Flock II

There’s a right-to-fail clause inherent in all experimental music. Pushing at boundaries needs to involve mistakes, doubt in the creative process, alongside breakthroughs, reconfigurations, sunbursts of brilliance. Thankfully, each of the five members of Flock – the UK collective whose self-titled 2022 debut won plaudits – is a mastress musician comfortable with the unknown, driven by a quest for the new. These members include: Bex Burch, wielder of the Ghanaian gyil (marimba); baritone saxophonist and woodwind player Tamar Osborn; and synth wizard Danalogue, late of jazz furiosos The Comet is Coming, a man whose space-age shapes enhance the ancient-to-future vibe of a project recorded over a week on the Welsh coast in 2022. Ten tracks born from diverse creative triggers – diagrams arranging shapes and patterns, dappling lamplight, a strobing mobile app – are at once hypnotic and soothing, intense and elemental. Here are whispered words, blowsy horns and echoey dub effects; whistles, squeals, clangs and chimes and, from Al MacSween, delicate piano chords. ‘Cat’s Paws Effect’ is a joyful maelstrom driven by Sarathy Korwar’s fierce kit-drumming; ‘Large Magellanic Cloud’ is a Fellini-esque wig-out delivered on what might be pots and pans; ‘Edge of Empty’ manages to be both ethereal and visceral. An Impressionist’s fever dream, then, Flock II rewards the deep listener.