Trestle Records’ One Day Band series unites musicians for special one-off recordings, consistently resulting in collaborations full of wonder and surprise. For the 17th album in the series, electronic musician Roly Porter (Vex’d) was put to work alongside esteemed percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.

This is a session where Glennie’s technique is often more felt than heard thanks to Porter’s intense processing. The exception is ‘Part 3’, which starts with some atmospheric rhythms and drum sounds while Porter seems to be respectfully biding his time for the right moment to interact with these rich and varied sounds. It’s not until the second half that he emerges from the shadows, whereupon his interventions crash upon one another, leading to a deafening and vital conclusion of rapturous and thrilling feedback.

The track exists in direct contrast to the album’s first piece, which is full of gnarly drama, tense drones and abrupt crashes derived from Glennie’s timpani but converted via Porter’s kit into shards of punishing electronic weaponry. The album’s final piece is where everything locks together uniformly, a challenging yet transcendent epic presented as an impenetrable wall of sound, through which you can just make out Glennie’s intricate patterns and Porter’s electronic flourishes.

One Day Band 17 by Evelyn Glennie and Roly Porter is out now on Trestle Records.

Words: Mat Smith

(c) 2019 Further.