“Oriole is a strange and beautiful blend of influences, a group that re-imagines Tracy Thorn in a band with Joao Gilberto and Charlie Byrd. Brazilian samba and British folk-rock rarely coalece so seamlessly. Led with great authority by guitarist-composer Jonny Phillips, the ensemble features F-IRE collective notables saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, drummer Seb Rochford, cellist Ben Davis, keyboardist Nick Ramm and percussionist Adriano Adewale Itauna among others. Together they display impressive textural variety, creating ambiences that can be noir-like in their clever use of drifting plaintive long tones or carnavalesque in their darting rhythms. As forceful as it is subtle, Oriole have in the space of two albums found something that most groups spend many moons searching for – a sound of their own.”?
Kevin Le Gendre
