In 2007, the celebrated cellist Julia Kent released a beautiful album called Delay with titles named after various airports she passed through while touring the world. This music reflected the fact that modern day travellers spend as much time waiting around for connections and security clearances as exploring destinations.
In one sense, Fiona Brice's solo debut should be in a more optimistic vein since its ten titles are of towns and cities she has actually been to. As such it suggests movement rather than stasis. However, although the places may be exotic, the tone, as with Kent's album, is for the most part reflective and melancholy.
Brice's worldwide travels have been undertaken while furthering a career composing orchestral arrangements for an impressive range of artists including Vashti Bunyan, Anna Calvi, John Grant, Robbie Williams, Roy Harper, Jay-Z and Placebo.
Written over a period of 5 years, these instrumental pieces are composed for violin, piano and cello. Timed at between three of four minutes, these are relatively brief stopovers yet convey no sense of being impatient to embark on manic sightseeing.
There are obvious touchstones to the classical world but ultimately it is , as Brice concedes, "more like film music". She describes the tracks as "musical selfies", personal reflections with no obvious attempt to recreate the traditional sounds of each place. Tellingly, the cover is a portrait of the artist and not any of the destinations.
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Of St Petersburg Brice speaks of a mood of menace and grandeur in contrast to the warmth and light of the Thai island of Koh Yao Noi. However, to my ear, Dallas also has a similarly haunted quality and it is certainly not the case that you could play a parlour game of matching each track to the destination.
For instance, you might expect Glastonbury to tap into the town's festival spirit but, if anything, it has shades of India through similarities to the refrain of The Beatles' Within You Without You.
Who really cares where it comes from and where she's going? The important thing is that this is a marvellous record albeit one destined to be enjoyed more by armchair travellers than aspiring jet-setters.
Fiona Brice's website
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