Pick Up Sticks [Vinyl]

Such is the inability to properly define the work of Bill Wells that he’s connected to everyone from Sun Ra to Ennio Morricone. And yes, both references, and all in between, hold fast. Wells is the go-to man in the Glasgow scene for superior arrangements, having worked with Belle & Sebastian, The Pastels, Arab Strap, Future Pilot AKA, Telstar Ponies…the list goes on.
Pick Up Sticks is a collaboration between Wells, famed trombonist Annie Whitehead and To Rococo Rot’s Stefan Schneider, with contributions from Berlin-based singer-songwriter Barbara Morgenstern. The recordings were mainly improvised in a Berlin studio over five days of sessions, engineered by Tarwater’s Bernd Jestram. It sees Wells moving away from his piano-based work with the emphasis shifting to a warm, engaging group sound, coloured with the tonality of Whitehead’s trombone and Schneider’s distinctive electronic vocabulary.