As a notorious perfectionist, Arthur Russell would have revelled in the convoluted creative process surrounding this long-awaited debut. Boasting old friends and collaborators, Arthur’s Landing’s core line-up consists of singer-guitarist Steven Hall, trombone behemoth Peter Zummo, bassist Ernie Brooks, percussionist Mustafa Ahmed, singer Joyce Bowden, singer-keyboardist Elodie Lauten, drummer Bill Ruyle and guitarist John Scherma.
Over a year of recording, mixing and honing with producers Brennan Greene and Zummo, has resulted in an album of often astonishing beauty, drenched in spectral atmosphere, luminous with dreamy, spiritual calm. According to Hall, original Russell compositions and sketches were used as “an open source of dazzling inspiration”. Your Motion Says manages to morph Fleetwood Mac-style melodic glide, Ruyle’s hammer dulcimer and Zummo’s sliding trombone. Elsewhere, this soft rock melodic sensibility co-habits alongside avant-sound painting and subtle disco pyrotechnics. Epochal club smash Is It All Over My Face is retitled Love Dancing and slowed to a sensual throb, Lauten stunningly revisits her co-written In The Light Of A Miracle, while Brooks had only previously sung I’ll Be Fencing on a demo with Russell. Now, as with many other tracks, it flowers in full bloom thanks to this wonderful new band’s innate magical alchemy, painstaking attention to detail and devout reverence.
