Dave Angel’s new album, ‘A Time And Place’, is out now via R&S Records, the label that helped establish his reputation more than thirty years ago, and it draws on jazz, soul and improvisation to build a record centred on personal storytelling rooted in family, nature and musical heritage.
Many of the tracks are drawn directly from Dave’s family, including ‘Goddess’, dedicated to his first granddaughter and written after watching her take her first steps, and ‘Fourteen’, named after his grandson Leo’s football shirt number and built around a clip of Leo’s laughter taken from a training video. ‘Fly Gray’ was written in a single night following the birth of his grandson Fabian Gray, while ‘Featherweight’ is dedicated to his grandson Enzo, whose interest in boxing shaped the track’s title and tone.
Nature runs through the record too, with ‘Turquoise’ reflecting time spent by the sea in Ibiza and ‘The Yellow Butterfly’ recorded on a laptop during a session in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, where two yellow butterflies stayed close to Dave throughout and left a lasting impression on the track’s mood.
The album also reaches back into earlier periods of Dave’s career and musical upbringing, with ‘Glitterati’ looking back on the 1988 rave scene and the sense of unity it created among different communities, and ‘Ride On A Magic Carpet’ based on after party sessions held in a friend’s living room during the 1990s. ‘FTOG’s’ (For The OGs) is dedicated to older jazz musicians, including Dave’s father, who supported him as a child drummer and shaped his early musical outlook.
Collaboration features heavily across the record, from lead single ‘Réflexion’, which includes trumpeter Steve Waterman, whose playing Dave discovered through Paul Hazel’s album ‘Out Of This World’ on Bamboo Radical, to ‘Harmony Serenade’, featuring vocalist Robert Owens, and ‘Sprinkles From Above’, which takes its title from a comment made by guitarist Merv Carswell in the studio. Dave’s daughter, Aurii Sky, provides vocals on ‘Do You Feel What I Feel’, adding a further personal dimension to the record.
Beyond the personal and nostalgic, some tracks move into broader themes: ‘Apocalypse’ is built around a vocal sample referencing global events and political leaders, while ‘Navigator’ takes its name from a story involving Lee “Scratch” Perry.
Across its fourteen tracks, ‘A Time And Place’ combines personal history with wider social commentary, marking Dave’s most personal record to date.
