The One Ensemble - Other Thunders

Daniel Padden’s The One Ensemble began as a solo project and quickly morphed into a quartet with the
recruitment of Chris Hladowski and Aby Vulliamy of Nalle, and Peter Nicholson. With Padden’s leadership, they
developed a curious and strident brew of Eastern European folk, chamber music, a pinch of Robert Wyatt and
some kind of earthy psychedelic primitivism. Padden has been fortunate in recruiting a band of such polymath
virtuosity, giving room for his grand designs to be realised gloriously, both on stage and on record. As The One
Ensemble Orchestra, their sound is given the blaze of full technicolour glory as they expand to a septet,
exacerbating their collision of the formal and the tribal and oftentimes recalling the soundtrack and mood of The
Holy Mountain. They originally expanded to a seven-piece for a commission from Bristol’s Venn festival in 2007,
and consequently recorded these tracks at Padden’s studio. The extra members mean the Ensemble’s already rich
sound is given further depth and added gravity, while losing none of their dextrous transitions or delicate
passages. But when they hit those vocal incantations or rhythmic cascades that fans of their sound love so much,
there’s undoubtedly an extra magic and drive that is a delight to behold. At times, the Ensemble come on like a
mediaeval A Hawk And A Hacksaw, other times a chamber quartet ambushed by Balkan folk terrorists, but they
always sound unquestionably themselves, channelling a thousand delicately unrefined, rough, raw and dreamlike
voices. Like your favourite meal supersized, The One Ensemble Orchestra is the esoteric treat you’ve been
promising yourself.

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