Poke the Sky is about to come out so its time for a few Reviews

 

Reviews:

"...experimental effects are interwoven with the piano's sustained sequences. Spontaneously, the flight of albatrosses or a flock of petrels using thermals to glide over the ocean for days came to this reviewer's mind as he listened."

ferdinand dupuis-panther

jazz halo magazine

https://www.jazzhalo.be/reviews/cdlp-reviews/m/mac-dunlop-somewhere-nearby/

"It's the diversity here which makes this arguably Dunlop's most intriguing album to date."

Darren Rea, Classical Music Review

http://www.reviewgraveyard.com/00_revs/r2020/music/20-04-12_macdunlop-nearby.html

"it's like narrative without words"

Sarah Gosling, BBC Radio 6

“I love it – so fragmented and just kind of dream like – snapshots of sounds and motifs going round like some kind of slightly unhinged music box.”

Elizabeth Alker, The Unclassified Show, BBC Radio 3

"Mac's compositional style is interpreted by some as 'transgressive' because it can drift between classical, jazz, ambient - even experimental improvisation. I would add that there is a romanticism too, a meditative convergence of minimalist rhythm and melody."

Dom Calpon, saxophonist/arranger

fedinand dupuis-panther full review for jazz halo

"Mac Dunlop lives in Cornwall, where he composes and records his work at Blauhaus Falmouth Studio. His music combines modern classical and jazz with experimental electronic soundscapes. "I love it - so fragmented and just kind of dream like - snapshots of sounds and motifs going round like some kind of slightly unhinged music box." That's how Elizabeth Alker commented on The Unclassified Show, BBC Radio 3 about Dunlop's music, which is currently only available in digitalized form via Bandcamp.

To be heard on the current release are "Bianka's Song" at the beginning, followed by "E-Flat Sine Wave" and "Wharf Interlude." Other segments on the release include "Migration in Three Parts" and, how fitting in times of pandemic, "Lockdown World." We also experience the sonic tapestry of "Somewhere Nearby" and finally "Steambeck."

Birds chirping and lightly bubbling piano sound. Not a roaring of a stream, but the slow steady murmur of a mountain stream seems to be an appropriate image to what is heard. At the same time, listening to it, one can imagine clouds floating in the sky and a freshening autumn wind. And then it is not so essential to know who Bianka is, for whom the song was composed. In the course of the song the listener also gets the impression of melancholy and longing, of farewell and parting pain, since a reunion is marked with a question mark. Dunlop further combines his keyboard playing with shimmering electronic soundscapes that evoke ominous drama. Symbolist paintings may come to the mind of one or the other listener. In his performance he seamlessly combined "Bianka's Song" with "E-Flat Sine Wave". We experience the crystal clear flow of the sound in the following interlude. Is there not also a melodica involved in the musical production? Listening to it, one can think of rustling leaves and voices of the forest, can't one? By the way, would it be out of place to classify the music as neo-Romantic, considering "Wharf Interlude"?

"Migration" is next on the program. Here experimental effects are interwoven with the piano's sustained sequences. Spontaneously, the flight of albatrosses or a flock of petrels using thermals to glide over the ocean for days came to this reviewer's mind as he listened. In the same way, the piece radiates something floating and weightless. Dripping sound passages are part of the performance to boot. Synthesizer or electric piano - that is the question as the piece progresses, which also tends to develop in the direction of nu jazz. Electronic sound clouds spread more and more in the background. Partly they seem to come from offstage and disappear there. In the foreground one experiences "punctuations" by an electric piano, Rhodes or synthesizer - at least that is the listening impression. And Mac Dunlop also makes use of the pure acoustics of black and white keys. Finally, the pianist and composer mixes atmospheric turbulence into the work.

Lyrically laid out and in light pastel tones "Lockdown World" sounds - against all expectations. Slightly rolling keyboard play, in the image of a whirlwind that unfolds slowly, very slowly, can be discerned. A certain redundancy cannot be ignored. Is this to be understood as a return to everyday life in isolation? And somehow life also seems to gradually trickle away, according to the listening impression. "Somewhere Nearby" seems to be in a similar style as "Lockdown World". Finally, "Steambeck" forms the conclusion of the release."

 

find more releases on bandcamp, and streaming services too.