202: Vignettes EP, by Lee Westwood

Lee Westwood (United Kingdom)
Vignettes EP (2017)
6 tracks, 20 minutes
Bandcamp

I knew Lee Westwood’s music from his work with Dizraeli. As part of Dizraeli and the Small Gods, his expert acoustic guitar playing straddled the line between folk-baroque and jazz; knowing this, when the Small Gods had disbanded and Westwood released some of his own material, I expected to be at least somewhat like that, or perhaps more on the jazzier side of things. I was wrong. Vignettes is one piece of music split up into six short movements. It’s an experimental classical work for a duo of flute (played here by Philippe Barnes) and oboe (Suzie Shrubb).

Because they’re both melody instruments (that is, they can only play one note at a time instead of chords), there is no space for either instrument to play a secondary role to the other. The whole piece revolves around the relationship between the two instruments, and across the 20 minutes, they both develop as characters, with distinct personalities. It’s a little as if this piece is a dance, but instead of bodies, the physical movements, shapes and gestures are reflected in the travels of the two woodwinds. And it does feel like travels, or journeys or adventures. Each instrument has their own melody line that are sometimes very close to each other, in harmony or even in unison, but sometimes they can be far apart from each other, playing seemingly unrelated tunes before coming back together again. Sometimes they are close, but separate, their timings slightly out of sync with each other, or their usually complementary lines clashing in dissonance occasionally. It’s bizarrely easy to anthropomorphise these two intersecting melody lines, and I find that so impressive.

The music itself shows quite a lot of influences in its short duration. While its performance is in the Western classical idiom, there are plenty of harmonies and small melodic quirks that are actually quite jazzy. There are portions that are quite Debussy-esque, but also parts which must surely have been informed by styles such as gagaku, the elegant and dramatic Japanese court music.

It is really amazing how effective – and affective – just a relatively short duologue between a flute and an oboe can be. From tensely cinematic to lightly playful, there is so much to hear here. Come on this adventure and experience it yourself.