Partikel
Announce UK Tour
On tour:
9 January – Shrewsbury Jazz Network, The Hive *
16 January – Union Chapel, London
17 February – Garrick Theatre, Lichfield
11 March – Bridport Arts Centre
18 March – The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton *
24 March – NC Jazz, The Castle, Wellingborough *
3 April – Milestones Jazz, Hotel Hatfield, Lowestoft
9 April – St Paul's Church, Grove Park, London *
10 April – Southampton Modern Jazz Club, The Shooting Star
12 April – Dempseys, Cardiff
13 April – The Queen’s Head, Monmouth
15 April – Bradford Jazz Club, Glyde House
26 April – Schmazz, Newcastle
27 April – The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh
28 April – The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen
29 April – Carneige Hall, Dunfermline
30 April – Tolbooth Arts Centre, Stirling
29 May – The Hen & Chicken, Bristol
(* full string quartet – all other dates with violinist Benet McClean)
“One of the hottest young bands on the UK scene.” Jazzwise
The London-based trio Partikel (Duncan Eagles on saxophones, Max Luthert on double bass and Eric Ford on
drums and percussion) is heralded as a significant new group on the European scene having maintained a
feverish live schedule during the past few years. Their latest album, String Theory, sees them pushing their
own sonic and compositional boundaries by teaming up with four equally talented string players, fusing their
love of jazz, rock and world music with the textures of a string quartet to create music that showcases an array
of unique soundscapes.
The approach to String Theory differs to Partikel's previous albums where fine-tuning and non-stop rehearsing
of arrangements characterised the lead up to the studio recordings. Eagles describes the process: "With this
album the charts I wrote for the trio were purposefully more open and melodic than previous material and the
arrangements were developed through touring with the band— rather than all the rehearsing— which I think
gives the trio performance on this album a much more natural and spontaneous dynamic." The band has also
started to incorporate electronic effects into their live set that they touch upon in the production of this album,
giving String Theory a new overall sonic feel from their previous albums where they solely featured the acoustic
trio.
Eagles talks about the string quartet: "When thinking about the addition of the strings I wanted to really try and
push myself in all areas and not just in the actual writing of their parts which is something I’d never done until
this project. Compositionally I wanted to think on a larger scale, moving away from the head–solo–head format
as much as possible and I was adamant that I did not want to use the strings as just backing or padding. I
wanted the string quartet to be as involved as possible and have a number of opportunities for the two
ensembles to interact and improvise together. The first three tracks on the album play together as one piece
and this is where I have really put this concept to work the most. When putting this together I was more
concerned with allowing a flowing group effort."