Review: Pure Phase Ensemble 4 - Live At Spacefest!

Pure Phase Ensemble are a ‘supergroup’ of sorts; an everchanging collection of artists who gather each year with the express aim of performing at the annual SpaceFest fectival in Gdansk. This group collaboration is recorded live and then released for the world to enjoy.

The 2014 incarnation saw Pure Phase Ensemble 4 (the fourth version)and featured luminaries such as Mark Gardener (Ride), Ray Dickaty (Spiritualized and Stereolab amongst others) and musicians from some of Poland’s top Indie bands: Jacek Rezner, Kamil Hordyniec, Michal Pydo, Michal “Kostek” Stolc and Karol Schwarz.

‘Live At Spacefest!’ is released on August 8th , the is download is available via the Bandcamp page (as well as iTunes and Spotify) and the CD will be available from Nasiono Records. As one would expect from the personnel involved, the music is a beguiling mix of shoegaze, psychedelia, spacerock and dreampop. The scene is set by ‘Intro’; following a brief spoken introduction the air is full of a wonderful, gentle drone and muted guitar, creating an almost hypnagogic ambience. The segue into ‘Morning Rise’ is seamless and the track grows as more instruments are slowly added to the mix but still maintaining the serene atmosphere. Gardener’s vocals, when they enter, help create an ethereal dreampop vibe, with the guitar shimmering nicely in the background. ‘Notaki’is by far the longest track at just over 15 minutes in length. It is a slowburner, taking its time to unwind and increase in tempo and purpose. There are some more great drones and the guitars take on a fuzzy, wall of noise aspect whilst still keeping the dreampop / shoegaze structure. As the track progresses the guitars become increasingly strident, adding a certain vibrancy to proceedings. ‘Zostań na noc’ begins with some almost rock’n’roll guitar and the track is certainly a great deal heavier than what has preceded and becomes an almost spacerock opus, with the guitars starting to psychedelically soar, ably assisted by some pounding percussion. There is a brief hiatus in the noise as the muted, calm vocals are given centre stage, but the second half of the track is given over to some more wonderful psychedelic meanderings. ‘Peter Song’ brings the tempo down again and is a sedate affair, with more of a recognisable ‘song’ structure. ‘Doing My Head In’ is another shoegaze / dreampop number, imbued again with some lovely shimmering guitar and understated vocals. ‘Happy Dancing Woman’ sees the band once more adopt a more breezy, jaunty aspect with the most obvious ‘indie pop’ melody of the set.

As mentioned at the start, ‘Live At SpaceFest!’ is a beguiling mix of styles….some sublime dreampop leads into walls of fuzzy sound, some wonderful psychedelic touches herald some ethereal shoegaze. The overall feel is one of summery bliss, a soundtrack to a beautiful summer’s day, but still maintaining an integrity and intelligence befitting the musical heritage of the players. Lovely stuff. Recording wise, it’s not the best quality live recording I’ve ever heard, but clear enough to discern the details of the music and, more importantly, to capture the atmosphere kindled by this talented bunch.