JQ & Richard Pike - Tessera LP

JQ (Joe Quirke) and Richard Pike have been collaborating for many years. Two-thirds of jazz-tinted new age trio Forgiveness (Gondwana Records) and partner curators of UK’s Salmon Universe label, they are constantly sharing ideas and a conceptual crossover space.

‘Tessera’ is their first official duo recording. It explores the relationship between texture, frequency and impermanence in a singular way, a fleeting stream of sound materials that float in and out of view, within seconds can appear present and demanding of attention, then to fall away into a corner at the back of the room. There is a constant feeling of connection and disconnection, an ephemeral playfulness.

This is music that is carefully sound-designed, infinite in detail but transitory. Deconstructed-dub cubism. The ancient word ‘Tessera’ relates to the smaller pieces of a larger whole, usually stones of a mosaic, a synecdoche representing a colour-printed sheet in half-tones, a pattern made by cracks in a wall, or a visible trace of an earlier painting beneath. A pentimento effect of a drawing erased while the faint outlines of what existed below still endure. Echoes of echoes, sounds shared, resampled and small gestures repurposed to take on new meaning.

The cover was painted by Berlin's Winston Chmielinski aka Weseeclearly. His art exists in its own space, off-grid, where he is intuitively drawn to less literal perspectives, colors, and forms, ethereal yet earth-bound.