The music of Al Swainger

Hailing from Bristol in the UK, Al Swainger is a prolific musician who’s been composing original songs since 2014. While refusing to be boxed into any one style or genre, he traipses through a plethora of sonic aesthetics to being to life his unique creative vision.

Blending elements of Latin, rock and pop influences and ambient tones, he adds improvised performance to create his personal take on jazz and progressive music. Recently, he’s just released his fifth full-length studio album to date titled Hearts Full of Grace. The new album, released via Other Compass Records, is the spiritual follow up to 2017’s record After & Before.

Written in unprecedented and strange times for everyone around the world, with his new album, Al Swainger takes a step back and contemplates our place in the universe and how to bring meaning to it. With those musings shining through on his latest artistic creation, his new album provides a transportive listening experience and moment of respite with the ten original compositions delivering the incredible originality of his talent as a songwriter and musician.

We got a chance to catch up with the artist and find out a bit more about his music and what he’s got lined up. Commenting on what he hopes to achieve with his music, he shares, “I’ve been making music and digital art under the project banner Pointless Beauty since 2014. Prior to that I’d built my performing career as a bassist. It had mainly been about emulating other people’s music in a variety of styles, which I loved, but got to a point where I felt I had a lot to say creatively that just didn’t have a place in any of the projects that I worked for. Bass is, by nature, a supportive role. I learned so much about how to build tension and release and structure music from being a bassist.”

Adding, “The issue is that if you have something melodic or textural to offer that goes beyond that supportive role then there isn’t really space for you in traditional ensembles. They tend to be very hierarchical and don’t favour change. Often bass player led projects can flip the hierarchy on its head and place themselves front and centre instead. That’s not really for me either as it’s primarily an ego driven solution. I’m way more interested in the idea of trying to strive toward equality of expression amongst an ensemble. I try to explicitly encourage more space for each player to contribute their individual voice in my compositions and across an album. As well as space I also consider what context each player is most comfortable expressing themselves in. Some players prefer fast and loud, others quiet and ambient. In the wrong context a voice can sound weak or inarticulate but with proper support can be the most beautiful and empowered.”

With each new musical work he crafts, he always wants listeners to take away something positive with each listen, “I hope listeners will be encouraged to reflect and find space emotionally to just ‘be’. We interact with so much mental interference every day through the technology that connects us. There are definitely many upsides but the huge downside is that it’s set up to fracture our ability to concentrate on anything for more than a few seconds at a time. In turn that has a cumulative effect on our anxiety and stress levels. I’d like to feel the music I make acts as an emotional encouragement to help people focus and process their own stories and thoughts in a more patient way. I think that’s why people describe my music as ‘cinematic’ so often. We’re used to instrumental music in films being used as emotional reinforcement for scenes in films. What if people have to just hear the music and reflect on their own lives without any additional interference?”

In the future, Al Swainger’s stunning sonic journey shows no sign of slowing down, with much more to come down the road, “Each project so far has come from emotional necessity on my part at the time. My first album ‘A Lonely Vigil’ was very experimental and about me finding my solo voice. It was the first time I’d really used fx pedals to transform the sound of my bass extensively. It also committed to playing with computers as a studio instrument rather than just a recording device. ‘Shall Brothers Be’ is an improvised solo performance without prior preparation with just my bass, fx pedals and live looping. I really enjoyed the freedom for it not to have to conform to anything but still trying to inject structure and momentum for a listener. ‘After & Before’ was my first album with a full quintet including trumpet, keyboards, guitar, drums and bass. I really wanted to see where I could push the traditional quintet sound combined with technology.”

He continues, “Jazz can be seen as a very pure acoustic, spontaneous, form. I wanted to take that and introduce synths, sequencers and studio techniques more associated with rock and ambient. I also thought carefully about the narrative progress of compositions across the whole album. The tracks are distinct and separate but also curated to form an emotional curve from start to finish. It was a real pleasure to tour this album and get such positive feedback for being different and unexpected. That took a lot out of me to organise so I followed it with ‘Outer Planets’ a purely ambient, solo, album. During the pandemic and lockdowns I recorded a whole bunch of singles and collaborations with vocalists (including Michaela Fedeczko, Kat Lee-Ryan and Holly Moberly). These vary between synth-pop and ambient and were really great for stretching my muscles as a producer. I’m hoping to do more collaborations coming up but can’t announce anything official yet. My latest release ‘Hearts Full of Grace’ is a return to the quintet format and my most recent ‘big’ project. The response has been incredibly positive and I’m intending to tour that over the next couple of years whilst working on new material. I’m very much an artist who makes stuff first and then figures out what I was doing later so anything could happen though!”

With three tracks lifted from his latest album; “The Shrug”, “Relentless” and “Two Steps”, you can get a full taste of Al Swainger’s music with this artist curated playlist of his work.

Listen to Al Swainger’s music below

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