PH(R)ASE

Archie Churchill-Moss started playing the diatonic button accordion when he was nine, two decades ago. He is a virtuoso, in demand as a collaborator by musicians of the calibre of Eliza Carthy, Jim Moray and Cara Dillon.

His debut album, PH(R)ASE, is a collection of 10 tracks – 19 tunes as all but one is a pair. Churchill-Moss has composed them all, drawing on English and French dance forms. He punctuates ‘Odi & Nancy’ with loud inhalations, suddenly filling the bellows with air. There are rhythmic button clacks in ‘A Romantic Image’. But using the mechanics of the instrument is no longer unusual. Where Churchill-Moss is innovative is in the way he augments his melodies with unusual harmonies, in the chordal ladders of ‘Character of Mind’; in rhythmic shifts, as in ‘Searching for Space’; in a startling change of key in ‘School of Brock’.

The title PH(R)ASE announces his preoccupation with musical technicalities, the phases of tunes and their phrasing. He says he uses composition to “explore the various tonal centres his accordion is capable of navigating.” It's very impressive. But not, alas, very engaging. PH(R)ASE turns out to be more a series of personal studies than an album of lively dance tunes for all to enjoy.