LETTERS HOME

NEWS FROM BABEL's, "Letters Home", besides counting with an astounding ensemble of well established RIO musicians (Robert Wyatt, Dagmar Krause, Sally Potter,Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cutler) among newer names, holds the best spirit and humour of the genre and adds up real glimpses at other non-RIO strictly music, without any kind of excessiveness this genre is exposed to.

From their first album, I got the impression, IMO of course, that every time I listened to Henry Cow, I was really expecting this kind of music. "Letters Home", is as good as their first project. It is, even though the nostalgic concept, very humourous without being forceful or pretentious.

Composer & performer Lindsay Cooper (1951-2013) has to be noted as one of this genre´s legends. Her fresh approach to the now very cliched RIO alphabet, were both original and brilliant. She nurtured from a diverse number of styles and scopes and transmuted those influences to work for her music and become eventually new "letters" in this RiO/av genre's language. (Chris Cutler pen-writes the lyrics by the way).

The result of so many talents in the same room could have an easy run for extremes, something that never happens with this News from Babel band. They are more comfortable with the "less is more" motto when it comes to performance.

*****5 Masterpiece PA´s stars.