MUSIC | WANDERING WIRES
John performs, composes and arranges with Wandering Wires, a contemporary jazz quartet from Oxford, who formed in April 2016. Their local emergence was initiated by debut album Departures (October 2016), prompting local and national radio airings with BBC Introducing and a review by NightShift magazine. Since then they have performed at Pizza Express Jazz Club Dean St, The Vortex Jazz Club, the O2 Academy, once in support of The Comet is Coming, and taken the stage at Oxford’s Truck festival. Their release of Homecoming (March 2018) featured grooves inspired by the likes of Richard Spaven, Floating Points and Mark Guiliana, vocals reminiscent of Erykah Badu, Gretchen Parlato and Hiatus Kaiyote, and the harmonic vocabulary of Kenny Wheeler and Jason Rebello. Their recent songs continue to draw from a mixing pot of diverse influences, and the latest product is their single Queen of the Night (Feb 2020). Scroll down for pictures, music, interviews and live videos.
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MUSIC
Visit www.wanderingwires.bandcamp.com to download pre-2018 albums and EPs;
our latest tracks can be found on Apple Music, Spotify and Youtube
QUEEN OF THE NIGHT
Our latest single is available to stream and purchase on all major platforms now.
Released Feb 21, 2020
Wandering Wires are:
John Young, Olivia Williams, Tim Davies, Joe Bradley
John Young - Piano, Fender Rhodes, Keyboards, Arrangements
Olivia Williams - Vocals
Tim Davies - Drums, Percussion
Joe Bradley - Bass
Harry Greene - Tenor and Alto Saxophones
Nick Budd - Trumpet
Felix Fardell - Trombone
All tracks written and produced by Wandering Wires
Recorded and mixed by Tim Davies
Mastered by Dick Beetham at 360 Mastering
Artwork by Alex Christian (Bal)
© All rights reserved
MOVING ON
Filmed and edited by Toby Elwes
Recorded and mixed by Tim Davies
Mastered by Dick Beetham at 360 Mastering
Wandering Wires are: Olivia Williams - Vocals; John Young - Piano; Joseph Bradley - Bass; Tim Davies - Drums
HOMECOMING
Entirely self-written, recorded and produced, with mastering by Dick Beetham, the engineer behind Jordan Rakei and Alt-J, Homecoming brings out the best in the band’s music: demanding yet intimate, exciting but emotional, the album is about love, distance, and change, with lyrics in Portuguese, daring time signatures, and an orchestra’s worth of instruments, all merged into a sound world like no other.
Homecoming is available to stream and purchase on all major platforms now.
Released March 3, 2018
Wandering Wires are:
Olivia Williams, Tim Davies, John Young, Joe Bradley, Ben Clapin
Olivia Williams - Vocals, Flute
Tim Davies - Drums, Percussion, Trumpet, Flugelhorn
John Young - Piano, Fender Rhodes, Keyboards, Violin, Arrangements
Joe Bradley - Bass, Extra Vocals
Ben Clapin - Saxophone
James Graham - Trombone
Nell Norman - Violin
Sydney Gagliano - Viola
Georgina Lloyd-Owen - Cello
Max Kiener - Guitar
All tracks written and produced by Wandering Wires
Recorded and mixed by Tim Davies
Mastered by Dick Beetham at 360 Mastering
Artwork by Josie Perry
With special thanks to:
Oxford University Faculty of Music, especially Chris Pidgeon, Liz Green and Dan Hulme; Kipper Eldridge, Alex Hehir, Dick Beetham; Kevin and Emma Davies and all our families, for their endless support and encouragement; Steven Bradley, for the loan of his Fender Rhodes; Oriel College Senior Library for the use of their piano, and Brasenose College for their generous support.
© All rights reserved
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ALONG THE WORLDLINE
Moving through the shifting sonic world of Along the Wordline, time signature – and other musical paradigms – change, but there are invariant quantities weaved into the fabric of the piece: the numerical relations between the tempo and time signatures of adjacent sections. The constancy of the subdivisional pulses of various metric modulations, and of motific transformation, underlies the work.
Released August 5, 2017
Composed by John Young
Keyboards - John Young
Bass guitar - Joseph Bradley
Drums - Tim Davies
Tenor Saxophone - Ben Clapin
Violin I - Alycia Jewes
Violin II - Jennifer Long
Viola I - James Chater
Viola II - Sydney Gagliano
Cello - Rebecca McNaught
Double Bass - Joseph Bradley
Recorded at the Oxford University Music Faculty by Tim Davies, March 2017.
Mixed and mastered by Tim Davies.
Artwork by Alex Christian
© All rights reserved
DEPARTURES
An album inspired by leaving somewhere, someone or something.
Released October 22, 2016
All songs written and performed by Wandering Wires
Produced by Tim Davies and John Young
Drums on 'What I Feel', 'Boarding Alone', 'To Those High Places', 'Without You' and acoustic bass on 'Boarding Alone' recorded by Nick Moorbath at Evolution Studios, Oxford.
Mixed and Mastered by Tim Davies
Artwork by Stephanie Young
Cover Design by Tim Davies
© All rights reserved
REVIEW BY NIGHTSHIFT MAGAZINE (January 2017)
If writing about music is indeed like dancing about architecture, then Wandering Wires are well placed to provide an appropriate soundtrack to such an abstract concept.
This gem of a debut album is a successful experiment in the unification of the polar ends of the jazz spectrum into a satisfying white light. A corking example of this is the opener, `What I Feel’; after a choppy dub rewind intro sets out a stabbing atonal piano riff and vocal loop foundation; it’s built on by insistent Stax trumpet and on up fty storeys with a orid sax solo from Ben Clapin. If you’re thinking Vincent Herring meets Blue States meets Paul Bley, then you’ve been going to some cool parties.
This ghostly and clever cross-pollination goes on throughout the album; the diverse spectres of Miles Davis and Jon Hopkins appear in `Sail’ and `Our Shifting Lives’; the sweet depths of avant discord are plumbed in `(Reset) All Connections’, and if you hanker for a synthetic choral earworm, look no further than `To Those High Places’.
As a counter to all the instrumentals and electronica, singer Olivia Williams drips her sultry Sade-like vocals over two tracks, `Boarding Alone’ and `Without You’, as if Thievery Corporation and Tycho had made an angelic pact.
Wandering Wires contain some serious young talent, and calling this collection `Departures’ is entirely apt; they soon will be going places.
Paul Carrera
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TWO SIDES
Released April 17, 2016
All tracks written by John Young and Tim Davies
Recorded by Tim Davies and John Young in the Study Studio - April 2016
Mixed and Mastered in the Bedroom Studio by Tim Davies - April 2016
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OTHER LIVE VIDEOS
'Don't Tell Me' | BBC Music Introducing in Oxford Session | 12/03/20
''Always' | BBC Music Introducing in Oxford Session | 27/10/18
'Queen of the Night' | Pre-Gig Preview
'Moving On' | Acoustic Shed Session
'Always' | Rehearsal Video