James Blackshaw + Lubomyr Melnyk – The Watchers (2013, UK/Ukraine)

Our next spotlight is on number 218 on The List, submitted by platenworm.

This is a gorgeous improvisational collaboration between two prolific musicians/composers, each virtuosos on their instrument of choice, and each with meditative styles that really compliment each other.

Lubomyr Melnyk, aka the fastest pianist in the world, was born in Munich in 1948 to Ukrainian parents, and immigrated soon after to Canada. So while perhaps it would make sense to index this album under Canada, Melnyk identifies very strongly with his Ukrainian roots, and in fact attributes his music – including his iconic “continuous music” technique – to his being a Ukrainian artist.[1] We thankfully have another album from Melnyk on The List, his debut album from 1979, so we’ll be looking more at that continuous music technique in a later spotlight.

Born in London in 1981, 2 years after Melnyk’s debut album was released, James Blackshaw primarily composes long-form pieces for the 12-string guitar, pieces that are inspired by both minimalist and classical music, including the work of Melnyk. Blackshaw has collaborated with various other musicians such as Current 93 and Jozef van Wissem, but this collaboration in particular was really special for him.

Here’s how this beautiful album came to be, as per Blackshaw:[2]

I first met Lubomyr Melnyk at a festival called Hea Uus Heli in October 2008. We were both scheduled to play that day and I was very excited to see him perform. Before the show I bought several LPs from him and mentioned as much. Lubomyr (more than modest and courteous, as he always is) asked me what I was doing at the festival and I replied that I was also performing at the festival a little later, to which he responded “I’ll come and watch you,” before being ushered into the hall to play one of the most staggeringly sonorous and beautiful sets I’ve ever heard. It was overwhelming, full of pathos and I left the hall with those incredible overtones hanging in my ears for hours.

A couple of hours later, I was onstage when I glanced up and saw Lubomyr, true to his word, standing in the audience watching me attentively. I felt incredibly nervous. It’s not everyday you get to play for someone who has greatly inspired and influenced your own music. After the show, I packed up my guitar and came out to meet the crowd. The first person who greeted me was Lubomyr, friendly, full of enthusiasm and keen to hear about my music, my processes, the way in which I make music. Yet again, I was overwhelmed – for very different reasons.

‘You have invented continuous music for guitar!’

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I can’t think of an epitaph that would make me prouder.

We also spoke about collaborating that night and via e-mail a while after, but it wasn’t until January 2012, shortly after I’d moved back to Hastings, England from Ann Arbor, Michigan and Lubomyr played his first ever show in the UK at Cafe Oto that it came to fruition. John Chantler got in touch, said Lubomyr had a free day after his performance and could I come to London for a day, see what happens? He kindly agreed to record the whole thing.

We all met at the Vortex Jazz Cafe around midday. We set up, Lubomyr at the grand piano, me directly facing him with my 12-string guitar and began. I would retune at random between songs and together we would find interesting chord progressions, hints of melodies and ways in which to weave those immense overtones that Lubomyr is able to generate on the piano with those of my guitar. No more than two takes per song. Improvisation, spontaneous composition, whatever you want to call it. Either way, it truly felt as if the piano and guitar were as one – inseparable, parts of a bigger whole, a means by which for two people to make one sound. It never felt forced and never less than engaging. Lubomyr was always humble, jovial and open to ideas. The whole session lasted six hours.

I’m not a great improviser. I always want to take that raw creative element that the form brings and work upon it, to distill and refine it further. I think Lubomyr feels the same. But there is something about these recordings that would be incredibly difficult to recapture. A small moment in time, feeling perfectly and wonderfully lost within that sound.

I’m honoured.

Happy listening.

• Bandcamp: James Blackshaw + Lubomyr Melnyk – The Watchers
• Discogs: James Blackshaw + Lubomyr Melnyk – The Watchers
• Bandcamp: James Blackshaw
• Bandcamp: Lubomyr Melnyk

1. See this 2020 interview with Aught. ↩︎
2. Quote from the record label’s (Important Records) site here. ↩︎