THE ONE ENSEMBLE & SARAH KENCHINGTON ‘Dummy Jim’ (Unshaped Led)
I haven’t seen Dummy Jim yet, but if this soundtrack is any indication, it must be a truly unconventional and memorable film. With the aid of bizarre instrument builder Sarah Kenchington, Daniel Padden and his cohorts have created a kaleidoscopic collision of traditional Anglo-folk, free jazz, drone, and deep-seated eccentricity that sounds like absolutely no one else.
The music here will probably not surprise anyone that is familiar with The One Ensemble’s previous work, but it is likely to be revelatory for those who haven’t. The album is made up 19 pieces of varying lengths, some of which are actual songs with vocals (usually by Aby Vulliamy) and some are more incidental in nature. The Ensemble’s aesthetic remains quite coherent throughout though: Dummy Jim is a very organic and abstractly folky album, built around haunting strings, wheezing horns, and sleepy woodwinds. Of course, Kenchington’s instrumental Frankensteins are far from traditional in appearance and performance, but they all basically still sound like brass or wooden instruments, so there are no jarring stylistic shifts.
The similarities to traditional folk music pretty much end at instrumentation and timbre, however (although some relatively straightforward melodies make intermittent appearances). The Ensemble’s odd lurching rhythms, creative layering, and shambling interplay combine to transform rather basic materials into something quite unique. These same characteristics are prominently displayed on the songs written by Kenchington too, as her mechanized sculptures often lock into odd, repeating loops of strange, disjointed sounds that slowly cohere and escalate in intensity (such as in “Cows”). Incidentally, the liner notes don’t make it entirely clear whether any collaboration occurred between Sarah and the Ensemble, aside from on just one track. I don’t think there was, though Kenchington and Padden have recorded together in the past. Regardless, the album fits seamlessly together anyway.
The whole album is generally compelling and is probably best when taken in its entirety, but there are three distinct types of songs (aside from the handful of rather brief Kenchington pieces). First, there are the dense, rippling drone pieces, such as “Universal Wonders” or “Lumberjacks,” which approximate the low drone of a bagpipe ensemble using bowed strings and sustained brass, while clattering improvised percussion skitters and crashes all around. Then there are some relatively straightforward soundtrack pieces, such as the quirky and propulsive “Better to Wear Out Shoes Than Sheets,” which sometimes feature some achingly beautiful intertwining strings. Even these pieces sound unique, as Padden and company imbue them with a ragged humanity and subtle avant-garde touches like prickly microtones. Finally, there are bizarre, cartoonishly stumbling pieces like “A Couple of Jumpers,” which undulate like inebriated caterpillars. As a consequence, the album follows a rather odd trajectory, rife with unexpected twists.
Notably, I have generally not been a big fan of Padden’s work in the past, as I could not get past his absurdist tendencies or manic forays into the Zornification of Jewish/Eastern European melodies. Those tendencies are largely minimized here, however, enabling me to finally appreciate The One Ensemble’s strange and beautiful vision without distraction (I guess I have some back catalog reevaluating to get started on). Obviously, music this fiercely individualistic is not for everybody, but if a deranged, but skillfully harnessed, mash-up of Ornette Coleman, Harry Partch, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, and Captain Beefheart sounds at all appealing, this is a pretty great place to start. Regardless, Dummy Jim is anything but boring.(Brainwashed)
DANIEL PADDEN & SARAH KENCHINGTON ‘The Bellow Switch’ (Shadazz)
“Daniel Padden’s work – in both Volcano The Bear and The One Ensemble – has always operated in an imaginary realm, creating folk music from places that never really existed. So it makes sense that this CD finds him working with Sarah Kenchington, an artist and musician who specialises in making and playing unique mechanical instruments that look and sound like lost artefacts from a magical realist history of music.?The Hurdalion Gurdalion is a pedal-powered machine that agitates banjo and double-bass strings. The Horns utilise pedals, tractor inner tubes and balloons to blow a euphonium and tenor horn. The Forkwriter is a percussion instrument made by a typewriter and forks, amplified by a drum. The Bell Tower is a 3-tiered pyramid of wine glasses that, when small balls are fed into the top, has the potential to create an infinite number of tinkling, spontaneous melodies. The Flutterbox is a large, kalimba-like musical box with a spinning drum that creates rhythmic loops – simple, repetitive figures that form the backbone to the music collected here. There are obvious echoes of Harry Partch’s singular creations and Moondog’s custom-built percussion, but Kenchington’s inventions have a very English eccentricity, more reminiscent of Heath Robinson’s implausibly rickety contraptions.?Padden’s role in all of this was primarily to record Kenchington playing the instruments and then edit the results into patchwork compositions – often with a twinkling sense of mischief. On ‘Unbagging The Wish Spoon’, absurdly wheezing horns rudely interrupt a regimented clockwork tick-tock; on ‘The Mine Shaft’, sawed string drones and overtones interlock with cyclical metallic clunks like an automaton jam band. It’s prevented from sounding too coldly mechanised by the addition of a few subtle touches – Kenchington providing a tickle of banjo here, a parp of trumpet there – and its surprising how much of Padden’s personality comes through with the addition of his mysterious, deceptively winsome vocals to tracks like ‘Tapered Things’. Another tantalising postcard from Padden’s distinctive parallel universe.” (The Wire, Aug 2009)
