Dear readers, we have the opportunity to interview a South African artist based in the UK who offers a blend of Jazz, Math and Post-Rock sounds. We welcome Jonathan Crossley.
Hi, how are you?
All good – rainy days here in the UK, but it’s been an exciting musical month!
You are a guitarist who blends sounds between Jazz, Math and Post-Rock, where does your passion for the guitar and these sounds come from?
Oddly the guitar itself was a choice of convenience – I wanted to learn music from the age of five, and by chance there was a guitar in the house. More broadly I was immersed in music from childhood through a mix of classical symphonic works, electronic music (Tangerine Dream, early Jean Michel-Jarre and Vangelis) and also bands like Genesis. I began studying the classical guitar when I was young just after we emigrated from the UK to South Africa, continuing with this in my undergraduate studies and later pursuing jazz out of a frustration at not being able to improvise. Later PhD research explored the extension of the body of the guitarist through electronic means. So, my current works summarise this poly-genre history in ways that flow freely between these elements, most poignantly on this new album where you will find string quartet
miniatures sitting next to Math-Rock romps and post-rock expanses.
Your new album “Inhale” will be out in November, how would you describe this new work?
From a practical musical standpoint, the composition and creation of this new album took a different approach; previously I have tended to work thematically, aiming for some (imagined?) market segment or target group. This album was in part renouncing that type of approach, and more simply about allowing compositions to freely develop in whatever direction they seemed to choose, sometimes with simplicity, sometimes with complexity, sometimes sweet and sometimes angular. I guess for me Inhale is an ‘album’, in the original sense of the term – not a collated collection of similar sounding singles, rather it is a long-form project, conceived of as a whole that can be enjoyed in a single sitting. The other major theme in this musical project stems from the date of composition: I began writing the works in February of 2022 and the situation in Ukraine looms large in the projects’ narratives. The infamous propaganda statement ‘There’s No Invasion’ inspired the angular melody of that work, and the explosive war sounds and flybys one can hear in
the B-section. The works, ‘First and Second Operations’ were inspired by the much touted term ‘Special Operations’, and the track ‘Hymn’ is a prayer for the war. The titles ‘Inhale’ and ‘Breathe Deep’ could equally be a gasp at the threat of the conflict. Lastly the South African artist Naomi Van Niekerk specially created the dog on the cover to convey a sense of threat and imminent danger inspired again by the conflict.
There are two artists on drums and bass on the album, what did they bring to the sound?
I have been deeply privileged on this album to work with Carlo Mombelli on bass and Jonno Sweetman on drums. We have all worked together in various groups for many years, but released our first album as a trio, son0_morph:01 last year. That album was a series of free improvisations recorded during a small window in pandemic restrictions, but even though free improvised the communication between the players is sensitive and dynamic. This sensitivity of the trio makes for a collective energy and groove that often has players
completing each other’s musical sentences. What they bring to the table above their virtuosity is a dynamism and energy built on musical unity and collegiality. I also must also highlight the contribution of the young composer and arranger Nick Horsten , who contributed compositionally to many of the pieces as well as skilfully arranging the strings.
This album is characterised, like its predecessors, by very sophisticated sounds, how has your sound evolved and how does it differ?
Sophisticated, LOL, that has left me smiling! I guess the trio album along with another project called ‘Deep Spacer – 433 Eros’ were the first to push harder towards the sonic landscapes of Post and Math-Rock. I think this new album has evolved stylistically in the sense that there are many layers to the sound – the licks and riffs anchor the works, sometimes conventionally and sometimes with non-symmetrical ostinatos, and this allows the layers to pull the compositions in different directions whilst freeing the trio to lock into organic sounding grooves. Also, this album has a sonic density that is new for my work; given that many of my
previous works were often played live in studio, this album, and the production and compositional approaches have allowed for a deep shift in the density of the sound. Maybe this harkens back to my love of longer for orchestral and electronic music when I was young?
Besides the presentation show, do you plan to release any singles or videos taken from the album?
The first single ‘Bounce’ has a video on my artist channel on YouTube, along with ‘Breathe Deep. The launch concert will be filed as will an upcoming South African show in January, so a steady stream of live performances and maybe a couple of new singles should release between mid-December and the 14 th of February 2023.
Many of your fans and our readers wonder if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have any plans in this regard?
We are launching Inhale on the 2 nd of December at the Tung Auditorium, which is in the Yoko Ono/Lenno centre in Liverpool . The ICCaT research group is bringing Carlo Mombelli and Jonno Sweetman to Liverpool for this premiere, so if you are nearby Liverpool go ahead and book for this free event. For anyone in the East Midlands of the UK we will be doing a small boutique rendering of the works at The HopBarn on the 3 rd of December (booking for this is through Eventbrite).
Then as mentioned we will be performing live on the 29 th of January in Johannesburg South Africa. This filmed performance is kindly supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and SAMRO and will be recorded at Flame Studios in Constitution Hill where the original album was recorded. Details of all these performances are available on my artist profile on Songkick.
Prog and Jazz are sophisticated and rather niche genres nowadays, how do you see their evolution in the future?
I think more sophisticated musical elements are seeing a re-vitalisation; One of the places where this is most easily evidenced in the revolution centred around hip-hop and jazz artists such as Mono Neon, Thundercat and Louis Cole, where virtuosity has found a new home albeit somewhat tongue in cheek. Even artists that are more evolutionarily related to rock such as Black Midi are fusing complexity with a sense of the avant-garde in ways that are musically devastating and are breaking through to the mainstream. Whilst these examples don’t directly answer the above question in a narrow way, for me, as a musician interested in not only improvisation but also pushing the edges of composition, these are encouraging developments, dare I say exciting. They allow for some musical optimism in the myopia characteristic of much of glut of the 360-deal mainstream. Choosing a musical career is precarious, and fiscally challenged, but the current stylistic milieu may be embryonically suggestive that whilst financial prosperity is ephemeral, somewhat ironically, creativity is seeming to flourish.
What advice would you give to young artists approaching these genres of music?
What one can hear in a band such as Black Midi is that the members have not only focussed on their skills, whether instrumental, production, composition or arranging, but that there is clearly a wide awareness of many, many musical genres and quite obviously voracious listening habits. I think there can often in Prog and Jazz be a focus on technical proficiency and overly precious historical genre specificity, but musical diversity is now pivotal as well. Burt Bacharach said that ‘originality is undetected plagiarism’, and humour aside, width of listening can create a fertile compositional environment as one tries to develop a voice and explore new avenues for creation.
I thank Jonathan for the interview and the opportunity to listen to the new album, wishing him all the best for the continuation of his artistic career.