About Me
Formed in 1992 by four of the most distinctive jazz musicians and composers in Britain, Perfect Houseplants rapidly achieved a reputation as one of the most innovative and challenging jazz groups to emerge in the 1990s. Its unique and colourful compositions and musical interaction has established it as one of the most adventurous groups in Europe today. Perfect Houseplants has performed throughout Europe at many major festivals as well as recording for BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3. The band has been commissioned by Radio 3 and Eastern Arts and has received the support of the Arts Council on several occasions.Perfect Houseplants is renowned for its crossover projects with the award-winning early music group the Orlando Consort, baroque violinist Andrew Manze, and more recently for its reworkings of English folk music with virtuoso recorder player Pamela Thorby.Although the group's debut album, simply entitled Perfect Houseplants (Ah-um), was considered 'the best British jazz album of 1993' (Jazz on CD), the group's music is never just a tune with solos. The Guardian acknowledged that 'they are at the cutting edge of contemporary jazz music with an innovative approach to composition, operating in a territory of folksy tunes, sultry tangos, waltzes and busy time changes'.The band's second album, Clec (EFZ,1995), opened up a significantly larger sound world by using accordion, prepared piano, percussion, cello and sampled sounds as well as the more conventional line-up of saxophones, piano, bass and drums. 'I cannot imagine anyone not enjoying Clec however set in their ways they might be' Dave Gelly, Observer.In 1996 Perfect Houseplants signed a contract with the prestigious Linn record label and their first album with the company, Snap Clatter (Linn AKD 063), was released in 1997. 'More Drama than the RSC', said The Wire. The album further developed the band's unique way of orchestrating its original compositions and draws inspiration from many other musical forms, including contemporary classical, Brazilian, ragtime and even cartoon music. 'If Snap Clatter were a book ... it would be Alice in Wonderland, a clever whimsical journey profuse with ideas' ... JazzWise.Extempore (Linn CKD 076, 1998) brought together Houseplants with the award-winning early music group the Orlando Consort. Taking modes and plainchant as the starting point, the project has appealed to a large cross-section of listeners and has led to concerts in Europe such as La Biennale di Venezia (1999). 'Remarkable and utterly absorbing', said BBC Music Magazine. A project commissioned by BBC Radio 3 with violinist supremo Andrew Manze was broadcast in 1998The new millennium saw Perfect Houseplants performing in Europe and many international festivals as well as releasing their fifth album, entitled New Folk Songs (Linn AKD 130, 2000) and featuring Pamela Thorby. New Folk Songs originated as a commission from Eastern Arts to write new music based on folk music from East Anglia. The radical reworkings received rave reviews: 'This band is perilously close to becoming a national treasure.' - Mojo, May 2001. The BBC featured the New Folk Songs project in a programme of highlights from the Norwich and Norfolk Festival 2002, broadcast on a special Christmas and Boxing Day show on Radio 3.This year sees the release of a second album with the Orlando Consort, a work based on the mass for the feast of St Michael and taking the medieval melody of L'homme arme as the starting point. Extempore 2 (Harmonia Mundi 907319, USA) is released in the UK in February 2003 and in the US in MarchThe members of Perfect Houseplants have played and recorded with a glittering array of international artists including: Dave Holland, Django Bates, June Tabor, Kenny Wheeler, Manu Katche, Lee Konitz, Ralph Towner, Steve Swallow, Prefab Sprout, Radiohead, Mike Gibbs, Colin Towns, Billy Cobham, Bob Mintzer, Robert Wyatt and Jah Wobble.
