Email: ...folk provides the theme but jazz determines the style Landermason Reviews
May 2003HEXHAM COURANT
LanderMason reveal their distinctive skills encompassing classical, folk and jazz
Tynedale audiences heard music makers LanderMason come of age in last week's Northern concert tour, which took in Hexham and Corbridge. Last year, when the fledgling Ipswich based group - at that stage a duo - played their first-ever Hexham date, they had discovered a distinctive musical identity but were still feeling their way in terms of programme development. Hence, the 2002 concert had comprised mainly popular standards, with just a handful of self-penned songs. On the latest visit, however, LanderMason proved confident and prolific enough to be able to devote virtually the whole programme to their own compositions: taken in conjunction with their production of three CDs, this was a significant step forward. Recently, too, Corbridge-born singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Fiona Lander and guitarist/songwriter Paul Mason have been joined by a percussionist - Keith Bleasby, who wasn't on their first CD In A Dream but plays on the second Ebony and the third. In their musical explorations of life and relationships, LanderMason are distinctive in the way the lead duo's skills coalesce in styles that span the classical, folk and jazz fields. They are equally at home with a hint of madrigals, a folky theme like Only One Way Left To Go, or funky jazz rhythms on On The Level. At the Hexham concert, singer Fiona, as ever manipulated her delicate, airy voice with great confidence in presenting kaleidoscope of textures and moods. Occasionally she also enhanced the effect by abandoning her own piano accompaniment in favour of clarinet, whistle, recorder, alto or soprano sax playing - particularly effective on I'm Alone and also on Eternity, where a low-register clarinet intro set a dark mood from which the song developed and lightened. One of the few concessions to the masses left in the programme, Peggy Lee's Fever, sat very uneasily amongst the LanderMason compositions. Indeed, ditching the pop standards from last year's concert also allowed Paul Mason to shine as an equal partner, instead of having to maintain a role supportive of Fiona's vocal lead. His accomplished guitar-playing, displayed in rippling phrases on Never Been Through A Rainbow also came to the fore in solos and instrumental duets of the like of Watching You and How Am I To Know? His pleasant, soft voice also integrated well with Fiona's on duets such as Ebony. Keith Bleasby's percussion added a new layer to the LanderMason mix, whether he was subtly underscoring the textures in gentler compositions or forcefully driving the beat along in the likes of How Am I To Know? And the staccato-like See Me Through. Sometimes you even got both in the same song - for LanderMason's music is crafted from a complex mix, with thoughtful lyrics often borne along by tunes that change colour chameleon-like as they develop. If you think of a lake, you can picture gentle waves dappling a calm surface. Look a little deeper into the picture, however, and in reality the waves are a tapestry-weave of tiny wavelets, eddies and ripples. So it is with LanderMason's carefully refined style. At one level you can simply let the atmospheric sounds and the words lap over you. Delve deeper, however, and within the same music there is a wealth of reward to be enjoyed from the ebbing and swelling of the rhythms, the mood-changes, colour changes and chord-changes that abound. Any delayed applause at the end of pieces in the Hexham concert simply meant the audience was spellbound. J.E.P.
