Nick Fletcher has done it again! With A Longing For Home, the Sheffield-based jazz rock guitarist, has produced yet another stunning solo album full of artistic brilliance and unbounded creativity, swirling with musical invention, emotion and breathtaking complexity in a truly unique way.
It is the final album in a trilogy of albums that began with 2022’s impressive The Cloud Of Unknowing and continued with last year’s sublime Quadrivium – both of which I had the privilege to review for The Progressive Aspect. All are conceptually linked, based upon philosophical, scientific and spiritual beliefs.
For those in the progressive rock community, Nick is best known for being the electric guitarist for The John Hackett Band for the last 10 years or so. However, he is also a classical guitarist, music teacher and session musician, who has had over 80 published works for classical guitar with the renowned Canadian publishers Productions d’oz. My TPA colleague, Darren Walker, had the pleasure to attend a recent classical concert and interview him.
Nick’s solo albums showcase his expressive and exuberant electric guitar playing and his fusing of prog rock with jazz, whilst including elements of classical music and ambient sounds, within a band setting. Quadrivium was an artistic triumph and one of my albums of 2023 and so it was with just a touch of trepidation that I approached A Longing For Home to start with. How often can Nick keep raising the bar?
Well, I am pleased to say, Nick has produced another stunning album of jazz/prog/rock/prog fusion and brought together a pan-European band of exceptional musicians to complement and support his virtuoso guitar playing. Once again, he has engaged the services of the late Jeff Beck’s talented drummer Anika Nilles, together with her fellow bassist, Jonathon Ihlenfeld Cuniado, to create one of the tightest rhythm sections I’ve heard for some time. With his old friend, Dave Bainbridge, unavailable this time around, Nick had the opportunity to use the keyboard talents of Norwegian Jan Gunnar Hoff, a musician Nick has much admired for many years. With Caroline Bonnett once again supporting Nick on keyboards, programming and engineering/production in general, the music is framed perfectly for Nick’s guitar to shine brightly throughout the album. Finally, he has been able to engage the unique vocal talents of Olga ‘Dikajee’ Karpova, from Russia, on the beautiful and ethereal concluding album track. The synergy between them all is truly stunning to listen to.
The music remains an enticing amalgam of jazz fusion and prog rock influences, and fans of Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Beck, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Brand X, Bruford and Jan Akkerman, along with David Gilmour, Steve Vai and Steve Hackett, will find much to savour in this album. In fact, Steve Hackett has stated, “Nick Fletcher is probably the best jazz rock guitarist in the UK. I consider him an absolute star.”
Over 10 tracks, and just under an hour in duration, you not only get Nick’s signature playing style, but some enjoyable diversity and challenging, but always rewarding, surprises.
The album begins joyously with the vibrant, twisting jazz/prog fusion of Satori. Named after the Zen Buddhist word for ‘enlightenment’, it gives a real sense of the start of a spiritual journey of discovery. Nick’s lyrical guitar lines are complemented by Anika’s intricate and busy drumming, which ebbs and flows continually, along with Jonathon’s rich bass and Caroline’s sumptuous wash of keyboards. Wonderfully melodic and complex, with shifting tempos, the guitar soaring high one minute and then becomes more restive and restrained the next – all over keyboard and bass rumblings. It ends with a plagal cadence with some unusual chord extensions and harmonic progressions to give the devotional feel of a hymn.
To a large extent The Secret Of The Ascent seems like a musical continuation to start with, with a similar effervescent fusion feel and the band combining superbly as their contributions intertwine seamlessly. However, Anika sets up a jauntier, swinging beat, which complements Nick’s accessible guitar motifs very well. The swaggering arrival of Jan’s lush Hammond organ refreshes the musical template, over the accompanying riffing guitar – with snatches of late-night jazz keyboards over subtle, glistening cymbal work weaving their way into the music at this point. As the guitar takes centre stage mid-way, Nick solos powerfully as the music becomes more rock-orientated and sways and swings to great effect, before finally reprising the starting theme. The feeling of a spiritual ascent is heightened by the complicated chromatic ascending line using in the song’s B section.
If the first two tracks were upbeat, and joyous at times, Nick deliberately places a contrasting, more melancholic classical guitar piece in the running order. Joy Turning Into Sorrow has the thoughtful and pastoral feel of a madrigal, and a definite Bach choral character. It’s a lovely point of contrast on the album, with twinkling synths at the very end providing a ray of hope, perhaps. Nick’s classical guitar work plays an important part in his musical life, and it was good to hear a taste of this on the album.
Sitting In The Sunboat returns the music to the dynamic and playful ensemble work of the earlier tracks. However, the complexity here has a lightness of touch, with Nick’s guitar delivering a range of moods, with repeating patterns, along with a truly beautiful and reflective extended solo over the ripping bass and drum rhythm – and somehow a restful ambience. When Jan’s lovely undulating and flowing keyboards begin, they seem to echo those sparkling, sequential sounds at the end of the previous song. The music remains busy and yet paradoxically chilled out at the same time. You can imagine laying back and taking in mystery of the Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle where Jan lives, or even just soaking up the sun as you float along the Mediterranean coastline – perhaps finding a spiritual inner calm for a short time. The return of the opening themes at the end, round off this deceptively intriguing track very well.
