David Paul Jones - Something There - The Herald

The "classical" label at the top of this column is a convenience, for David Paul Jones is a respected classical composer - always has been, since his post-grad days at the RSAMD. There is however nothing remotely classical in his shimmeringly impressionistic, ravishing creation Something There, an extraordinarily evocative series of extended tracks derived from his score to a Samuel Beckett play in Theatre Cryptic's festival some years back. They are, effectively, songs without words, vocalised by the composer in his gentle baritone voice, with the soprano of Carolyn Murray-Hamilton like a shaft of sunlight. The instrumental music, a hypnotic, minimalist creation, is long, leisurely, dreamy, endlessly beautiful, and beguilingly scored for piano, soprano sax (Steve Kettley), three cellos, double bass and discreet percussion. Richly romantic and rapturously nostalgic.