Cinematic Orchestra : Ma Fleur

Full title is: Ma Fleur

The All Music Guide rating for this album on a 1-9 scale (9=best) is: 4

The All Music Guide rating for this album among this artist's works on a 1-9 scale (9=best) is: 5

  Fontella Bass - Vocals
  Jote Osahn - Strings
  Luke Flowers - Drums
  Patrick Watson - Piano, Vocals
  Phil France - Double Bass
  Stella Page - Strings
  Stuart McCallum - Guitar
  Tom Chant - Clarinet (Bass), Saxophone

For the true follow-up to 2002's Every Day -- since 2003's Man with a Movie Camera soundtrack had actually been recorded four years earlier -- J. Swinscoe & co.'s Cinematic Orchestra produced another soundtrack , this one virtually invisible. Not long after Every Day 's release, Swinscoe began writing music for another Cinematic LP, but in another direction from where he'd gone previously. This was a series of quiet, contemplative instrumentals, with Rhodes keyboards and reedy clarinets, simply begging for a narrative (call them orchestrations for cinema). With scripts for each supplied by a friend -- each track got its own story, together comprising different scenes from a single life -- and a series of unpeopled photographs supplied by Maya Hayuk , Cinematic Orchestra had the narrative they needed for their invisible soundtrack . (Added vocals from Fontella Bass , Lou Rhodes , and Patrick Watson represent the same person at different ages.) The results form an intensely affecting record, but one whose monochromatic format unfortunately serves no large purpose; when every song attempts to become a mini-masterpiece of melodrama, patience grows thin. Swinscoe tells us that he wanted to record an album where 'leaving the spaces as empty as possible was paramount,' but he can hardly complain if we choose to leave him the space to himself. [A U.K. version of the album was also released.] ~ John Bush, All Music Guide

TCO return with their first full-length since 2002's 'Everyday'. 'Ma Fleur' was written as the soundtrack to a specially commissioned screenplay for an imagined film, which may or may not yet be made. Dealing with themes of loss and love, 'Ma Fleur' is fertile ground for Jason Swinscoe's brand of raw-emotion music making. If the mood is melancholy, Swinscoe and company manage to make it an ultimately uplifting experience, perhaps in the end more about the love you find than the love you lose. Deluxe packaging: CD digipak with six photo postcard inserts and double LP 150 gram gatefold vinyl with full-color printed sleeves.