DEBUT SOLO ALBUM – E D E N T I D E
A LIFETIME IN THE MAKING, E D E N T I D E REVEALS, FOR THE FIRST TIME,THE TRUE VOICE OF NOEL LANGLEY
AS A COMPOSER, ARRANGER AND SOLOIST.

Noel Langley – trumpet & flugelhorn, Ruth Wall – harps, Alcyona Mick – piano, Keith Fairbairn – percussion, Zoltan Dekany – bass, Asaf Sirkis – drums, Kenny Dickenson – keyboards, Laurence Cottle – bass guitar. Phil Todd, Kate Robertson, Duncan Lamont Jnr & Ben Castle – woodwinds. Dave Lee, Mike Lovatt, Yazz Ahmed, Trevor Mires, Ashley Slater and Oren Marshall – brass.
Track Commentary by Noel Langley
01. FOR THE UNCOMMON MAN was composed when I was around 15. My father had a beat-up piano in his garage, on which I used to improvise for hours at a time. I recorded many of these sessions on a portable cassette player and then spent an equally obsessive amount of time listening back. One such improvisation became the germ of this little motif. For years I would play this whenever I sat at a piano. Until now it has never been heard by anybody – and here it is. Finally. Presented as a fanfare. The way I always imagined it.
02. THE TURNING HOUSE is a spontaneous composition, crafted through improvisation with harpist Ruth Wall. Here Ruth played a mediaeval bray harp, with its buzzing strings tuned to an unusual eastern mode. There’s a bit of reverse engineering in there too. I surrounded the trumpet microphone with four of Ruth’s harps so that their strings would resonate in sympathy with the trumpet. What sounds like bells in the introduction, is actually captured resonance from the gaps between my trumpet statements. I was in effect playing the harp with my breath.
03. SVEN’S ISLAND is another brain-worm composed at the piano, with repeated asymmetric and dissonant patterns that slowly evolved over time. An earlier, shelved version, sputtered out in hopelessness. However, I was overjoyed when I revisited the track and forged a more positive resolution. There’s now movement from darkness to light and chaos to tranquillity – with the joyful and life affirming sounds of a street band gifting possibilities of redemption. Sven’s Island is an isle in the Gulf of Finland, to which I once walked across a frozen sea.
04. GLASS is a work by British composer, Graham Fitkin. When I first heard it performed, its haunting simplicity spoke to me. The three-note chords in the piano were crystal clear. Bare, shining, and unadorned. The melody rose and spiralled upwards giving a sense of real hope. It simply invited me to incline my gaze upwards. My reimagining of Glass is orchestrated for the Stealth Horns: combining players from the Swing Out Sister big band and the Radiohead horn section that I assembled for ‘The King of Limbs Live from the Basement’ sessions.
05. FOUR FOR ONE was composed by acclaimed Canadian trumpet and flugelhorn player, Kenny Wheeler. It’s the second movement of a trumpet quartet that Kenny kindly gave to Yazz Ahmed, my partner, and me. Here I’m playing all four parts, hence the title. The overdubs were not recorded in some great church as they sound, but in ace producer Ashley Slater’s bedroom studio. Kenny is my favourite trumpet player. Whenever I go to hear him play, I have to make sure I have some tissues to hand. Kenny’s music and playing will often move me to tears.
06. ON HAAST BEACH was my attempt to conjure up a tribal gathering held around a giant driftwood fire. A ritual of structure and ceremony that eventually gives way to primal dancing conveyed with wild abandonment. Based on three layers of seven beats played simultaneously, the winding, hypnotic seven-flute melody is layered over vibraphone, harp, piano and electric piano – all anchored by double bass and tuba. Haast Beach is a deserted stretch of rugged coast on New Zealand’s south island, where I once spent a very memorable day and night a lifetime ago.
07. MINAMI was composed in just 20 minutes on a beautiful Steinway piano. Here I blended a simple folk-like melody with a more sophisticated harmony, partly inspired by French composer Michel Legrand. Minami was written during a period of huge change in my life. It subsequently serves as a cautionary tale – but also as a locker for some of my most poignant and distressing yet significant and vital memories. I played Minami with the London Jazz Orchestra many times, usually ending with a piano solo from the late great Pete Saberton.
08. E D E N T I D E, or at least the central section, was composed when I was 16. Even in its original form it always enjoyed a 13-beat lilting bass line set against a calm, languid tune, with modal harmony on top. I guess I’d been listening to ‘Kind of Blue’ at the time – something I still do to this day. The rhythm track features mixing bowls, rolling pins, dustbin lids, a tea towel and some creaky floorboards – plus an enormous bunch of keys collected from every house I’ve ever lived in. I can’t explain why we finished with ‘The Lord is My Shepherd’. It just seemed to be where it wanted to go.
Thoughts on E D E N T I D E by Jerry Hyde
I’ve not yet listened to this album. E D E N T I D E.
I’ve not yet heard it.
Because when I do, as soon as the final track fades, that first, delicious encounter will have ended.
Forever.
And whilst it may then grow on me with repeated listening, and I will almost certainly come to love it even more, nevertheless – the moment will be past.
When I think of all the truly incredible albums I’ve listened to in my life, some for forty years or more now, there are very few that I ever paused long enough to really experience them consciously for first time…
With the reverence for the fact that it was the first time.
A special moment – a kiss, a sip of champagne, your first oyster, a great book, the Taj Mahal at sunset… acid – none of these things are ever the same the second time round.
Occasionally better – but never the same. Now that I’m older I’m more likely to catch the moment – whatever that moment might be – and I’ll appreciate that no matter what happens, the pure, unadulterated magic of this first meeting will never be repeated. And so I’m savouring the anticipation of this one, like when you go starving into a fantastic restaurant and you just know that steak is going to be fucking great, cooked to perfection, seasoned just right, all your senses coming alive, your mouth filling with saliva…That’s how I feel as I hold Edentide in my hand.
Hungry.
“I don’t care if he’s a great trumpet player,” a friend of mine confided. “I’d be happy to sit and listen to him talk all day…”
Because Noel Langley… is not normal.
The King of Frith Street they call him. I can think of no one who’s been described as both a genius, and a mystic. You can see it when you look in his eyes; he’s somewhere else, in another realm, presumably the same place where Edentide was conceived – he inhabits two worlds and who knows what he sees or hears.
“You’ll not have heard of me but you’ll have heard me,” his smile is Buddha-like and infects with silent laughter. Most likely true, but given that you hold this disc in your hand consider yourself fortunate, as do I, to have found yourself in possession of this jewel, and if by chance you haven’t already torn off the cellophane and listened to it before reading these notes then pause and consider – your entire life has been leading to this moment.
Enjoy it.
“But hold on,” you say. “You haven’t heard it yet – what makes you so confident it’s that special?”
Simple – I know Noel. And Noel Langley doesn’t play music; it’s not something he does. It’s something he is.
But fair enough…
It’s time to eat that steak. ”
– Jerry Hyde – Gonzo Therapist and Author (www.jerryhyde.co.uk)