The Cinematic Orchestra – Ma Fleur (2xLP)

The first full studio album from Jason Swinscoe's Cinematic Orchestra since 2002's Everyday, the record, entitled Ma Fleur, was written as a soundtrack to a specially commissioned script for an imaginary film (which may yet be made).

Shortly after completing "Everyday", a piece of music that achieved great critical and commercial success (selling over 100,000 units), Jason Swinscoe moved from East London to Paris. Here he began work on the instrumentals that would form the basis of his new record - more moods than finished pieces, a series of sketches or diagrams of directions to follow. Having completed a rough version in early 2005, he handed it over to a friend who had disappeared for three weeks and returned with short story scripts, each scene depicting a story from a different time in life and expressing the emotions underlying the journey from birth to death. Jason then took this and continued to work on the tracks and in turn gave it back to his screenwriter, with the two aspects of the project developing side by side.

Gradually Swinscoe recruited singers suited to the atmospheres and themes he wanted to cover. The remarkable Fontella Bass, is the woman behind the legendary soul number "Rescue Me" as well as some of the Art Ensemble of Chicago's finest moments, had worked on "Everyday" and was an obvious choice to sing the roles Swinscoe envisioned for the older protagonist. Mercury nominee Lou Rhodes is not only a fantastic singer, but also a young mother and so perfect for the "Midlife" singer. The yet-to-be-announced Patrick Watson, a remarkable singer from Montreal, became the youngest of the trio.

Swinscoe, now based in New York, then filled out the arrangements with the band and the assistance of his old collaborator, bassist Phil France. As a final part of the process, renowned New York photographer Maya Hayuk was commissioned to take 11 pictures to represent each of the scenes/tracks. These images, scenes where characters are missing or abstracted or metaphorical, would once again return to the world of the soundtrack for a missing film. These images relate to individual moments and at the same time to the whole, "leaving the spaces as empty as possible was paramount" so that the viewer/listener can fill them, end them or reinterpret them as they see fit.

The exploration of themes of loss and love - and in itself a kind of absence - is fertile ground for Swinscoe's style of music making, for although there has been talk of him working in the field of jazz, the foundation of his music has always been raw emotion. From the achingly beautiful opener "To Build A Home" to the finale "Time And Space," this is an album that reaches for and finds a truth and honesty far beyond what we would normally expect from such a record, but without losing any of the accessibility that made TCO popular in the first place. When the mood is melancholy, Swinscoe and the musicians he works with manage to make it an ultimately uplifting experience, perhaps in the end more about the love you find than the love you lose...