10 Seconds: Kim Macari
"George, a huge thank you for inviting me to put this together. What a joy it is to swim around in music I love and then enthuse about it in writing."
IG: @chickenthepig
Catch Kim playing The Music of Duke Ellington at Jazz at Trades, Tuesday, November 17th
1. Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra - El Segadors (2'22" - 2'32")
from Charlie Haden - The Ballad of the Fallen (1982)
“This is how Ballad of the Fallen, Liberation Music Orchestra’s second album, opens. El Segadors (The Reapers) is a song from the 1600s, adopted as the Catalunya national anthem. Carla Bley has arranged it as this mournful, rumbling, defiant chorale. It’s raw and jagged and I LOVE it. At 2’22, Haden emerges from the chorale with the most beautiful, warm sound.
I knew Liberation Orchestra had to be on this list but it was tough to decide which piece. Their body of work is sacred music. Not only are some of the deepest, most amazing musicians featured in the band across its history, but Haden set it up to amplify the voices of the unheard. Art as solidarity. What’s more important than that?"
2. Spell Songs - Thrift (Dig In, Dig In) (3’19” - 3’29”)
from Spell Songs - Let the Light In (2022)
"“Show us hardship is a limit, not a failing
Show us how to live in hope against the odds”
"Spell Songs is a gorgeous collaboration between artist Jackie Morris, writer Robert Macfarlane and a powerhouse of folk musicians (Karine Polwart, Kris Drever, Julie Fowlis, Beth Porter, Sekou Keita, Rachel Newton and Jim Molyneux). Each song celebrates a species of flora or fauna from our shores – swallows, red foxes, oak trees… This piece is about Thrift (or Sea Pink), a hardy wee flower that grows on the coast, the rugged edges where sea meets land. It’s a particular feature for Karine Polwart, whose voice can be heard in my house or in my headphones most days. “Show us hardship is a limit not a failing” feels like an important message to hear from the natural world."
3. Darcy James Argue's Secret Society - Transit (4'24" - 4'34")
from Darcy James Argue's Secret Society - Infernal Machines (2009)
“This piece is celebration of how brilliant Ingrid Jensen is. It’s a formidable setting to improvise in – the whole composition is like an experiment in delaying the release of tension. I think Darcy might even have included an instruction on the part, a warning to the soloist to pace themselves. The way Ingrid tells a story across this solo is so exciting and impressive. There is such direction and intent in her lines. The band are really pushing her, there are big dense backings to weave around. And she so masterfully meets that energy. Sculptor Anne Truitt talks about “something rising in the viewer to meet the work” when we view art and something definitely rose within Ingrid to meet this one.
4’24 features this fantastic descending line from her that heralds in a back beat, a moment of pure joy."
4. Fionn Regan – Put A Penny in the Slot (1'49" - 1'59")
from Fionn Regan – The End of History (2006)
“For the loneliness you foster, I suggest Paul Auster”
"Fionn Regan’s End of History is an album that lives inside my bones and has done for almost 20 years. Every word, every note, the contour of every speech pattern. The same is true for my husband and Fionn Regan is an important square in the patchwork quilt of our lives. Knowing music inside and out and singing it together is just the most gorgeous and deep human connection. It was therefore tough to hone in on just 10 seconds, but this line from Put A Penny in The Slot is one of my absolute favourites. I too would prescribe Paul Auster as the medicine for many ills."
5. Steve Reich - WTC 9/11 pt 1 (0’20” - 0’30”)
“Mark Rothko talked about the way a viewer should experience the work of Abstract Expressionists is to stand 18 inches from the canvas, so the work floods your entire field of vision. That’s what this work feels like to me, the auditory equivalent to those huge canvases.
It’s a very powerful start to a piece of music, that relentless alarm sound underpinning everything. At this moment, the audio of the air traffic controllers starts to distort and it surges, filling every tiny space with sound. And then all of a sudden, it drops away and the focus is pulled back to the four musicians in the centre; like the lights all going on and a single spotlight remains. The use of recorded and live sound, of the human voice and the way that the cadences of speech are used to shape melodic lines is something I love. Tilman Robinson’s I Was Only A Child is another powerful example of this kind of music. (from the Australian Art Orchestra album Home Can Grow Stranger Than Space)."
6. David Bowie - I Can't Give Everything Away (2’32” - 2’42”)
from David Bowie - Blackstar (2016)
“The final track of the final album. Released on the 8th January, his 69th birthday and two days before he died. Blackstar is one of the most incredible artistic statements made in the face of death. I love the album, as I love so much of what Bowie made and who he was. This final track feels like an exhalation. It’s been 10 years now since his death and I often find myself feeling extraordinarily glad that he existed."
7. Peter Evans/ Jim Black / Petter Eldh - Fully Born (1'20" - 1'30")
from Peter Evans - Extra (2024)
"I LOVE this trio and being able to bring them to London when we hosted them at the Vortex was a real highlight of my work as a programmer. Peter is a massive influence on me as a trumpet player, he is just on another level. It was really hard to narrow down which album I’d select from – it’s this one, Murmurs and Ghosts that I listen to most I think. All three musicians use electronics as well as their acoustic instruments in the band and right now I’m really enjoying exploring the use of electronics as an improvising instrument, so this had to be the one."
8. The Cure - A Forest (2’06'05” – 2’06'15”)
from The Cure - Live at Wembley (2022)
“The reason I picked this particular video is because I was at this gig at Wembley back in 2022. I’ve lived next to Wembley for a long time but this was the first time I’d seen something in the arena. The gig was phenomenal – take a look at the set list on the youtube video and you’ll see that they played for over 3 hours and just sounded amazing. They played A Forest about 2 hours in, and this particular
segment is highlighted for two reasons – firstly you can hear 12,500 people sing along with them and it’s one of my favourite memories being one of those 12,500 voices. And secondly – Robert Smith sounds INCREDIBLE live. Shoogly phone camera footage aside, just go and luxuriate in anything The Cure have done because they’re brilliant."
9. Lau - Dark Secret (0’52” – 1’02”)
from Lau - Midnight And Closedown (2019)
“Lau – the band that sounds like my soul. I adore everything these three musicians do – Martin Green is endlessly reaching and experimenting and making, he’s a brilliant mind. Aidan O’Rourke’s body of work is incredible and right now I particularly love the music he made for the documentary Iorram (the first cinema documentary made completely in Gaelic). Kris Drever’s voice is one of the most
beautiful in the world and soothes something very deep in my core.
This time stamp is when the vocals come in and you’ll see what I mean about his voice and how rich it is. But along with that, it’s the heartbeat-like percussion and textures of the electronics that just make me so happy. It’s from an album called Midnight and Closedown but I’d strongly recommend any of Lau’s catalogue as well as any of their individual projects."
10. George Michael, Mary J Blige - As (3’32” – 3’42”)
from George Michael - Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael (1998)
“I grew up surrounded by the music of George Michael because my mum loves him dearly. In fact, the soundtrack of my childhood was beautifully curated by Mum and I’m very grateful for it. As I’ve gotten older and as I became a musician myself, I came to fully understand just how brilliant he was. Incredibly well written songs and his voice was really very special. So it’s dually rooted in my nostalgia and in my own love of the music. But the reason it’s this one I chose (recognising it isn’t a song of his, it’s a cover of the Stevie Wonder song) is because there’s this odd little magic spell that happens where as he vocalises a descending line, it sounds like a saxophone. I don’t know if he’s swallowing the mic or if there’s some production on it…Actually I don’t want to know and ruin the magic."
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