Vega Trails (UK)

Contrabassist and composer Milo Fitzpatrick - known from Portico Quartet - returns with his project Vega Trails following the acclaimed debut Tremors in the Static (2022). This evening features music from the new album Sierra Tracks, a work that emerged from Fitzpatrick's move to the countryside northwest of Madrid.

Where the debut was an intimate dialogue between two musicians, the soundscape has now expanded to include piano, vibraphone, and string arrangements. The inspiration is drawn from the Spanish mountains - the violet twilight light, the forests, and the local knife sharpeners whose sounds Fitzpatrick has translated into cello tones in the track "Largo". The music moves between folk melodies, chamber music, and jazz, from the track "Els" to more dreamlike textures.

The heart of the project is the collaboration with saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands), who plays tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and the Turkish flute ney. Sierra Tracks is also a reflection on mental health and the path out of pandemic isolation - how movement through nature can break thought patterns and create acceptance.

"This album is an exploration of the relationship between our complex inner mental processes and how nature's tangible world can help us find definition and clarity." - Milo Fitzpatrick