Bleep

The heartbreaking blows Sam Beste has suffered since the passing of his father in 2019 yielded a period of musical inner searching. A prolific pianist with an incredibly vast CV full of works alongside Amy Winehouse, Blood Orange and Portico Quartet, Beste delivers his debut solo LP under his The Vernon Spring moniker, balancing processes of mourning with quietly intricate beauty on A Plane Over Woods. There’s an earnest flair for invention all across the album too; ‘Mother’s Love’ and ‘Sunset Village’ bring to mind the emotive intimacy of Debussy and Bill Evans, with a hint of Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou’s modal jazz impressionism sending the song into a different dimension entirely.