Kevin Figes – WALLPAPER MUSIC II: Album Review

By Gareth Allen on 29th April 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

WALLPAPER MUSIC II is a collection of superbly played compositions that engagingly brings together jazz and progressive rock influences.

Release date: Available now

Label: Pig Records

Format: CD/Vinyl/Digital

Kevin Figes is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator. Wallpaper Music II is the follow up to the 2021 release Wallpaper Music, which we reviewed very positively here. The recording features Kevin Figes on saxophone, flute and voice, alongside Brigitte Beraha on vocals, Jim Blomfield on keyboards, Ashley John Long on bass and Mark Whitlam on percussion. These of course are the same group of gifted musicians that played on Wallpaper Music.

Wallpaper Music II is an album of considerable musical depth and layers, that successfully blends evocative words and some wonderfully diverse musical influences, into musical arrangements that both captivate and delight. It utilizes a jazz framework and progressive rock influences to create a unique musical experience for the listener. It was recorded at the famous Rockfield Studios, near the market town of Monmouth in Wales. Rockfield Studios were of course the primary studios used by Queen for the recording of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Amethyst Stymied is the opening track. Jim Blomfield’s beautiful introductory piano refrain sets the stage for the voice of Brigitte Beraha, which offers an extraordinary mix of ethereal and spoken word singing. Her voice effortlessly follows the contours of the song with its varying time signatures and evolving musical moods. Mark Whitlam and Ashley John Long’s playing offers the song’s shifting time signature changes within the envelope of an engaging rhythmic flow. Kevin Figes soloing on saxophone bursts out of the mix with an impressively dissonant force. One of the other appealing aspects of this piece is the respectful homage to the influence of the music of Henry Cow, who were pioneers of experimental progressive rock.

One of the highlights of the album for this reviewer is the trio of songs in the middle of the album, Patterns of Decay, Sad Piano and The Time Has Come. They exemplify the diverse range of musical settings and moods that the ensemble can deliver. Patterns of Decay is a track full of foreboding and mystery. The gothic like organ sounds are punctuated by an almost imperceptible set of sustained notes on the saxophone, and crashing percussion. Brigitte Beraha’s vocal ruminations on the interaction of nature and human endeavor flow through the deep layers of sound. Sad Piano, in contrast, is a short piece played solely by Jim Blomfield, where the piano inhabits the space with breathtakingly graceful and reverberating chords. The Time Has Come follows, and is a joyous mix of funk like rhythms, and gorgeous melodies, reflected in both the floating wordless vocal and Kevin Figes rhapsodic saxophone soloing. The drums and bass drive the song forward with a danceable swing, and the keyboards add an appreciable edge, resonant with echoes of John Carpenter’s soundtrack for his classic film Assault On Precinct 13.

Other album highlights include, Fear Of Fiasco, which is imbued with the mellow progressive sounds of the Canterbury scene, set within a syncopated rhythm, and a marvelous jazz based soaring vocal from Brigitte Beraha. The song’s coda where Brigitte Beraha and Kevin Figes launch into a quick-fire conversation provides a suitably quirky conclusion. Mock Turtle near the end of the album, has an unusual, blues-based sensibility, with Mark Whitlam’s drums and Ashley John Long’s bass pleasingly heavy in the forefront of the mix, and Jim Blomfield playing a dazzling synthesizer solo. The end section of the song evolves the music back from progressive rock into a gentler jazz pattern, exquisitely combining Brigitte Beraha’s scat singing and Kevin Figes saxophone phrases.

This is an excellent album, full of great musical pieces, that show off an ensemble completely in sympathy with each other, and able to take the music into some surprising places. The compositions, lyrics and production by Kevin Figes, across the album, are of a very high standard throughout. This is an album that you won’t regret seeking out and spending time with.

You can view the film by Francesca Way for The Time Has Come, featuring the musicians recording at Rockfield Studios, here: