Unfurl

Com­bin­ing jazz, Indian and Arabic Rhythms the music of Unfurl is informed by a desire to create mean­ing­ful work. Inspired by nature and Buddhist ideals, the music has been described as ‘tran­scend­ent­al’, ‘organ­ic’ and ‘divine’ by critics.

Olivia Moore met per­cus­sion­ist Adam Warne in 2003 while he was per­form­ing Leeds. Seeing his pas­sion­ate enthu­si­asm he instantly became first choice for the band. His sens­it­ive approach to music and his abil­ity to play just the right thing at just the right time made him a per­fect fit with Unfurl. On gui­tars Jim Faulkner is an extremely accom­plished musi­cian and adds har­mon­ic depth and beauty to the band along­side Gavin Barras, who is cur­rently one of the most in demand bass play­ers in the North West, reg­u­larly tour­ing inter­na­tion­ally with his own groups. Gavin’s infec­tious enthu­si­asm has been anoth­er wel­come new addi­tion to the band since he joined earli­er this year. Finally John ball is a spe­cial­ist in Indian music and is the mas­ter­mind behind many of the more com­plex per­cus­sion solos and breaks that have recently found their way into Unfurl mater­i­al. In part­ner­ship with Olivia’s vibrant violin play­ing, John brings colour into the band with his Tabla and Santoor.

Unfurl have per­formed at the Manchester Jazz Fest­iv­al (2006), Marl­bor­ough Jazz Fest­iv­al (2008), Marsden Jazz Fest­iv­al (2008), Square Chapel Arts centre (2008), Otley Court­house theatre (2008) and Seven Arts Centre (2009).

In the summer of 2009, Unfurl pro­duced ‘Mask’, an excit­ing col­lab­or­a­tion with the visual artist Mark Camer­on-Minard and two sound-artists, Antti Saario and Philip Reeder. Com­mis­sioned by Manchester Jazz Fest­iv­al and per­formed at the Con­tact Theatre, this pro­ject was the real­isa­tion of a long-held dream for Olivia. Please see the ‘review’ sec­tion for a write-up on ‘Mask’.