Sarah Pillow Remixes

"Remixes" is the second release from classically trained Sarah Pillow (and her third album to date) that continues her mission to blur the chronological boundaries in period musics, and recast centuries old lyrics in a modern setting. However, on "Remixes" you get the best of all worlds because this is a luxurious two-disk affair with classical ensemble treatments on the first disk and exactly the same sequence of songs repeated for the second disk, but with modern instrumental backing.

Pillow has the most amazing range, not only linear. One moment she is enchanting and angelic, almost childlike; fragile without the usual excess of vibrato, she exposes a naked innocence that I haven't heard since setting ears upon Lucia Popp's sublime treatment of Strauss' "Four Last Songs". Then, notching up a gear, she forces and bends her voice almost blues-like into a full, rich canopy to embrace the underlying instrumentation. This is risky as it forces the voice through less controlled areas, at the limits of one's natural ability. The result can end up off key, at least transiently. But it's a risk worth taking, few can sing both inside and outside the music in this way. And then, in addition to this, Pillow can adapt her Baroque to a contemporary setting. Bring in the backing band (and it's no poor man's backing band neither when you're married to Tunnel's Marc Wagnon), and whoosh-bang! Here's a new sound and it ain't no "Switched on Classics" nor "Rondo Veneziano".

It is a new music, which of course is exactly the title of Pillow's previous recording, "Nuove Musiche", where this approach to fuse Baroque with the Tunnels / Brand X progressiveness was introduced to us. And it was wonderfully successful at that time too, especially their absolutely gut-busting version of Dowland's "come away, come sweet love" - extraordinary bass tricks and gorgeous Zimbabwean-stylee sliding cymbals - in fact the whole band were totally tuned in for that cut.

The overall impression where disk two of "Remixes" differs to "Nuove Musiche" is in the presentation of the original song as being central to the approach. Although it worked very well before, it seemed that the early days of the experiment needed to resort to shoe-horning the lyrics into the modern settings. "Remixes" goes one better and achieves a more comfortable fusion of lyric and melody. This new confidence even manages to incorporate Latin American influences.

Other than Pillow's voice, central to this success are the chamber musicians on disk one with little crossover to the predominantly electric disk two, showcasing Percy Jones' succulent basslines, Wagnon's ecstatic electronic vibes and John Goodsall (guitars) at best sounding very Andy Latimer (Camel/Santana-esque but also with a tender and lovely acoustic touch, and Frank Katz (drums) keeping up his good form.

Unfortunately, other than the brief liner notes on "Nuove Musiche" and none for "Remixes" (other than the following quote), very little is offered in explanation of the concept behind the fusion of these very different musics. Then again, the music does speak for itself, volumes in fact, and perhaps enough is said with this single quote lifted from Einstein, "the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

What a historic challenge for the players, imagine receiving "that call" to take part, who could refuse? Now it's your chance, so don't turn down this opportunity to be a part of history and hear "Remixes".