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![Bloom]( "Bloom")
Bill Laurance
Bill Laurance
Bloom
VÖ: 25.04.2024
Genre: Piano Jazz
A genre-crossing orchestral work by pianist, composer and Snarky Puppy founding member Bill Laurance.
Bill Laurance / piano, fender rhodes mk8, osmose expressive, prophet 6
Rory Storm / conductor
The Untold Orchestra
A series of dark, warm string chords opens the curtain on a vista of spaciousness and great sonic depth. Soon after, an intense rhythm develops, classically light and tightly grooving at the same time. A crystalline piano melody develops over everything, leading into an imaginative, hypnotically intensifying improvisation.
Bloom sees 5-time Grammy-winning composer and pianist Bill Laurance once more expanding his sonic palette. He has returned to his classical roots, working with arranger Josh Poole and 18 string players from Manchester’s Untold Orchestra to produce an album on a convincingly epic scale. Conceptually, Laurance says the record was largely inspired by his child’s capacity to imagine and create other worlds: “Every decision we take can be traced back to our capacity to imagine, the only limits on what we can achieve are the scale of our dreams. My child’s ability to pull back the curtain of reality and to create a fantasy world ignited all kinds of possibilities for me, and that is what ultimately led to this music.”
Combining Laurance’s classical sensibilities with jazz, pop grooves, and powerful orchestral synchronicity, Bloom runs the gamut of emotions and moods. Whether it’s flowing dreamscapes or dramatic crescendos, listeners are taken to exactly where they want to be, without ever veering off into the predictable.
Bill Laurance / piano, fender rhodes mk8, osmose expressive, prophet 6
Rory Storm / conductor
The Untold Orchestra
A series of dark, warm string chords opens the curtain on a vista of spaciousness and great sonic depth. Soon after, an intense rhythm develops, classically light and tightly grooving at the same time. A crystalline piano melody develops over everything, leading into an imaginative, hypnotically intensifying improvisation.
Bloom sees 5-time Grammy-winning composer and pianist Bill Laurance once more expanding his sonic palette. He has returned to his classical roots, working with arranger Josh Poole and 18 string players from Manchester’s Untold Orchestra to produce an album on a convincingly epic scale. Conceptually, Laurance says the record was largely inspired by his child’s capacity to imagine and create other worlds: “Every decision we take can be traced back to our capacity to imagine, the only limits on what we can achieve are the scale of our dreams. My child’s ability to pull back the curtain of reality and to create a fantasy world ignited all kinds of possibilities for me, and that is what ultimately led to this music.”
Combining Laurance’s classical sensibilities with jazz, pop grooves, and powerful orchestral synchronicity, Bloom runs the gamut of emotions and moods. Whether it’s flowing dreamscapes or dramatic crescendos, listeners are taken to exactly where they want to be, without ever veering off into the predictable.
Bill Laurance
Sought after
collaborator and Grammy award-winning pianist Bill Laurance has built a career blending
genres of music seemingly at stylistic polar opposites.
As an original
member of Snarky Puppy, whose contemporary jazz-fusion earnt him five Grammy’s,
Bill has showcased his talent in improvisation, a cornerstone of jazz at odds
with his formal education studying classical music, composition, and
performance.
His
work has featured across advertisements for a variety of clients including
Apple, and Sky, and films such as Un
Traductor (2018). Bill also composed several themes for Initials S.G. (2019). He was lauded by
the likes of David Crosby, with whom he collaborated with on a number of
occasions, including the score for David’s 2019 documentary Remember My Name.
His
compositions have been re-arranged for award-winning collaborations with the
WDR Big Band of Cologne, and commissioned by the Cello Biennale for the
Metropole. Bill has composed for countless dancers and choreographers,
including Alvin Ailey’s Hope Boykin, ReDefine US, From The Inside
OUT (2021), Here WE are (2020), An Evening of Hope at 92nd Street Y.
(2021). He has worked with numerous dance companies in the UK including Matthew
Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures, Phoenix Dance, Northern Ballet Theatre,
and English National Ballet.
His
solo career (8 albums and 3 EPs in 8 years), has featured compositions that explore
electronic music and conceptual narrative themes. Bill’s playing was tempered
at a young age; at 9 he was playing with school bands and sneaking off on a
trip to London’s Union Chapel to play the organ. At 14 he had a residency
playing ragtime and swing at a Soho bar. His later tenure at Leeds University led
to meeting Michael League, whose likeminded approach to rejecting genre
constraints resulted in working together in Snarky Puppy. His versatility is
demonstrated by his work with his trio, his duo project with Michael League,
collaborations with Orchestras all around the world and artists across a number
of genres.