Ma Fleur

Dealing with themes of loss and love - and in itself representing a kind of absence - 'Ma Fleur' is fertile ground for Swinscoe's brand of music-making, for while people have talked about what he does in terms of jazz, the truth is that the basis of his music has always been in raw emotion. From the achingly beautiful opener 'To Build A Home' to the finale, 'Time And Space', this is an album which reaches for and finds a truth and honesty far beyond what you would normally expect from such a record, but without losing any of the accessibility which made TCO popular in the first place. If the mood is melancholy, Swinscoe and the musicians he works with manage to make it an ultimately uplifting experience, perhaps in the end more about the love you find than the love you lose.