SENSORY ILLUSIONS, THE - THE SENSORY ILLUSIONS (CD)

"Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist Bill Wells returns with The Sensory Illusions, the eponymous debut album from his duo with virtuoso tuba player Danielle Price. Featuring Wells on electric guitar, the album has all the warmth, melancholy and playfulness of his finest work, with timeless melodies that touch on jazz, pop, bossa nova, soundtracks, and folk. While Wells is modest about his own guitar skills, he has nothing but praise for his musical partner. 'Danielle is one of the best musicians I've ever worked with. She's extremely versatile, from playing in trad jazz bands or with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, to playing with the likes of Ashley Paul, Mats Gustaffson and Ntshuks Bonga. She functions as both bass player and drummer in the Sensory Illusions, combing percussive sounds with melodic patterns/riffs. That rhythmic quality can be heard on tracks such as 'Tango', which she underpins with strutting riff, and 'Theme From Flint', where she transforms Jerry Goldsmith's lounge-jazz groove into a cantering brass figure. Yet the tuba is also the vehicle for some of Wells' loveliest melodies, from the wistful 'Brass Alley Dream' to closing track 'An August Ballad', which is suggestive of what might have happened had Brill Building's finest written for a Silver Band. As Wells puts it, 'It's an unlikely combination, but it works.'" (label info)