Jazz
Suntara Records · 30 October 2026
Noel Langley first played cornet at the age of four, in a Salvation Army band, and according to the album notes “Syzygy” celebrates the sixty years since. It’s the second album from the trumpeter, composer and producer, a former member of Loose Tubes, and came out on 30 October 2026 through Suntara Records, digitally and on vinyl. There’s also a signed edition of fifty copies. It has fifteen tracks, from “Unspoken” to “Houses To The Sun”, and it’s streaming in full on Langley’s Bandcamp. At its heart is a duo session with pianist Alcyona Mick, recorded in February 2020 at SJE Arts in Oxford. Mick plays piano, prepared piano and a church organ, and appears on nine tracks. According to the album notes, the session yielded three originals written for the occasion and four free improvisations. The credits give “Fire Sprite”, “The Old Church, Llangelynin”, “Monde Verde” and “Syzygy” to both of them.
Between the duets come the pieces Langley made afterwards, once the pandemic had hit, in his home studio, for the soundtrack of the documentary “May Day”, by Mai Hua and Jerry Hyde, using conch shells, horn and bone trumpets and percussion gathered on his travels. Besides trumpet, flugelhorn, cornet and tuba, the credits list a deer-bone kangling, a spiral didgeridoo and a bamboo flute. Joe Caswell plays percussion and shruti box, Kate Ingram alto flute, and the final track adds a small brass band with Yazz Ahmed, Philip Judge and Andrew Kershaw, plus spoken word from Thomas Popiolek. “All’s Fair” is a traditional tune and “Contemplation” is by Duncan Lamont; both are arranged by Langley. Robin Morrison and Langley mixed and produced it, and Morrison mastered it. On his Bandcamp, the previous release is “Edentide”, dated 2014.
Text by Aina Torrents