The last time we featured Brighton’s Wax Machine was in 2022, just ahead of the release of their Hermit’s Grove album on Batov Records. They treated us to a double A-side single – a psychedelic explosion of Springtime coupled with a tripped-out new version of Canto De Lemanja from Vinicius De Moraes and Baden Powell’s seminal 1966 Brazilian album Os Afro-Sambas.
Formed in 2015 and led by Brazilian-born, Italian/English-raised Lau Ro, they have once more teamed up with the London-based, globally-looking imprint Batov Records for their journey beyond the psych-folk universe, tapping into more ambient, classical, and world-folk sounds. On their new album, The Sky Unfurls; The Dance Goes On, they give space to the musicians involved to express themselves, in part searching for the sense of freedom and organic looseness found on the records of Alabaster Deplume and Don Cherry.
In the late 1960s, American trumpet player and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry and his wife, Swedish visual artist and designer Moki Cherry, moved away from what was considered exploitative and commercially driven jazz circles towards what Lawrence Kumpf described in his introduction to Organic Music Societies (Blank Forms), solidarity with a global, multicultural sound that complemented and expanded ideas he had been developing about improvisation and music making. For me, his landmark album, Organic Music Societies (Caprice Records 1973), remains one of the most deeply rewarding listens, especially for how he incorporated global music influences. For Ro, the key here is improvisation:
“I had a vision for it to be more mellow and clean.” explains Lau Ro. “The more songy parts of it were written and crafted with a fair bit of deliberation but overall I’d say it’s our most improvised album yet.”
Their new single, River, is awash with influences, and, over five minutes, takes the listener on an ethereal journey that begins on a river bank. Watch the accompanying video – the perfect dreamy psychedelic companion. Like those whose music they have been influenced by, the single is a beautifully deep and rewarding listen.
Born in São Vicente, Brazil, Lau Ro’s parents moved to Italy when they were a child before moving again to Brighton, where they’ve stayed ever since. Their earliest memories in Brazil are of laying out all their mum’s pots and pans on the floor and making a racket. Influenced by their dad’s DIY approach to recording, they began around the age of 11 making their own recordings. Being a “loner kid”, their influences have always been eclectic, being drawn to Nick Drake, and anything that seemed obscure.
Since the release of Hermit’s Grove, Ro returned to Brazil: “I crossed that ocean earlier this year and spent 5 weeks travelling around Brazil, visiting as many waterfalls as I could along the way, reconnecting with my family after 20 years apart and taking part in a couple of Ayahuasca rituals. And since then I spent another 5 weeks around the Pyrenees and the Alps looking for waterfalls. The graceful surrender of the water as it falls is such a healing thing to experience. The cathartic sound, the power. The spirit and mood of each cascade. They’re my new favourite place to be.”
On The Sky Unfurls; The Dance Goes On, they explore the process of returning to a state of intimate re-connection with one’s own nature and nature at large. The breakdown of individual identity and the return to flow.
“Life is flow, like the way of Tao, and water is a great teacher in this respect.”
Recorded in their own studio, Lau Ro was joined by Ozzy Moysey, Adam Campbell, Isobel Jones and Toma Sapir, with Marwyn Grace and Ella Russell involved for the choir parts.
However, Wax Machine very much remains a personal journey for Lau Ro, a vehicle for them, as their music always has been, to explore and connect with themselves and the outside world, as they continue to do so on The Sky Unfurls; The Dance Goes On.
Their album launch takes place at The Shacklewell Arms on Tue, 14 Nov, 7:30 pm – Tickets here.
Pre-order the album via Bandcamp (Digital/Vinyl): https://waxmachine.bandcamp.com/album/the-sky-unfurls-the-dance-goes-on