The last album we featured from Jonathan Day was in 2023; his album, Sakura, was reviewed by Thomas Blake, who concludes: “…although at first appearing effortless, are characterised by a profound philosophical insight and a rich understanding of the importance of music and nature. But most of all, it is surprisingly but deeply an album about love, about the small but important connections between humans in a world that can feel overwhelmingly big.”
He is also something of a nomad, in his article on Festival Taragalte, which takes place under the starry skies of M’hamid El Ghizlane, a small oasis town, he notes: “Playing music in a strange, fascinating and beautiful environment is a thing of fun and joy…”
Produced by Gavin Monaghan, his latest offering, Cafe in the Valley of the Fire Church, finds him sailing under the collective title of Jonathan Hijr Day Quartet. The single, released on Gavin’s Magic Garden Recordings, an imprint of Revolver Records/Warner Brothers, is out now and available on DSPs.
Jonathan shares the background:
“The single and album idea came from Grammy-nominated producer Gavin Monaghan after he saw us live. He is also a long-time friend and has been — off and on — around me and my music for a long time. I am by nature deeply nomadic — but as Thomas Blake has noted previously in KLOF – those journeys, however long, always draw me home for a time of quietness, contemplation and re-centring. As T.S. Eliot wrote in Four Quartets, the point of all journeys is to return to where we started and know the place for the first time. I also love Lacan’s idea that we ‘tear the veil’ of ourselves in times of intensity, breaking up the eggshell walls of persona, only to allow it to reform in a new and more suitable shape. I travelled to Africa to explore my roots and play music for people there, to the Amazigh with whom I share some ancestry. Of course, the flow is always two-way, and the passionately beautiful music of the desert – in late-night fireside jams and more formal on-stage collaborations — wrote itself into me. Sitting beneath the miraculous Shushra trees in the desert wind was, almost bizarrely, an intense experience of belonging. What Gavin saw in the music was a melding of what he called “Celtic Soul and Songhoy Blues”.
“We recorded in his Magic Garden Studios – an intriguing combination of ancient and up-to-the-moment equipment and a sort of alternative art gallery, dotted with quotations from Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac and Herman Hesse. Simon Smith (who’s famously played with Stevie Nicks) played bass, Meinir Olwen was on Harp, Niimi Day Gough on voice, and Adam Knight on vibraphone. I was really full of joy at the time, and I think I can hear that.
On the song, Jonathan adds that it’s “A story of life on the road. Hobo-ing on no money round the dives of Europe. Two weeks of gigs in a Danish bar – on Rømø, an island off the coast of Jutland. Awful owner, fabulous staff. A free ride with them to see some kind of Pink Floyd in Freetown Christiania – drop out smokey centre of alternative Copenhagen. Met someone – devil’s bargain between their place and stranded, or a 3 am boat ride back to my gigs – and sunrise over curving sands and the blissful peace of the bird haunted Vadehavet. Caught the boat – penniless, thirsty, hungry: a while since pay day. Saw the ‘free for truckers’ buffet. All those long lorry rides on the end of my thumb might pay off after all … sweetest coffee I’ve ever tasted. Song’s become more than this – an anthem and tribute to the road friendships – intense, momentary, but to be continued. A fond hand wave to all the people we’ve loved and who’ve loved us back.
“Bless you all xx”
Cafe in the Valley of the Fire Church is out now.
Jonathan has a busy year coming, mixing performances in Wales and UK more widely, with a number of African festivals – in Togo, Burkina Faso, Zanzibar, Tunisia and Morocco.