Jamie Parker is a Father of four; Sound Engineer and Session Guitarist, along with being a member of quite a diverse selection of acts including Vanilla Radio, Cee Luna, Massau’u, Nuns With Guns, and the Nick Capaldi Band amongst others.
That said, somehow and somewhere Jamie has found time to record a Solo album “Do You Dream of Luminous Things?” with a selection of hand-picked musicians. He was brought up on Classic and Progressive Rock music with influences from the likes Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis and Emerson Lake & Palmer, as well as more modern psychedelic artists such as Gong, Ozric Tentacles and Steven Wilson. Back in February an appetiser for the new record was released in the form of “How I Caught the Moon”. On 25th July the new album is released on all streaming platforms, however if you can’t wait until then, head over to Jamie’s Bandcamp page for some special offers.
As you would expect from a seasoned musician like Jamie, the production on this is top class and the 6 track recording was put together at Dorchester’s Echotown Studio with production engineer Gareth Matthews; at P8 Studio and Jamie’s own home recording studio, a place where Jamie has worked many many times on a host of different projects. If you met Jamie you would find him to be self-effacing and unassuming, however put him on a stage or in a studio with a microphone and a guitar in his hand and you find a totally different character.
Jamie explains “the story behind Do You Dream of Luminous Things? is really about my love of Prog Rock music and the freedom that comes with true collaboration. I’ve always admired how Prog artists create expansive, immersive soundscapes where every instrument has a voice and I wanted this track to reflect that spirit. Rather than approaching it with a rigid structure, I wanted to give the musicians involved the autonomy to be as creative as they wanted, letting their individual styles shape the song’s direction. That meant allowing space for expressive bass lines, evolving drum patterns and layered textures to develop naturally, rather than dictating every note”.
“The challenge and the joy was then in arranging and blending these contributions together in a way that felt cohesive, while still keeping that sense of spontaneity and exploration alive. The song itself was built like a progressive journey, starting from an intimate, almost delicate place before expanding outward into something much bigger. That gradual build was key,—it mirrors what I love about bands like Pink Floyd and Steven Wilson, where the music takes time to unfold and each element has room to breathe. I wanted to capture that same balance between structure and freedom, where the arrangement isn’t just about serving a single melody but about letting the instruments tell their own stories. At its heart, Do You Dream of Luminous Things? is a reflection of what excites me most about making music: the ability to bring together talented musicians, give them the space to express themselves and then weave those ideas into something greater than the sum of its parts. That sense of trust, experimentation and discovery is what made this track so rewarding to create”.
The album is not a casual piece of instrumentation that you can just dip in and out of as you please. The orchestration demands undivided attention and a long country walk with your headphones on or a long drive is recommended to get the most out of it’s presentations. “The Radient” is the opening number and at just over 19 minutes long it has plenty of give in the way of creativity. It feels like a journey within a journey where Jamie and his band takes you on a musical trip through a host of patterns and textures. The track meanders through some ingenious rhythmic pattens and a host of inspired guitar pieces. Will’s keys weave beautifully in and out of the composition, making a substantial contribution to this opus. The icing on the cake is Jamie’s voice, which euphorically towers over the instrumentation.
The next track “How I Caught The Moon” is a mere 7 minute 24 second piece, you can just tell from the opening bars it’s going to be something special. The songs lyrics focus on themes of loss and solitude with the atmospheric arrangements powerfully portraying these feelings. Jamie’s powerful harmonious and emotive filled voice and majestic guitar work is just sublime; couple this with the epic uplifting instrumental backing, it is like a modern take on the Pink Floyd theme.
“Steeped in Burning Flowers” is a name that sparks curiosity and from the opening bars of the guitar and Will’s keys we arrive into this Rock-infused track. Jamie is gently leaning back and playing a riff that sounds not unlike Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” as Dorchester’s answer to Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones work wonderfully in unison together. Once again Jamie’s uplifting powerful vocal brings the same emotion as Midge Ure once provided on “Dancing With Tears in My Ears”. The songs lyrics indicate a theme of global warming and the damage that has been done to earth. With the dramatic hard hitting instrumentation the track displaying a real level of skill and quality from its performers.
