Beginning this article by heaping praise onto the Most Least label seems like a fairly apt place to start. As a sub-label of Asta Hiroki's more down-tempo, electronic creative hub of Folded Music, Most Least opens the doors to projects that embrace more varied and dynamic possibilities for contemporary jazz. Through projects by Space Travelers Union, Daltonists, Biomania and most recently the Thierry LeMaitre Quartet, Most Least are presenting sublime and progressive takes on the genre with albums that embrace a range of additional influences from lo-fi, beats driven production to electronic influences or classical aesthetics.
The release of Hannah Featherstone's 'The Space In Between' marks not only her debut with Most Least but a compelling new sound for the label that adds infinite value to their already bold and ambitious catalogue.
For a project that started life through a left-of-centre pop sensibility, Featherstone has moulded her craft over the years and, with her current release, is able to showcase an incredible range of inspirations that find her drawing from the wells of contemporary jazz, her training in classical piano and all tinged with sublime electronica.
In fact, Hannah's YouTube channel offers some fascinating insight into her evolution as an artist through a selection of live performances and studio sessions - the vibrant and lively band performance of 'Down on My Knees' from 2018's 'Word Bound' showcases another string in Featherstone's bow while her affectionately raw cover of Bob Dylan's 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' proves as much a delight through its charmingly filmed rendition.
With an excellent selection of videos that showcase Featherstone's proficiency as a live performer, anyone can quite quickly deduce that this is an artist with the ability to steer her music in really any way she deems fit. And that proficiency as a live performer is further matched through her proficiency as a producer and composer...
In the case of 'The Space In Between', we find Hannah tackling all of the project's creative aspects from the album's warm and intricate productions that provide the canvas for the thoughtful and astute song-writing that accompanies them.
'The Space In Between' is an album that lives and breathes from the intimacy it generates. An experience best absorbed through a pair of good quality headphones allowing every piano note to affectionately resonate as strongly as Featherstone's sweet, whispery vocal. Hers is a phenomenal ability to beautifully fuse these aspects together making the project quite possibly her masterpiece.
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