Left to Right: Geoff Eales, Andy Findon

Geoff Eales writes…

One of my favourite venues in the whole of London is The Forge in Camden Town and I’m delighted to be performing there with flautist Andy Findon on April 18th.

I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a little about Andy Findon and the project, ‘The Dancing Flute’.

Andy is one of the UK’s most talented multi-instrumentalists. He plays clarinet and all the instruments of the saxophone family but his greatest passion is the flute. When I say “flute” I don’t just mean the classic flute since Andy also happens to be one of the world’s leading exponents of its many ethnic varieties. His expertise on all things flute will be plain for all to see at this forthcoming event. Andy has been playing baritone sax and flutes in The Michael Nyman Band since 1980 and is a member of the award-winning folk band, The Home Service. On top of this, he is in huge demand as a London session musician.

So how did this flute/piano collaboration come about ? – well it happened like this :

Between 2009 and 2011 I was working extensively with Andy on various studio projects. During this period, we got to know each other very well, often swapping notes as to where we were in our respective musical journeys. He told me that he was planning to record an album of unaccompanied flute music which was to be interlaced with a few pieces for baritone saxophone. I was thrilled when he commissioned me to compose a work for him. The album became ‘Density 21.5’ for which I contributed ‘The 11th Commandment’. Andy’s performance of the piece is stunning and I relished the thought of him bringing more of my compositions to life. It was soon decided that I should write an entire album of flute and piano for Andy and myself – and here it is!

‘The Dancing Flute’ features 13 of my compositions and is, above all, a celebration of the life-enhancing qualities of the dance. It is also a kind of musical travelogue as we savour the flavours and rhythms of Latin America, North America, Iberia, Eastern Europe, the Middle-East, the Orient and other places. I like to think of the music as a fusion of ideas, colours and sounds. Some people might ask the question “is it classical, jazz, Latin, folk or world?” – in a way the question is the wrong one. The question, I believe, should be a much broader one: does the music speak to people ? Does it make you want to cry, laugh, sing and dance ? I sincerely hope that the music will touch the listener in some profound way. If it doesn’t, then it would have failed its purpose.