Epilogue from Wonderlawn
Eight Irish Madrigals (premiere recording)
The Church Closest to the Sea (premiere recording)

The double bass has always been close to Gavin Bryars’ heart. His own instrument, it has also featured strongly in his music for other players - as in The Church Closest to the Sea, written for Mr McFall’s Chamber and their bassist Rick Standley. Bryars’ music straddles worlds: classical and jazz, composition and improvisation, the works on this disc moving between the lushly sensuous and the coolly laid-back as they meditate on geographical and emotional borderlands. Mr McFall’s Chamber began in 1996 as a string quartet of players from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which took to playing nightclubs in an attempt to woo a younger audience.Over the past 10 years the group has grown to include a pianist and bass player, as well as a succession of drummers, percussionists, singers and guest instrumentalists, and which plays a range of music from tango through jazz and rock to contemporary classical, taking in quite a lot besides. Recent projects include work the Big Tent Festival, Falkland, Fife in July.