proved by drummer Dave Hamblett s debut recording. Hamblett, just recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, is already receiving calls from players such as Phronesis pianist Ivo Neame. For his own group the drummer has recruited some of the brightest young things of the London scene, including Neame on piano and Rhodes; saxophonists Josh Arcoleo and Joe Wright; guitarist Alex Munk; and bassist Callum Gourlay. Hamblett s original compositions inhabit a warmly ambiguous harmonic space, and his arrangements for the sextet make excellent use of the two-horns-two-chords line- up, creating a layered ensemble texture that sets up some fine solos from Neame, Arcoleo and Munk - **** --Cormac Larkin, The Irish Times, March 1st 2013
http://www.davehamblett.com
