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Roam the Hello Clouds

Sydney, Australia

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Roam the Hello Clouds
'Near Misses'
~scape sc45cd

Despite having heard 10,000+ albums in your life time, occasionally you come across a piece of music or a band that still surprise you. Such a revelation is every music lover's ultimate drug.

Roam the Hello Clouds convey the excitement that the feeling of discovery brings. Not only is their musical concept adventurous, it also sounds great - a rare combination that lovers of jazz and/or electronic music will find intoxicating.

On first listen, some might simply classify this music as "jazz/electronica", mainly due to Phil Slater's soaring trumpet (reminiscent of Miles Davis circa Bitches Brew)
in combination with Dave Miller's subtle electronics and Laurence Pike's untethered drumming.
You could argue that 'Near Misses' is a Jazz album, in the truest spirit of the word. The musicians used chance and error as their modus operandi, inviting the unknown and then manipulating it with design.
But, as the album progresses and the interplay between the three musicians reaches a level of fierce intensity, all barriers dissolve and all attempts at categorizations fail.

This music never stands still.

Throughout the course of the album, 'Near Misses' metamorphoses from driving rhythms and melodies to free space, from abstract ambience to electronic invention (the track "A Life Of Near Misses" even displays a sort of Dub approach).

As much as the process of chance is an integral part of their music, it also played a great part in the conception of the band. In October 2003, Sydney-based drummer Laurence Pike was paired up with Perth Laptop artist Dave Miller in a 'musical blind date' for a performance at the Sydney Opera House. It turned out to be a meeting of kindred spirits. When in the following week the opportunity for another gig in Sydney arose, Pike called upon trumpeter Phil Slater to complete what he thought would be an ideal musical partnership for a one-off collaboration. And he was right - about the partnership, but fortunately not about it being a one-off thing.

The following year, a second performance was scheduled, and with only 2 gigs under their belts, the band set about trying to capture the intuitive nature of their exciting live performances in a studio situation. The result of the recording is the album Near Misses, 10 tracks of unrehearsed group improvisation recorded in a single day.

There are many beaten tracks for the configuration of improvising groups, notably, Roam the Hello Clouds have chosen to forge their own path with the slightly unusual combination of drums, laptop and trumpet. Of special interest is the use of the laptop artist as a fully fledged improviser and integrated part of the ensemble.
Too often electronics are left to drift across the surface when faced with integrating with live instruments, making for awkward juxtapositions and results far from organic. Here we have living proof that man and computer can create great unified art. Miller's hardware not only provides harmony and tempo, but his deft ears also sample and reinterpret the musings of his colleagues in the moment, establishing the sort of interplay one associates with the masters of the improvising idiom, rather than an Apple Mac.
What you hear in the end is a live band; playing, processing - everything was performed live in the studio, recorded in takes, much the way they did at Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey Studio in the 1960's. Even Dave Miller's sound sources came almost exclusively from live on-the-fly sampling from the band's previous gig.
Admirably, amongst this group process, three clearly discernible instrumental voices are still maintained. They fuse in an almost breathtakingly musical rapport, yet always retain their individual characteristics.

Fortunately for us, for every near hit on this debut offering, there are many more near misses.

Personnel:

Sydney musician Laurence Pike is arguably Australia's most interesting drummer.
As a leader, he has gained exposure with electronic/jazz/experimental group Triosk (three releases to date on Leaf and ~scape) and post/prog-rockers Pivot (including a nomination for Triple J's Australian album of the year). He has recorded and toured with Burnt Friedman & Atom Heart's cyber-jazz group Flanger, German electronic innovator Jan Jelinek and Prefuse 73's Savath Y Savalas project. In a review of his Drums for Fun and Fitness 10" for Berlin-based Monika label, The Wire wrote: "Whoever programmed him should be mighty proud. "

Hailing from Perth, Western Australia, the physical seclusion of living in the most isolated city in the world inspired Dave Miller to create his very own forms of electronic music. While still at high school, Dave finally saved up enough money to buy a sampler. Local radio and audiences picked up on him quickly, but it was when Dave supported Jan Jelinek, that the move from local upstart to internationally released artist began. Since then, he has shared stages with among others Jamie Lidell, Funkstorung, Four Tet and Andrew Pekler.
The 2005 release of his debut album Mitchells Raccolta on Background Records and a subsequent tour of Europe received unanimously positive reviews. Wrote the Wire:
"Dave Miller puts a new spin on the virtual reality of sample-based composition"

Sydney-based Trumpeter Phil Slater is considered the most significant Australian jazz/improvising artist of his generation. He leads his own groups, and has played at jazz festivals all over the world, having performed with a diverse range of international artists including Jim Black, Nigel Kennedy and Lou Reed.
'The Australian' has said Slater is ". . .at the cutting edge of contemporary jazz. . . originality, technical mastery and that spark of intelligent musical exploration that has always driven the evolution of jazz.'

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