In the spirit of Yuletide David Rees-Williams takes Christmas melodies and transforms them via his eclectic musical sensibility – a kind of musical alchemy David Rees-Williams Trio was formed in 1988 and features David Rees-Williams, Neil Francis and Phil Laslett. Based in Canterbury, they have performed at a variety of concerts and festivals over the years and now specialise in a programme that unites the best of classical and jazz earliest times, Christmas has been a period of mixing disparate things together. A pagan celebraton of the winter solstice gets appropriated by Christan Rome and Christmas springs into life. The ancient German pantheistic worship of winter greenery is tarted up with baubles and tinsel by the Victorians and becomes the beloved Christmas treee transformations include Stille Nacht usually suggestng a peaceful snowy scene, but this renditon plays on the carols alter--ego as cold, scary and full of mysteryiel’s Message, based on passages from St Lukes Gospel, tells the story of Gabriels annunciation to Mary that she will be the future mother of Christ. The arrangement of this poignant tune almost touches on the feel of a soft “”progressive rock”” style ballad. Bachs sorrowful Erbarm dich mein is turned into a no holds barred humorous arrangement. Canonic patterns, improvisation, eastern European folk modes, film music, and jazz are all parts of the Rees--Williams musical engine too recording brings together a wide range of Christmas melodies allowing medieval tunes to rub shoulders with prog-rock, street samba, and blues here as only the David Rees-Williams Trio canough the title “”Ex-Mass”” is a word play on the obvious Xmas, the Latin prefix also suggests that the music is removed from its normal place. The compilation avoids the obvious and concentrates on other beautiful and seasonally relevant melodies, from the ancient to the more modern.
