Vels Trio have announced their long-awaited debut album Celestial Greens forthcoming on Bradley Zero’s genre-crossing label Rhythm Section. It will be released on LP & Digital on October 29th.
The trio also share new single ‘May As Well Be’, a dreamy jam with funk indebted bass. The band revel in sonic world-building, bringing a Brainfeeder-esque sci-fi tilt, splashed in spacey retro-future nostalgia. Ambitious in both scope and sound, the trio recorded at Kate Bush’s ‘70s studio alongside her nephew, the musician and recording engineer Raven Bush (Syd Arthur).
Expansive without being indulgent, funky without being trite, Vels Trio’s Jack Stephenson-Oliver (keyboards), Dougal Taylor (drums) and Cameron Dawson (bass) have found harmony in virtuosity on their forthcoming debut album, Celestial Greens.
Meeting in Brighton and now based in London, the members of Vels Trio have also gone on to play alongside some stellar names in UK jazz, such as Emma-Jean Thackray (Dougal Taylor), Puma Blue (Cameron Dawson) and Poppy Ajudha (Jack Stephenson-Oliver) among others. Their debut LP marks a return to where it all began.
Having worked with the likes of Shabaka Hutchings on debut EP Yellow Ochre, with Total Refreshment Centre in 2017 (then nominated for Jazz Album of the Year at Worldwide Awards and since reissued by Rhythm Section in 2020), Celestial Greens marks a confident shift in tone from the band, which they describe as them “trying to make pop music”. It just might not sound like any pop music you’ve heard before.
Radio support for their EP Yellow Ochre by Mary Anne Hobbs, Huey Morgan, Gilles Peterson (BBC 6Music), Moxie, Zakia, Touching Bass, Nathan Gregory Wilkins & Ivan Smagghe, Kit Records (NTS)