Adam Armstrong
Adam Armstrong's acoustic and electric bass drives the intricate original jazz of AtmaSphere and Sonic Fiction, locking African, Indian, funk and swing rhythms into music that can feel Zen-calm one moment and sheer high-velocity pleasure the next.
On Flying he co-writes festival grooves and dances that rise from percussion interplay into open blues and ambient stretch, the bass holding a line through gamelan bells, meditative unisons and lightly swinging 7/4. In Sonic Fiction he anchors Pratt's MIDI-rich fusion quintet, giving intricate originals the weight and lift they need so composition and improvisation stay in balance. The playing is technical yet buoyant, luminous and restful: complex metres that still swing, and textures that invite the ear rather than dazzle it.
Performing as AtmaSphere
Flying
AtmaSphere is a Sydney jazz band specialising in virtuosic performances of its own works. Some tracks carry a Zen calm; others offer sheer pleasure from more notes per second than seem possible. Guest spots by Don Burrows and Mike Nock heighten the pleasure.
Composer
Performing as Sonic Fiction
Powerful Medicine
One of Australia's most interesting jazz groups plays original material that is rhythm-rich and performed with virtuosity and style.