Charlie Cawood - Blurring into Motion

Charlie Cawood has made a name for himself. He’s more than just a bassist for Knifeworld, arranger for Mediaeval Baebes, but a multi-instrumentalist. Now while I was out of the limelight for those two months back in June and July, I knew that I had to come back down to Earth and be back on writing music again. But let’s get straight to Charlie’s new album. His follow up to 2017’s The Divine Abstract which took seven years to complete, Blurring into Motion was written in three months.

Released on the Bad Elephant Music label, Cawood continues by lending in more of the orchestra concepts with a little help from Iamthemorning’s Marjana Semkina as she sings on two of the tracks to lend Charlie a helping hand. The name of the album’s title came from Russell Hoban’s 1996 novel, Fremeder.

It talked about the moments that we have together by blurring the lines and the ideas and thoughts that we have, are coming full circle. And that’s what Blurring into Motion is about, coming together as one.

The music on here, sounds like it was recorded for one of the plays that I imagine Kavus Torabi had wrote for Cawood to write some of the arrangements for with no dialogue throughout the story from start to finish. But once Semkina’s vocals come in on the two tracks; Falling into Blue and Flicker out of Being. They come out of the blue as they’re this little section in the story where this character sings those two pieces as if Marjana portrays this down-and-out actress.

The actress was at the top of her game with success, but came crashing down really hard. It’s very much like an operatic section in the story where she comes in and sings about what she’s going through and the rough times that she had to deal with. And for Cawood to give Semkina a chance, it is a perfect combination to bring the worlds of Knifeworld and Iamthemorning to life.

There are some stronger elements to North Sea Radio Orchestra’s I a Moon in there. I can imagine Charlie is tipping his hat to Craig and Sharon Fortnam along with James Larcombe by honoring the band’s music of classical and chamber music to life.

I have to say that after the second listen, I wasn’t just impressed with the way the album was done, but how Cawood takes those two elements of music to a different approach with a small bit of Jazz thrown in the latter tracks. Blurring into Motion is Cawood’s answer to Disney’s Fantasia.