Amber Lancaster Blue Bikini

At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell and Ted Daniel. It is easy to see why he rapidly became involved in free jazz. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy colleague of Albert Ayler.

This compilation provides a showcase of the many aspects of the cello and the range of emotions and characters that the instrument is able to convey. Opening the collection is Debussy’s technically demanding Sonata in D minor, a staple of the cello repertoire. The whimsical motives, repetitive tones and scales of this work give way to the ingenious combination of atonality and Romantic lyricism of Schnittke’s Sonata No.1, which is followed by Beethoven’s visionary Sonata No.5 in D, a homage to J.S. Bach. This is in turn succeeded by Van Breen’s Flavours, written in 2011. A playful piece that combines many styles, it is written with the five base flavours in mind.

At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell and Ted Daniel. It is easy to see why he rapidly became involved in free jazz. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy colleague of Albert Ayler.

Amber 3 offers an accurate reproduction of an original class A optical compressor, plus a redesigned version of an iconic EQ and preamp created by a celebrated American company.