Greg Foat, Art Themen

The best music can evoke a time and a place, whether that’s the memory from when it was first heard or an actual location or landscape. Despite the playful name, this new album from Greg Foat and Art Themen is serious immersive music and achieves that aim in a very satisfying way.

‘Off Piste’ is six tracks of evocative, often hypnotic and always emotional jazz music. Despite the frosty label, this album has warmth and feeling at its core.

Greg Foat is a busy man, prolific doesn’t come near, plus he’s broad in the scope of his work. ‘Off Piste’ is his ninth album for the ever reliable Athens Of The North. Always inventive, always ambitious, pushing in new directions which doesn’t stop here. Following from previous collaborations with the likes of Linkwood and Warren Hampshire, this record sees him join forces with veteran British jazz saxophonist, Art Themen. It’s a killer combination. Themen’s playing is spacious and measured, adding depth and feeling to proceedings, balancing the more experimental and unconventional sounds from Foat.