Montauk Variations

Bourne—not to be confused with the choreographer Matthew Bourne, who's much older—first came to prominence at the age of 23 when he won the Perrier Jazz Award in 2001, following that with a BBC Jazz Award for Innovation the next year. He has spent the ensuing decade working in a bewildering variety of contexts, from the manic structures and free flights of his trio with bassist Dave Kane and percussionist Steven Davis, to the fluid, contemporary sound of The Electric Dr M, to free playing with Tony Bevan, Barre Phillips, Tony Buck and others. 2011 has seen him performing with Nostalgia 77, Frank Vigroux, Trio Grande and The London Sinfonietta, and with his own groups—the proto-metal of Bilbao Syndrome and the squalling electric jazz of Collider.

With Montauk Variations, Bourne reinvents himself by stripping away the clutter and quirkiness characteristic of previous work. Fragility and romanticism become key focal elements in highly personal performances that still carry the Bourne hallmarks of unpredictability and elliptical intensity. This is the first of a series of album projects to be released through a new partnership with The Leaf Label, displaying a melodic lyricism that is quite unexpected—it even closes with a plaintive version of Charlie Chaplin's much-covered "Smile" from the 1936 movie Modern Times. Future releases will include an audio-visual project recorded with his beloved Memorymoog analog synthesizer and an album with vocalist Seaming To under the name Billy Moon.

Bourne doesn't do "new directions" because he isn't the kind of artist who runs on tramlines anyway, but Montauk Variations might surprise some of his fans. Bourne metaphorically throws open the doors, risks interruption and hayfever, recasts the piano not as a chamber instrument, but as the "harp in a box" Leigh Hunt wrote about, a sound machine as practical and mobile as the lawnmower, and considerably more harmonious.