Steve Beresford – Comfortable Gestures
From Steve Beresford & Anne Marie Beretta ‎- Dancing The Line
Released on Nato, 1986, France

A few months ago, in a post called Experiments In Pop, we dealt with a great avant-pop record released on French label Nato, Flying Fortress by Tony Hymas. Well, it looks like Flying Fortress is not the only good album on Nato : though we’ve heard many not-so-good shaky contemporary jazz albums released on this label, we recently stumbled across a record which mentioned the names of both the very prolific experimental jazz musician Steve Beresford and French fashion designer Anne-Marie Beretta in a second hand store in Japan… A very tempting record, again !

Anne-Marie Beretta‘s name on the record sleeve was like a promise for some moments reviving a kind of 1980’s sophisticated élégance. The promise was fulfilled : as for the now forgotten fashion designer, this album showcases some beautiful moments of great dicey pop.

Comfortable Gestures is like a time warp from this period : singing with a fragile melancholic voice, Steve Beresford numbs the song in naive piano chords, a slow nagging bassline and some bluesy guitar riffs… Moody pop music at his best.

The album also features a great dubby slow floor killer, Sand From A Desert, totally worth checking. Definitively a great addition to your Pop-not-Pop record collection !