Release date: 5 June 2020

Misha Mullov-Abbado Double Bass. / Composer

James Davison Trumpet / Flugelhorn

Matthew Herd Alto Saxophone

Sam Rapley Tenor Saxophone

Liam Dunachie Piano & Hammond Organ

Scott Chapman Drums

Guest Personnel

Jasper Høiby Producer

Dream Circus is the third album from London based composer Misha Mullov-Abbado. If his first two albums possessed a quality of searching self-discovery, then Dream Circus validates the journey and highlights what defines him as an increasingly promising talent.

This is an album that exudes clarity of vision and purpose. it has an overriding sense of arrival, of storytelling and direction. The band understands their leaders’ direction and the result is music that is majestic in its execution, full of vitality and exuberance. Misha demonstrates again his ‘melodic gift’ (John Fordham, The Guardian), and his ability to successfully apply his compositional concept to an improvising arena.

The songs that compose Dream Circus represent the period of Misha’s life during which the album was devised – it has a storytelling purpose. Misha brought in fellow bassist, Edition artist, and composer Jasper Høiby, who should be commended for bringing his experience and humility to fine-tuning the arc of the album into a coherent message.

The compositions on this album were written during the last three years when Misha was ‘figuring out my path in life, or rather my dream’. He continues, ‘the process has involved a big journey, so the “dream” in the title not only refers to ‘hopes and dreams’ but also the mysterious, abstract and psychedelic nature of actual dreams. The tracks themselves are representative of a period of my life which each feel like a story, or a dream and therefore a chapter in the story, each one with its mysterious/abstract/psychedelic nature and sense of adventure.’

The term ‘Circus’ refers to the playful nature of the band, implying a traveling band, a group of musicians focussed on playing music they clearly enjoy. Whereas his previous album, Cross-platform Interchange, was a produced album, multi-tracked and layered, Dream Circus documents a live band captured in the moment, expressing the joy and visceral energy generated by these six musicians.

Dream Circus is an album that defines a moment in Misha’s development as an artist, a coherent work that confirms his early promise and growing reputation as a musician of real stature. Following on from winning the Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize and being selected as a BBC New Generation Artist as well as releasing two acclaimed albums, Misha is set to set his seal firmly on the international scene as a fast maturing and exciting new instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader – at the head of the new generation of European creative Jazz musicians.