Chris Morphitis - Where to Go

Prior to this debut album 'Where To Go' Chris Morphitis had performed and recorded with Simon Bookish, Mara Carlyle, the Owiney Sigoma Band, Damon Albarn and Elmore Judd. Inspired by for example the guitar music of Thomas Mapfumo, he blends minimalism with joyous improvisation. The cunning fusion of abstract folk, sonic rock, calm sirtaki, startling piano play and lazy chimurenga have resulted in an utterly pleasant album of likewise styles, no matter the geographical incongruity. The elegant track 'Embrace' with the gentle cello of Ian Burdge marks Chris Morphitis' much broader horizon than just 'worldbeat' music. Like a pleasant forest stream, 'Yellow Lines' carries on down that path of elevated tranquility. 'Peel Feel' once again incorporates an abstract take on the call-and-answer instrument play of West-African music. On 'If S2' we land in London though but the tone hardly changes, even when menacing sonic bursts come out like rumbling M25 noise. By combining patterns of harp-like music from West-Africa with the rhythmic snare picking of Zimbabwe on 'Coat Tails', he hints at his unique skills as a performer and a music arranger. As a composer Chris Morphitis seems of the timid kind but great promise, however, lies in a number of tracks. There is plenty of tension and melodic imagination on 'If S2', 'The Count' and 'Embrace' and 'Timelapse'. Chamber music nature filters through on the latter, but it can't conceal how much of a musician's album this is. A throughout daring and wonderful exercise nonetheless, 'Where to Go' comes to a climax on the title track where structure, composition and performance all fall in the right place naturally.