Stand aside Jackanory, it’s time for a story portrayed by Jamie Parker. “A Place I Can Disappear” is a story written by James Ousley, a chap who has been making music with Jamie for well over 20 years. James has played a key role in developing the whole album’s concept and provided poetry, stories and lyrics throughout, his visions brought the depth to the storytelling. Track five starts with spoken work of a sister describing her and her brother leaving the family home. As she describes what is happening you cannot stop listening, you just need to know how things progress. There is a tense atmosphere to the story and you cannot tell where it is going to take you. There is some delicate understated music gently backing the thoroughly descriptive words. Part way through her words stop and the compelling instrumentation takes over and then she returns, continuing her tale. If you want to know her and her brothers fate I suggest you get yourself a copy of the album.
Writer James Ousley gives some more background on the track; “A Place I Can Disappear” was influenced by the landscape and folklore of Bodmin Moor, where the intense natural beauty is imbued with a powerful, brooding quality by local stories of divine punishment, witchcraft and superstition. I find the contrast between the many man-made industrial structures, the chimneys and tin mines, with ancient stone circles and granite tors, particularly evocative. There is also a sadness there, something which I have tried to portray through the two characters in the story and the experience they can never share”.
To the penultimate track, which is yet another opus at over 16 minutes, air raid sirens and 2 wave radio messages sound over the music before Jamie’s reassuring vocal once again comes in on a track called “Waking in the Land of Giants”. The flute gently serenades us on this dystopian themed piece, while saxophone and guitars weave in and out of each other, cleverly laying the dramatic background for this story. As the music ebbs and flows it creates an atmospheric storyboard, it’s more of a movie soundtrack than an album track, reaching into the very depths of these artists’ creativity with plenty of sound effects adding to the overall score.
The final closing track is “A Grief That Does Not Speak” and with it just a minute shy of quarter of an hour, we are certainly not done yet. More dramatic sounds bless our ears with the opening sounding like a theme to a gripping Television detective programme. It has a vein that has most definitely has Rock influences, however there are little side paths that take you off in a somewhat Jazz orientation. The ever present vocals are confident, euphonious and provide the guide for the emotion within the lyrics.
There has clearly been a huge amount of effort put into this record and Jamie, along with the hand-picked musicians have created something quite unique that shows just what a talent this perpetrator is. While he has given his own considerable talents previously to a host of other projects, it seems that it is only right that he now has this record to display what he is really capable of.
Track Listing
The Radient
How I Caught The Moon
Steeped in Burning Flowers
A Place I Can Disappear
Waking in the Land of Giants
A Grief That Does Not Speak
Album Credits
All tracks written, arranged and produced by Jamie Parker
except track 6, written by Jamie Parker and Jack Ansell
Story & Lyrics by James Ousley
Lyrics arranged by Jamie Parker
String Arrangements by Lucy Hackett
Jamie Parker – Guitar/Vocals (tracks 1-6)
Rick Veall – Drums (tracks 1-6)
Will Sear – Organ/Piano/Synths (tracks 1-6)
Jack Ansell – Bass (tracks 1-6)
Lucy Hackett – Strings/Synths (tracks 1,2 and 4-6)
Molly Waters – Vocals (tracks 1-6)
Amy Williams – Sax/Flute (tracks 1,5 and 6)
Tim Bascombe – Slide Guitar (track 2)
James Ousley – Signalman (track 5)
Violet/Iris/Arlo – Guitar (track 6)
Echotown Studio, Dorchester
Drums & Vocals engineered by Gareth Matthews
Guitars engineered by Jamie Parker
P8 Studio, Dorchester
Guitars, Bass, Keys, Sax & Flute
Engineered by Jamie Parker
Mixed and Mastered by Gareth Matthews
Echotown Studio, Dorchester
You can purchase the album as digital download, Limited Edition 2 x LP Gatefold Vinyl or Limited Edition Cassette here.
Links
https://www.jamieparker.biz
https://www.facebook.com/jamieparkermusic
https://www.instagram.com/jamie_parker.music
https://jamieparker.bandcamp.com
Article By David Chinery (Chinners)
