Mark Wingfield - The Gathering (2024) [Hi-Res]

The brand new studio album of Mark Wingfield’s album for MoonJune Records finds this most distinctive American born English guitarist in the company of Gary Husband (keyboards and drums), Asaf Sirkis (drums) with world-renowned bass players, Tony Levin and Percy Jones. Initially recording with Husband and Sirkis as a trio in 2021 in Spain, Wingfield and MoonJune’s Leonard Pavkovic later recruited Jones and Levin to add their highly individual signature contributions during 2023.

The result is a seamless blend of compositions and collective improvisation that roves way beyond the usual generic categorisations making the album hard to pin down as either jazz or rock. Perhaps that’s as it should be for a sound that hovers somewhere between these and other more diverse stylistic influences.

From whatever direction it comes, as the music moves through the players, their gift is the ability to make it fly. That degree of connection with each other shouldn't be too surprising. Sirkis has worked with Wingfield in other settings such as 2015’s Proof Of Life, 2016’s The Stone House, Lighthouse in 2017, and Tales From a Dreaming City (2018). Wingfield and Husband collaborated on 2019’s thoughtful piano and guitar duet, Tor & Vale.

Asif Sirkis, whose credits include working with Tim Garland, John Abercrombie, Gilad Atzmon, and most recently, full-time drummer with Soft Machine, and Gary Husband, best known for his long-time collaborations with Allan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, Jack Bruce, and Billy Cobham, provide empathetic support that acts both as a tightrope and when required a safety net.

As Wingfield navigates his way through the different spaces within The Gathering, he draws unusual textures and serpentine melodic lines from his instrument. Shrewdly mercurial, he shifts between moods of slow, diaphanous beauty to fiercely unrestrained bursts of barbed activity within the blink of an eye. While the trio’s obvious bond is of course an integral part of the album’s magnetic appeal, the presence of two of the top bassists on the scene today only deepens the attraction. Tony Levin, best known for his work with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson, contributes to six tracks, while veteran fretless innovator, Percy Jones, rightly hailed for his stellar work in Brand X, enlivens four of the pieces.

There’s a sense of joy and discovery as the trio augmented by their respective guest bassists move decisively through the hinterland between written and composed music and looser, more intuitive environments. Themes and tunes are open-ended and ambiguous in places, enabling his fellow players to do their own exploring and then report back their findings. Mixing spacey drifts, inquisitive sojourns, and harder-edged excursions, these are fearless and unreserved exchanges whose roving angularities are as arresting as they are intense.

The innate curiosity that appears to be wired into Wingfield’s gently unfurling compositions possesses an air of mystery about them. Simmering with the same kind of heartfelt, deeply lyrical soloing one hears in Terje Rypdal and Pat Metheny’s work, Wingfield brings his own magical unpredictability to punchy, racing grooves that dovetail with his luminescent atmospherics. Across the album, Wingfield’s soloing embarks upon a It’s a musical journey that sees him continually seeking out the next moment of dazzling, spontaneous beauty.

By turns ecstatic, dramatic, bold, and emotional, The Gathering is an unwaveringly brilliant piece of work that will add another remarkable chapter to his ongoing story.

Mark Wingfield - guitar, soundscapes (all tracks)
Gary Husband - synth & piano (all tracks) and drums (tracks 1, 5, 6)
Asaf Sirkis - drums (all tracks)
Tony Levin - electric upright bass (tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Percy Jones - fretless bass guitar (tracks 2, 4, 9, 10)

Tracklist:
1.01 - Mark Wingfield - The Corkscrew Tower (5:10)
1.02 - Mark Wingfield - Stormlight (7:30)
1.03 - Mark Wingfield - Apparition in the Vaults (5:46)
1.04 - Mark Wingfield - A Fleeting Glance (6:27)
1.05 - Mark Wingfield - Pursued in the Snow Lit Forest (8:56)
1.06 - Mark Wingfield - The Lost Room (8:33)
1.07 - Mark Wingfield - The Listening Trees (6:54)
1.08 - Mark Wingfield - Journey Home (9:43)
1.09 - Mark Wingfield - Together We Rise (6:09)
1.10 - Mark Wingfield - Cinnamon Bird (7:41)