For those unaware, Outpost of Dreams introduces a new duo. Norma Winstone, as always quietly innovative as jazz singer and lyricist, brings her vocal subtlety and poetic sensibility to new pieces by Kit Downes, and to compositions by Carla Bley, Ralph Towner, and John Taylor

The programme is completed with fresh perspectives on two traditional tunes, “Black Is The Colour” and “Rowing Home.” Throughout Downes offers elegantly phrased accompaniment and adventurous interjections.

Outpost of Dreams was recorded in Udine in April 2023 and is out now via ECM Records.

1. El
2. Fly The Wind
3. Jesus Maria
4. Beneath An Evening Sky
5. Out Of The Dancing Sea
6. The Steepe
7. Nocturne
8. Black Is The Colour
9. In Search Of Sleep
10. Rowing Home

Recorded at the Artesuono Recording Studio, Udine, this breathtakingly sublime new recording opens on the delicate gossamer that breathes within El and the playful Fly The Wind and then we are given the late night, smokey jazz club appeal of Jesus Maria, the sweeping Beneath An Evening Sky, and then comes the sheer enigmatic beauty that is Out Of The Dancing Sea.

Along next are the wispy notations that come together to form The Steepe and the languishing Nocturne and they are in turn backed by the precise nature of creation that is Black Is The Colour, the album rounding out on the free flowing In Search Of Sleep, closing on the ornately sumptuous Rowing Home.

www.normawinstone.com