Out On A Limb

The first Out On A Limb album, The Spirit of the Moment, features Shadja and saxophonist Laurie Rugless, a pioneer of electronics for the saxophone. He first experimented with sax-driven synth with his band Equinox in the 1970s. 

The Spirit of the Moment is a collection of intuitive improvisations. We set up some sounds and just played.

Shadja:

"Laurie and I had played together for years. From the beginning, our set had included a version of Vangelis' 'Le Singe Bleu' from the Apocalypse Des Animaux album. 

"One day we were chatting in his studio and Laurie said he had a deep affinity for the music of Vangelis. We'd never talked about it, I thought he was a jazzer through and through.

"My memory - and this was at least 25 years ago - is that we tried something out pretty much there and then, and that was 'Now Breathes'. I just played the opening chords, working with the sound of the keyboard, and Laurie picked up his sopranino sax and noodled over the top. We couldn't believe we'd never tried it before.

"From there we improvised hours of music. The Spirit of the Moment is the first collection, there may be more to come from those sessions.

"It was always a consciously spiritual endeavour. Laurie's amazing capacity for creating memorable melodies in the moment gave it a song-like dimension that deepened the connection we wanted to create.

"He's still around, but deep into old-age now. He was a mentor, sparring partner and lifetime sojourner. Maybe there's more to come - I'll have to wait and see."

“The Lake” was featured on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and some of the music was also chosen by the film maker Phil Becque to form part of the soundtrack to his award-winning documentary Between Creation And Destruction.

“T’ai Chi Flows” was improvised while watching the T’ai Chi form of our friend Lin Williams. 

“Inner Light” and “Heart Chakra” were both improvised while listening to meditations led by our friend Roger Bradley.

The Spirit of the Moment is available on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and most other platforms. You can download it - and contribute to the creation of more music - on our Bandcamp page.

Download The Spirit of the Moment