What does Arjuna Oakes & John Pasathas sound like?

If modern jazz were played with Greek folk instrumentation.

The review of Arjuna Oakes & John Psathas – Sierra

‘Sierra’ is one of those projects you can file under “Interesting concepts with a twist”. Composer John Psathas and singer and songwriter Arjuna Oakes explore on the EP what could happen if you brought a Greek folk twist to modern jazz. Recorded with musicians from New Zealand and Greece, this one-off get together and play has a unique flavour that seems untethered from time and genre.

Arjuna brings piano and vocals like a jazzy singer-songwriter and they lead the way in the fantastic opener ‘The Storm’. Here more traditional upright bass and drums lead the way in a cascading riff that the likes of Mammal Hands meets Mathew Halsall. Arjuna’s voice is symphonic with some impressively powerful octave shifts. As the song moves into its cinematic, instrumental outro third, you begin to notice the Greek folk shift. In seeps various Green folk percussion and we have the Ney – a Greek whistle – replacing the saxophone. They play similar roles but the music starts to shift centuries and tones. It is a clever musical portal back in time.

‘Craving the World’ is a bluesy jazz piece where the Greek drums and Ney start to take central roles. The song speaks of wanting to explore the world, whilst appreciating the safety of home and you can hear this musically. The piano and vocals feel like home, whereas the other instruments start to pull from different times and locations. That searching feeling transitions to the dusty and rustic ‘Until You’. The laidback hushed smokey femme fatale blues captivate in the first half before the percussion, oud, ney and piano intertwine in a beautiful second half. The space each instrument is given to work with lets this track shine brightly. Athens-infused lounge jazz, anyone?

The final two instrumental pieces work like a single flow to me. ‘Run’ is a fantastic piece full of funky double bass riffs and a rumbling drumset that builds and builds and builds… and then some. The traditional Greek instruments lilt into the piano and the sound feels luxurious with a hint of danger. After three songs of varying tempos, it is great to have a seven-minute epic that lets off all its steam in a climactic hurrah. This leads us to the closing track ‘Twilight Fade’. This percussion-less piece is a basketweave of oud, bass, piano, ney and various keyboard effects. The piano has been given a crystal sheen and an aftertouch hue to evoke a starry night. This exotic and dreamy ballad has an unusually questioning intonation to it, using a slight offkey chord progression to signal either wonderment or bewilderment.

‘Sierra’ is a fascinating half-hour of exotic Greek folk jazz. The musicians’ craft is superb and Arjuna Oakes and John Psathas deserve huge credit for giving each performer a moment to shine. I found it fascinating to take a genre I sometimes struggle with and reintroduce it to me with instrumentation I love. Everything hit slightly differently and I found ‘Sierra’ to sound fresh and invigorating. It’s definitely a bit leftfield, but by no means wildly abstract and the melodies here are strongly defined. A musicians release that I hope others will get to enjoy.

Recommended track: The Storm

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