Jo Quail brings her Majestic Microtonal Cinematic, Celestial and Elemental Symphonies to Roland's Denmark Street Store

I would like to start by thanking my sister Katrín (Bína) for accompanying me to the Jo Quail Masterclass / Loop Station Showcase / Performance - she took near enough all the best pictures here - and the video excerpt below - those are all hers - I should bring her along more often! We both really enjoyed ’experiencing’ Jo Quail - whose immersive microtonal symphonies take you entirely out of this world!

Jo spoke of sculpture and sound design, and being inspired by the national treasure Barbara Hepworth whom I admire enormously too - I’ve been meaning to visit her Wakefield Museum / Sculpture park for such a long time now.

We also discussed the cyclical and elliptical nature of her looping - which is kind of akin to multiple planetary orbits - spinning in and out of alignment. Her loops are normally unsynced - in that they carry different meters and time signatures - which introduce a sort of serendipitous organic flow and improv into her music.

She’s a master tap-dancer too - straddling both her RC-600 Loop Station and GT-1000 Multi-FX - with a rapid pattern of taps and double-taps across the two of them - it requires a special dexterity and a highly mathematically disciplined mind. So much of the geometry of music is mathematical in nature. And the very best talents - indeed like Jo - can do things with their instrument and looper that no mere mortal can. I had initially turned down Matt Knight’s offer of the RC-600 Loop Station - but following Boss’s ’In The Loop Event’ - back in 2022 - and in fact where I first met Jo Quail and Chris Woods - I got inspired by the two of them - to take up the RC-600 challenge, and I acquired an electric cello at the time too - I was so impressed with what Jo could do with her setup.

With her Loop Station, Multi-FX and Cello together - Jo can deliver a full  ’Weather Project’ of tones and textures which can render wind, thunder, lightning  and rain - with ease. It takes an especially creative mind to come up with all those tones and textures and then stitch them together in such intersecting ways. Jo occasionally belittles her own talents - both her and Chris Woods are exceptional educators - while the very best looper artists have their own signature sounds and techniques - which are actually not easily learned at all - the rudiments of the different mechanics can be learned - but only Jo can deliver that sort of immersive and cinematic experiences.

I touched on Icelandic Film Score Oscar Winner - Hildur Guðnadóttir - who is also a Cellist! I hoped that Jo might follow a similar trajectory! A lot of Jo’s music sounds as if it’s inspired by Icelandic nature - I often feel that landscape in her sounds.

For Jo - the spaces and intersections are as important as the melodies. They all form a critical part of the Jo Quail DNA - combining those elliptical orbital loops with really clever accents and ever variable underlay. Not everyone has that degrees of compositional intelligence and arrangement mastery - it’s largely about Jo visualising and getting fully immersed in sound - such that it connects with your soul! Kind of the essence of synesthesia!

Jo played 4 or 5 tracks while I was there - alas I missed the rendition of my all-time favourite Mandrel Cantus (which happened before I arrived) - which always reminds me of the Bladerunner score for whatever reason. Jo also played a fantastic version of ’Forge’ which is another favourite of mine - and ’Reya’. And she gave us a taster for the first track from her new album Notan - a track called ’Butterfly Dance’. And I’m getting Ólafur Arnalds vibes from new track ’First Rain’ as below. 

The around one hour I stopped in for - was utterly magical - which is typically the way with Jo’s music - she needs more appreciation for how great she really is - and how pioneering for this format. Everyone who experience Jo’s music gets awestruck in the real sense of that word - this music is truly next level.

Jo’s work is even more spectacular when accompanied by a finely programmed light-show. So I asked if she had ever considered working with a visual artist - for an even more immersive synesthetic experience! She seemed to be up for that - so I look forward to attending an immersive Jo Quail visual extravaganza at some point in the not too distant future!