17.09.2024
Text: İlayda Güler
With a desire to extract the rawest form of music: Vega Trails
Vega Trails is a fresh duo project based on the recent partnership of two representatives of the brilliant music coming out of Britain; bass player, composer Milo Fitzpatrick, founding member of Mercury Prize-winning London collective Portico Quartet, and saxophonist, DJ, photographer Jordan Smart, who has been part of a number of sonic bands such as Norwich-based avant-garde jazz trio Mammal Hands and Sunda Arc. Before the duo takes Akbank Sanat stage on October 2 as part of the 34th Akbank Jazz Festival, let us walk through their story in detail.
The two musicians have already been related through Gondwana Records, the label of Hania Rani, Jasmine Myra, Phi-Psonics, Portico Quartet, and Mammal Hands. The pandemic brought them together under the same roof of Vega Trails. During the lockdowns, Milo Fitzpatrick became hooked with sparse, simple vibrations that make good use of the space such as Swedish fiddle melodies and Indian classical timbres. Hence the many compositions he makes that explore the harmonic and textural possibilities of the double bass. Then he looks at what he has, listens to bass legend Charlie Haden’s duet album Closeness, and decides that this new music should be played with two people. Undoubtedly he decides to knock on Jordan Smart’s door, and luckily Smart says, “Aye aye!”
The duo came together for the first time at the Gondwana Records events organized in Berlin and Tokyo. Milo Fitzpatrick, who watched Jordan Smart perform, said, "I was mesmerized by the intensity and conviction of his playing. His commitment to the cause of transcending himself and the listener made a lasting impression on me.” Smart’s instrument set, which includes tenor and soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, and ney, allows Vega Trails to expand its sound palette and diversify the emotional stops it makes. Thus a highly spiritual music, wrapped in primitive and meandering sensations that feel like walking through a forest emerges. The name Vega Trails comes from Carl Sagan’s science fiction novel about new life signals detected in the Vega system.
Milo Fitzpatrick’s compositions, which were born during the global pandemic, were transformed into a nine-piece debut album titled Tremors in the Static in 2022. What this collection wants to do is crystal clear: To put some of the nuances that can get lost in group music right in the center; to make listeners part of the intimacy and depth in the conversation between two instruments, and to provide an environment that allows musicians to blossom by pushing their boundaries. So where will the performance that paves the way for this magic take place?
Fitzpatrick of course thinks about that too. It is a must to choose the third component well. This component is the space, where the sound will move in response to the sound that is emitted, since this is music written for a space that interacts with the notes, disrupts them, and transforms them into silence. Milo Fitzpatrick didn’t have to go far before he realized that the acoustics of St. Thomas Church in his neighborhood, Stamford Hill, provided all the conditions they needed. Here’s how Vega Trails later describe their feelings on the recording session made there, in June 2021:
“The recording space is the canvas on which the sound interacts and flows, it is the frame in which notes can live, breathe and die and is as important as the other elements. A resonant recording space, like a church, allows this stripped back sound to resonate, echo and linger, enough to create images and landscapes in which stories can play out.”
Brett Cox, a producer and sound engineer who has worked with bands and musicians such as alt-J, Marika Hackman, and Oliver Zeffman was also on board during the mentioned sessions. The performance, which can also be experienced in video format, was filmed by Luca Rudlin and Rich Williams. The series is a great opportunity to witness how two open-minded, communicative musicians work wonders together, and to get excited for their Istanbul performance.