THE ONE ENSEMBLE ‘Wayward The Fourth’ (Secret Eye)
“If ‘Wayward The Fourth’ doesn’t become a classic , it won’t be for lack of wherewithal, a release so afield of norms that it treads mutant paths between farflung neoclassical prog and ECM’s wilder days” (Signal To Noise, Spring 2007)
“Had this one a while and been trying hard to summon the words to fully capture it’s strange beauty. Daniel Padden is one fourth of the always fascinating Volcano the Bear… What he did then was a kind of minimal free jazz/prog folk response to what folks like Robert Wyatt and Brian Eno were doing early in their careers with multi-tracks and instruments all performed by Padden. As with the recent Live at VPRO CD-R (Brainwashed), Wayward the Fourth is the work of a genuine ensemble, quartet to be exact, captured in a studio. The songs are gorgeous, twisted amalgams of European and American ethnic musics, free jazz, chamber music, minimalism and experimental plateaus rarely glimpsed in the western world, dispersed with just the right emotional — ranging from giddy to somber — intensity. There’s vocals on a few tracks, a few bizarre deconstructions on some others, but what strikes me most about this is the sheer musicality, the deliberate attention to space, detail and compositional structure. One Ensemble albums have always sounded like this, but just as with Volcano the Bear’s brilliant Classic Erasmus Fusion (Beta-Lactam Ring), the ensemble approach has reached new depths of cinematic, multi-hued brilliance. Easily one of the best ‘07 has coughed up so far.” (Womblife)
“At times turbulent and at others sombre: the music of Daniel Padden and his One Ensemble covers a lot of emotional ground. Together, this topsy-turvy Glaswegian quartet put together tiny symphonies that incorporate elements of Eastern European folk, minimalist drone and string-laced chamber psych. The One Ensemble’s humbly haunted, multifarious tales look back to post-WWII Europe, following displaced settlers voyaging across the Atlantic towards the unknown. Cello, bouzouki, clarinet, guitar and piano all play a key role in reciting the woeful tale of humanity’s uncertain future. The most prominent and effective instrument however, is Padden’s plaintive wordless vocal, which at times evokes spirits formerly unearthed by Jeff Mangum. The intoxicating brew crafted by the deft hands of The One Ensemble is not difficult to swallow; its complex palette is cleverly disguised with beautiful melodies and a healthy dose of hopefulness. Padden and his band of minstrels have created a truly unique and engaging record, one that should be celebrated for the rare beauty contained within. Highly recommended!” 9/10 — (Bryon Hayes, Foxy Digitalis April, 2007)
“I’ve been a fan of Daniel Padden’s skewed and intriguing songwriting for some time but the interplay between the 4 players on here lifts it onto a truly magical level…Influences include heavy doses of Eastern European folk music, music hall, 20th Century chamber music and Robert Wyatt but no-one else puts these elements together or sounds quite like The One Ensemble. One of the contenders for album of the year.” (Boa Melody Bar)
“The One Ensemble’s music comes in waves: smokey ones that dance and weave in and out of audible frequencies until they fabricate a space all their own with rules that don’t exist for other compositions and definitions that betray the very term. The exotic brew of the east and Padden’s own Volcanic whimsy allow the music on Wayward the Fourth to go any direction it pleases and often the instruments and voices employed take sudden turns and execute acrobatic maneuvers that’d make the most talented contortionist wonder about their constitution.” (Brainwashed)
THE ONE ENSEMBLE OF DANIEL PADDEN ‘Live At VPRO Radio’ (Brainwashed)
“‘Live At VPRO Radio’ sounds gloriously cohesive: a triumphant spontaneous creation of a wholly idiosyncratic style of folk music” (Jonathan Dean)
“VPRO have been lucky enough to catch one of those rare moments in time when a band are truly on fire” (Stylus).
THE ONE ENSEMBLE OF DANIEL PADDEN ‘The Owl Of Fives’ (Textile)
“‘The Owl Of Fives’ rivals the finest experimental folk records of 04 or any other year.” (Foxy Digitalis)
“Mesmerising terrain…Magical, mysterious, gorgeous and innovative…I can’t recommend Padden’s work enough. Essential.” (Mats Gustafsson, Ptolemaic Terrascope).
THE ONE ENSEMBLE OF DANIEL PADDEN (Catsup Plate)
“An astonishing solo album…an epic voyage of beautifully composed experimental music… A God-like record.” (Steve Hanson, Careless Talk Costs Lives).
“Strikingly beautiful at times, Padden’s music truly comes from another place. Wholly unique and lush with feeling, “The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden’ is a rare and unclassifiable masterpiece.” (Other Music).