Slowly Rolling Camera Slowly Rolling Camera

• 1 Protagonist 05:15
• 2 Dream A Life 05:26
• 3 Rain that Falls 06:09
• 4 Bridge 06:20
• 5 Slowly Rolling Camera 05:19
• 6 Outside 05:52
• 7 Fragile Ground 05:46
• 8 Undertones 03:30
• 9 Color 04:28
• 10 Two Roads 05:05
• 11 River Runs Free 03:06
• 12 Rolling Clouds 07:22
• 13 Silent Song 04:41
• Total Runtime 01:08:19

Info for Slowly Rolling Camera

Slowly Rolling Camera, is the new project that teams up pianist-composer Dave Stapleton, producer Deri Roberts, vocalist-lyricist Dionne Bennett and drummer Elliot Bennett. The result is music that has distinct echoes of the ‘invisible soundtracks’ of UK progressives Cinematic Orchestra and Portishead.

Dipping into a diverse world of trip-hop, jazz and drum and bass rhythms, the record is influenced as much by the Cinematic Orchestra and Portishead as by James Blake and Bonobo, this music is both ethereal and visceral, brimming with real emotion and restless intelligence.

Engineer and mixed by Andy Allan (Portishead, Massive Attack), ‘Slowly Rolling Camera’, is the self titled début album set for release early 2014 on Edition Records. The albums free flowing soul and digital funk shows a boundless approach to arrangement, from the warm, free flowing and texturally rich harmonies of tracks such as ‘Bridge’ and ‘Rain That Falls’ to the vibrating rhythms and ambient soundscapes of ‘Protagonist’ and ‘Rolling Clouds’, this is a remarkably produced album full of beauty and emotion.

The 4 band members have known each other for over 10 years playing in various jazz, funk & soul bands in the clubs of Cardiff, but it wasn’t until 2012 when they converged to form Slowly Rolling Camera. Bringing together 4 unique approaches in writing and production, the results are a highly original and collaborative sound from people that know each other, and know playing together. Expanding to a 7 piece for the live set, this band is a formidable and distinctive unit.

„If you’d throw James Blake, Portishead, Bonobo, Air, Massive Attack into a blender and flavor it with a dash of St. Germain or De’Phazz, the end result would be pretty damn close to the sound of Slowly Rolling Camera. Triphop, drum ‘n bass, lounge and jazz are roughly what SRC is all about, with their debut LP being a warm, emotive and soothing array of nightclub-esque compositions.“ (Beats & Beyond)

„Once Slowly Rolling Camera infiltrates the mind with its gorgeous compositions it becomes clear—this album heralds the arrival of a new and distinctive ensemble.“ (All About Jazz)

„Calls to mind the electronic soundscape makers like Cinematic Orchestra. This is heaven sent.“ (Shropshire Star)

„If you’re looking for an album that has got hipster dinner-party scrawled all over it, then look no further. This is a jazzed-up nu-soul affair which is stuffed with orchestral sweeps, Bristol-style trip-hop and ethereal drum and bass rhythms. There is plenty of richness to be found in the grooves, too, and space (and quietness) is used in the effective manner of James Blake.“ (Crack Magazine)

Dionne Bennett, vocals
Dave Stapleton, composer, fender rhodes, piano, hammond organ
Deri Roberts, sound design, electronics, producer
Elliot Bennett, drums

Additional musicians:
Neil Yates, trumpet
Mark Lockheart, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
Chris Montague, guitar
Jasper Høiby, double bass
Jon Visanji, violin
Catrin Win Morgan, violin
Victoria Stapleton, violin
Katy Rowe, violin
Ilona Bondar, viola
Rebekah Frost, viola
Alice Hoskins, cello
Sarah Stevens, cello

Slowly Rolling Camera
a new project that teams pianist-composer Dave Stapleton, producer Deri Roberts, vocalist-lyricist Dionne Bennett and drummer Elliot Bennett, is proof positive that some of the most interesting work often arises from a meeting of many minds. The result is music that has distinct echoes of the ‘invisible soundtracks’ of UK progressives Cinematic Orchestra and Portishead as well as the polychrome textures of maverick Scandinavian artists like Sigor Ros and Oddarrang.

The intricate deployment of glowing keyboard colours and shifting rhythmic patterns imbues tracks such as Temptation and Eight Days In with the kind of stark atmospheres that often define the best scores for both big and small screen. Stapleton’s keyboards and Elliot Bennett’s drums create a wide range of sharp, often crunching timbres that are augmented by Roberts’ artful electronic washes, but it is the presence of guest players, double bassist Jasper Hoiby, guitarist Chris Montague and saxophonist Mark Lockheart that significantly enriches the sound palette. These greatly respected figures in British jazz contribute a heavy, bulky low end, eerie, crackling chords and crystalline solos that make for much more than a cut ‘n’ paste studio session. Their attention to detail is great.

Furthermore, the orchestral scope of the project is epitomized by the lush, plaintive string charts that embellish tracks such as Coin. There is also Dionne Bennett’s measured, highly soulful vocal performance on 21 Nov and Rain That Falls, two gorgeously wistful songs that skillfully weave together understated but nonetheless resonant chord sequences and soaring crescendos.

Slowly Rolling Camera is not a name without meaning. The whole aesthetic of the music vividly suggests a series of frames or images that unfold at a leisurely pace, thus settling strongly into the sub-conscious to reveal layer upon layer of detail. The combination of lean but incisive production and tightly focused live playing has yielded music that has the dot-matrix finesse of the digital age without being bloodless or clinical. Slowly Rolling Camera are purveyors of mysterious audio vignettes that are moulded by a structural sophistication that is plugged straight into the vibrant emotional current of pop culture.

This album contains no booklet.