Montauk Variations, a new solo piano/cello album by Matthew Bourne, former enfant terrible and chief inspiration of the most creative end of the new Leeds avant jazz and improv scene, is to be released by Leaf next month the label has confirmed.

 Composed and performed by Bourne playing original compositions and Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Smile’, the album follows in the lineage of his accomplished if controversial 2007 live album The Molde Concert recorded in Norway in 2005. Bourne says that the variations in the title don’t have a thread in terms of modes or keys, neither are they variations on another piece of music or abstraction. “'Montauk Variations' is just a title that had a nice ring to it and relates to the geographical location, at the end of Long Island, NY. Montauk is a small fishing town. I went there for a few hours in August 2009.”

 The song titles of the album, including ‘Étude Psychotique’ which is exclusively available for Jazzwise readers on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqWtMWc4dJM, are variations I-XVI which are ‘Air’, ‘The Mystic’, ‘Phantasie’, ‘Infinitude’, ‘Étude Psychotique’, ‘Within’, ‘One For You, Keith’, ‘Juliet’, ‘Senectitude’, ‘The Greenkeeper’, ‘Abrade’, ‘Here’, ‘Gone’, ‘Knell’, ‘Cuppa Tea’, ‘Unsung’ plus the well loved Chaplin tune ‘Smile’. Bourne says "the Keith" in VII ‘One For You Keith’ is not as some jazz fans might immediately think Keith Jarrett, but Keith Tippett, an early inspiration of Bourne's and an abiding presence on the UK scene whose work is still vital for the new Brit-Jazz scene looking for sharp thinking role models. Bourne says despite the title that “The piece is not a challenge of any kind.”

 On the cover of The Montauk Variations there’s someone swimming in the sea with rocks in the background. Bourne says it’s a picture by Jon Stanley Austin from his photo library, the photographer who is responsible for the images on Bourne’s new website. “We chose the picture because we (myself, the sleeve designer Oli Bentley and The Leaf Label) liked it a lot.” The new album is notable for a lesser known facet of Bourne’s work, an instrument he returns to from time to time. Bourne says: “The cello is one of my private pleasures that has surfaced from time to time, especially in my work with Dan Berridge (aka Broadway Project) and various projects involving long-time musical collaborator/engineer and producer of Montauk Variations, Sam Hobbs. Dan and Sam are the only people I play/record in front of where the cello is concerned. I only ever wanted to learn the cello to play Bach’s cello suites on. Just for myself.”
– Stephen Graham

 Montauk Variations is released on 6 February- for more info see matthewbourne.com

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