Julie Tippetts — Sunset Glow
Sunset Glow stands as one more creative and daring singer-songwriter albums of the 1970s. As it found the genre's normal tropes been blended and at points bent out of shape with elements of experimental jazz & prog/art rock, with an often jammed-to-freaking-out compositional flow. Here from Esoteric Records is a CD reissue of the album- featuring a 24- bit digital remastering of the album.
The CD comes presented in a four-panel glossy digipak- on it outside we get a reproduction of the album's abstract sunset cover, and on the inside a grainy/ windswept photo of Ms Tippets by the sea. Also featured is a sixteen-page inlay booklet- this features a seven-page new write-up about the album from journalist Sid Smith, as well as full lyrics and credits.
English singer/ actress Julie Driscoll Tippetts first came to the public’s attention with her 1960’s cover versions of Bob Dylan/Rick Danko's "This Wheel's on Fire", and Donovan's "Season of the Witch". In the early 70s, she married British jazz pianist and composer Keith Tippett- and her focus/ sound moved towards more experimental waters. Sunset Glow was her second solo album, following on from the 1971 folk rock album 1969.
Sunset Glow appeared in the year 1975 on Utopia Records. It featured eight tracks in all, and it’s certainly a felt at times decidedly skewed and unpredictable record, which really morphs the singer-song tropes into something alot more distinctive and unique. The line-up for the album was Julie Tippetts- voice, piano, acoustic guitar, clay drums, and tambourine. Keith Tippett- Piano & Harmonium. Elton Dean- Alto Saxophone. Bass – Brian Belshaw, Harry Miller. Mark Charig- Cornet, Tenor sax . Louis Moholo- Drums. Brian Godding- Electric Guitar.
The album opens with “Mind Of A Child” with its fairly typical singer-songwriter blend of gentle flowing & mellow keys ‘n’ horn work- all topped with Julie's emotional rousing voice. But as the minutes tick by, it starts to rise and simmer in an often intense and droning manner, with the vocals shifting from formal to more earthy and experimental warbling’s. As we move through the album we come to brooding horn hover meets constricting key climbs of the title track, with both the musical elements and Julie’s voice slipping into and out of the eerier/ discordant, and the hauntingly harmonic.
In the album's second half we find “Lilies” which features duel bounding and uneasy key lock, repetitive male vocalising, and Julie seesawing vocals- with latter on a shadowy ethnic jazz percussion coming into play. There’s the chanted and layered vocalising of “What Is Living” with its thick mesh of strummed-to-wail guitars, and (just off-kilter) clapping rhythm. With the album playing out with “Behind The Eyes(For A Friend, K)” which opens with plaintive bounding keys and a rising vocal line, but as things carry on the keys seemingly start to tumble into each other, and Julie’s voice becoming warblingly emotional.
It's certainly great to see Sunset Glow getting this CD reissue- as it’s definitely one of the more surprising, at points daring/ experimental singer-songwriter albums to appear in the 70s. An album for those who are looking for formal song craft, that’s just that little bit off-kilter and skewed, in both its structures and emotional focus.