The longest track on the album, Her Eyes Of Azure Blue, is also the most romantic one – a beautiful contemplation of the role of love in making you feel and home with both your inner self and the universe as a whole. The mellow guitar is given free rein to drift and flow over a sympathetic Latino-style percussive beat and rustling chimes, with some gorgeous fretless bass by Jonathon adding to Caroline’s floating keyboard soundscape later on. I was personally reminded of the quieter style of Jan Akkerman at times, along with the melodious influence of the great Jeff Beck. A song that just flows over you serenely and allow your mind to wander freely. It was interesting to hear from Nick that the song was originally intended partially as a piano feature for Jan, but that time constraints and recording clashes led to a rethink and more extended guitar from Nick instead. Well, it certainly works for me!
A Pathway To The Hermitage has some exquisite and intuitive drumming from Anika accompanying the guitar and a step-upon-step feel as we imagine following the path up to a hermit to seek further knowledge of the road to enlightenment. There is a musical sense of a journey and the changes in tempo and pace seem to reflect the various stages of that passage. Nick’s shifting guitar rides these changes – intense and driving one minute and then soft and delicate the next. Caroline’s keyboards add that feel of mystery and uncertainty towards the end. Nick advised me that the track was also named as a reference to Dikajee’s home town of St Petersburg and the famous Hermitage museum that resides there.
The atmospheric A Longing For Home is another contrast in the album’s musical template. Taking inspiration from the evocative album cover and Samantha Turner’s thoughtful poem in the CD booklet – about a deep desire by a race of beings to return to their spiritual and ancestral home, far away in the star cluster of the Pleiades. It gives a deep sense of longing for where we might truly belong. Caroline’s soundscapes provide an astral framework for some unsettling and unusual guitar techniques which then lead into a long, winding guitar melody that probes and questions against a complex harmonic framework. The yearning, almost forlorn feel hangs over the song through to its fading conclusion.
By contrast The Sage, The Monk And The Scholar returns us to a glorious slab of musical complexity. The band are just stunning as they negotiate passages of prog, heavy rock and jazz that almost feels improvisational in feel at times. The interplay between Anika’s and Jonathan’s shifting syncopation, Nick’s everchanging guitar patterns and Jan’s vivid keyboards, is so impressive. The title comes from a line written by the well-known English writer and philosopher, Alan Watts, and the importance of learning from such people in our personal quest for understanding and enlightenment.
The track begins in a whirl of dynamic ensemble fusion work before a probing heavy rock ambience takes over, and Nick delivers some memorable guitar shredding. Jan delivers flowing Keith Emerson-like keyboard pyrotechnics, and the music drives on like a runaway train before a powerful, drum-led crescendo and final fade allows us to catch your breath! I honesty I can’t think of a track that has had so much musical intricacy and diversity squeezed into only 5 minutes, for quite some time.
While not a reprise, Crossing The Sacred Threshold takes us back to the same musical template of the opening two tracks, with a joyful, bright and energetic tapestry of jazz/rock/prog fusion. Another track that showcases Nick’s flowing and expressive guitar work, along with Jan’s smooth keyboards, and Anika’s and Jonathon’s eloquent and infectious rhythms. There is a Pat Metheny vibe here but close your eyes and you could even be tempted to start twisting in Chubby Checker style at times! Now that’s prog for you!
The album concludes with the ethereal To Hear The Angels Sing. The threshold has been crossed and we are into another realm and possibly into the divine light. Call it heaven, nirvana, oneness or whatever, Nick provides a lovely coda to his trilogy of solo albums with the dreamy siren-like, classical sounds of Dikajee’s wordless, vocalising. The likes of Delius, Debussy and Rachmaninov seem to merge with the peaceful, ambient prog background of bowed guitar and keyboard chords.
Nick commented to me that, “‘Dikajee brings a sense of peace and light to the melody in this composition. It is very romantic and impressionistic music. Her vocal is like a prism which splits light into all the colours of the rainbow, which are contained in my guitar harmonies.”
The music rises and falls like waves lapping on the ocean of eternity and it seems the perfect way to end this rather special, stimulating and yet thoughtful album.
Nick Fletcher’s A Longing For Home is a truly exceptional and progressive instrumental album that demonstrates what a supremely talented guitarist and composer he is. Once again, he has fused jazz, prog, rock and classical elements into an unstoppable tsunami of complexity, virtuosity and spirituality, whose musical delights stun the senses and wash over you effortlessly. Supported by a stunning band of gifted musicians, Nick has completed his trilogy of solo albums superbly and has shown once again that guitar-led, fusion-based musical artistry and complexity can still be so emotionally rich, warming and rewarding to listen to.
TRACK LISTING
01. Satori (5:33)
02. The Secret Of The Ascent (6:17)
03. Joy Turning Into Sorrow (1:48)
04. Sitting In The Sunboat (7:32)
05. Her Eyes Of Azure Blue (8:43)
06. A Pathway To The Hermitage (5:40)
07. A Longing For Home (5:09)
08. The Sage, The Monk And The Scholar (5:07)
09. Crossing The Sacred Threshold (6:36)
10. To Hear The Angels Sing (4:42)
Total Time – 57:13
MUSICIANS
Nick Fletcher – Guitars, Angel Vibe Guitar
Anika Nilles – Drums
Jonathon Ihlenfeld Cuniado – Bass
Jan Gunnar Hoff – Keyboards (2,4,8 & 9)
Olga ‘Dikajee’ Karpova – Vocals (10)
Caroline Bonnett – Keyboards, Soundscapes
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Independent
Country of Origin: U.K.
Date of Release: 21st October 2024
LINKS
Nick Fletcher – Website | Facebook | YouTube | X
Bad Dog Promotions – Website | Facebook