Jazz
Batov Records · 17 July 2026
Four tracks and thirty-seven and a half minutes for a band of eleven: that imbalance is the first thing you see about “Fire In Orbit”. Hill Collective come out of Brighton, they play spiritual jazz with Sun Ra’s influence in plain view and the mayhem of a Mingus big band somewhere on the horizon, and this is their first record for a label, Batov Records, after three self-released outings since 2023 (an album, a live set and an EP). The title track opens with Luke Congdon’s piano circling Joe Snelling’s bass line and Joe Edwards snapping out the beat, and the vocal chorus arrives before the first solo, which belongs to Pete Piskov’s alto.
“Keep Breathing”, ten and a quarter minutes, opens on a dialogue between sax and Jay Orpana’s flute that settles into a devotional pulse until the voices turn it into a mantra. “A House Is A Home Like Honey” takes its time over a relaxed theme and saves the horns’ collective climb for the seventh minute, which on a track of eight minutes four is the ending. And “Song For A Blossom Baby”, which closes at ten thirty-seven, strays furthest: chorus, solo and chorus in an odd metre, intonations with an eastern colour, and a last few minutes of disorder.
With eleven names on the sleeve and only four pieces, the distribution comes out lopsided. The solo with a name attached nearly always goes to Piskov’s alto or to the horns as a block, and instruments like Max Generowicz’s violin or Sudhi S Pooniyil’s tabla work as colour rather than voices. The two ten-minute tracks also follow the same route: contained opening, accumulation, collective peak. It was recorded at Sea Breeze Studios, and the label put out two tracks in advance, “Fire In Orbit” in May and “A House Is A Home Like Honey” in June.
Rating: 7.5/10
Text by Aina Torrents