Eternal Spring

Jack Wyllie, saxophonist, flautist and composer and co-founder of the Mercury Prize–nominated Portico Quartet, steps out as a leader under his own name for the first time.Eternal Spring, which features collaborators as diverse as erstwhile Portico Quartet band mates drummer Duncan Bellamy and bassist Milo Fitzpatrick, iconoclastic Polish artist Hania Rani, cellist Dobrawa Czocher and Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, draws inspiration from both Wyllie’s love of verdant nature but also the idea of a constant, flickering sense of hope and his compositions balance elevating melodies and cyclical rhythms while unashamedly reaching for something hopeful and beautiful.Shimmering, rippling, budding and blossoming, though still appealingly familiar, it’s clear that with Eternal Spring Wyllie has crafted one of those rare records that reveal the magic all around us by removing us from our circumstances.Hovering in its own unique space somewhere between ambient, contemporary classical, jazz and post-rock, Eternal Spring offers a musical world where wonders never cease. But it’s also Jack Wyllie’s first solo album. He’s proud to put his name to it.