Reclusive. Singer. Songwriter. Certainly all three of these words could be pinned up on Jay Fisher aka Apple Rabbits’ cage next to the water drip, but with the release of his new ‘Oberkampf’ EP on his Kilburn State record label you could probably also add ‘composer’ to the list. Jay’s muse has continued to evolve since his first album, ‘The Velveteen Ear’, in 1994 earned him a support slot with John Martyn round the UK. More recent albums, ‘King of Anglia’ and ‘Kilburn State’, have seen increasingly electronic sounds punctuating the songs while at the same time the use of strings have pulled the music back to more classical roots. In a way the music is being pulled both ways, back and forward and it’s this contradiction that Jay has explored further on this new EP. The first and last tracks in particular, ‘Oberkampf’ and ‘Coup de Chapeau a Philippe Sarde’, see him moving away from traditional song confines and embracing a musical landscape peppered with motifs rather than choruses and a meandering freeform style that owes as much to new classical music as progressive rock. The last section of ‘Coup de Chapeau a Philippe Sarde’ is perhaps the highlight - a strange, beguiling segment of music at once unsettling and reassuring as Jay leads the listener round hidden corners and unexpected turns, giving the feeling of being led further upward and upward before being left literally in mid air. It’s a haunting piece of music from an EP that should win Jay new fans.