
The debut of Sydney-based quartet Believe-Peter Farrar (alto saxophone), Novak Manojlovic (piano), Clayton Thomas (double bass), and Laurence Pike (drums)-unleashes three expansive improvisations of visceral energy and nuanced intimacy, blending extended techniques, shifting textures, and percussive interplay into a powerful free jazz statement that feels as natural as wind and waves.
In Stock
Quantity in Basket: None
Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units
Sample The Album:
Peter Farrar-alto saxophone, percussion
Novak Manojlovic-piano, percussion
Clayton Thomas-double bass, percussion
Laurence Pike-drums, percussion
Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.
UPC: 5904224874636
Label: Relative Pitch
Catalog ID: RPR1239
Squidco Product Code: 36750
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Golden Retriever studios, in Sydney, Australia, on July 17th and 18th, 2023, by Simon Berckelman.
"BELIEVE's debut album Spirits of the Dead are Watching is a potent statement from four of Australia's most experienced and dedicated improvisers. A powerhouse unit of rare intimacy, flexibility and passion, BELIEVE connects the spectrum of contemporary creative sound making with the fluid, anything is possible momentum of free jazz."-Relative Pitch
"At its most interactive and imaginative, spontaneously created music can be as organic as the wind in the trees or the roar of the waves. But to reach beyond the common self-consciousness of humans making "art" requires letting go of self, of ego and of preconceptions. The player must exist entirely in the moment and in the music's midst, hearing it as a whole, rather than concentrating on his or her part.
Believe consists of four of the most polished and yet primal improvisers Sydney has produced: alto saxophonist Peter Farrar, pianist Novak Manojlovic, bassist Clayton Thomas and drummer Laurence Pike. The polish comes not only in the mastery of their instruments, but in their interaction. They don't pounce on each other's ideas, for pouncing's too slow; the moment's already passed. They play simultaneous ideas that form a mosaic of accord.
The primality comes in the way the music shakes up your central nervous system, from brain to coccyx. Key to this is the sounds they make. Farrar, one of the half-dozen most significant saxophonists the country's ever produced, generates a warmth of timbre and breadth of overtones that can make his alto sound like a tenor. Add his circular breathing and extended techniques, and the instrument, at the opening of the title track, bellows like some distraught beast, and sounds like it's not being played, so much as is somehow playing itself. With Manojlovic's piano - whether he's using the keys or plucking the strings, directly - there's a dialogue between brittleness, robustness and an autumnal lyricism. In the opening sequence of the title track, his lines and sounds have such fragility that it's like hearing crystal shatter in very slow motion.
Manojlovic, Farrar, Pike and Thomas. Photos: Mclean Stephenson.Then there's Thomas's double bass: a mighty sound, such as the earth might make could it talk. Many bassists who are adept at their instrument don't necessarily think like bass players. Thomas creates monolithic blocks of sound that are foundations for music that soars or sprawls above them, yet also offers sinuousness and eeriness, with his own array of surprising textures and lines thickening the percussive weave during the long-form, multifaceted Already Not Yet. Pike, meanwhile, long an innovator on the drums, creates whole palettes of shifting colours and breaking waves of energy, density, texture and rhythm, with the other three also contributing percussion, notably on Already Not Yet.
The album contains three spontaneous compositions, and I know no more sophisticated activity of which humans are capable than freely improvising at this level. Idiomatically, the music can be heard as free jazz of the sort that's been around for 65 years, but when played on this plane it transcends definitions, and seems like you've opened a window, and Nature has poured these sounds into your ears, triggering responses from imagination, gut and heart. I wish I lived in the house with that window."-John Shand, Writing in the Dark
Get additional information at John Shand Writing in the Dark
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Peter Farrar Peter Farrar is a Sydney-based saxophonist known for his work in improvisational and experimental music. He has been involved with several avant-garde ensembles and is recognized for his innovative approach to the saxophone. ^ Hide Bio for Peter Farrar • Show Bio for Novak Manojlovic "Sydney-based pianist, Novak Manojlovic first began playing piano at age eight. He went on to study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from 2012-2016 where he honed his craft as an improviser and composer, studying under pianists Mike Nock and Matt McMahon (Freedman Jazz Fellow 2005). Novak has led his own diverse projects and collaborated extensively in the pop music scene, acting as a musical director, arranger and touring musician for Ngaiire, Sampa the Great, Wallace and Martha Marlow. Novak has been quickly gaining recognition for his expressive approach, and since finishing his studies has been composing and performing with his subversive piano trio 'HEKKA', electro-acoustic outfit Colourfields and his large ensemble Grown Ocean throughout Australia." ^ Hide Bio for Novak Manojlovic • Show Bio for Clayton Thomas "Double Bassist Clayton Thomas was born 1976, in Hobart, Australia. Inspired by the sound, velocity and social movements of jazz, Clayton has dedicated his musical life to finding a personal truth that links his own cultural life as a white Australian, with the radical, far reaching pursuits found within the creative music. What he can't find as a bass player, he searches for in the organisation of unreasonably large ensembles. Clayton Thomas relocated in Sydney, Australia, in 2014. Clayton is currently not a regular member of the Splitter Orchester, but he was part of the 2014 concert @ MaerzMusik and he'll also take part in the 2015 concerts in Berlin and Huddersfield." ^ Hide Bio for Clayton Thomas • Show Bio for Laurence Pike "Laurence Pike is a prolific drummer/composer/producer and one Australia's most respected creative musicians. He has released solo albums to critical acclaim and toured the world with his bands PVT (formerly Pivot), Triosk, Szun Waves and as a member of US/Aus savant-punk group LIARS. Pike's work explores the language of improvisation within disciplines, with an emphasis on listening, presence, and human experience through real time composition, drawing on a musical value system developed over two decades. Equally at home in the worlds of rock, electronics, jazz and improvised music, he continues to work with his internationally acclaimed group and Warp Records alumni PVT, which has performed with the likes of Sigur Rós, Arctic Monkeys and Yellow Magic Orchestra. 2016 saw the release of Szun Waves' debut album, At Sacred Walls, a collaboration with Luke Abbott on modular synthesiser and Portico Quartet's Jack Wyllie on saxophone. It was followed by New Hymn To Freedom in 2018 and Earth Patterns in 2022. Pike's debut solo album was also released in 2018; originally conceived as a technological and spiritual jazz suite for drums, Distant Early Warning is a series of solo performances for kit and sampler recorded live in a single day. It was followed in 2019 by the acclaimed Holy Spring, which was thematically inspired by the pagan fertility myths of Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring. Prophecy (2020) was created during the height of Australia's recent catastrophic fires, with the music channelling the moment through Pike's singular, organic use of electronics, and intuitively constructed arrangements. 2024 sees the realisation of his most ambitious solo project yet. The Undreamt-of Centre is an evocative, contemporary reimagining of the requiem mass. The album draws on the sounds of modern classical music, Japanese environmental ambient music, fourth world electronics, free jazz and the choral traditions of Estonia. Featuring the VOX Sydney Philharmonia Choir, conducted by Pike's childhood friend, composer Sam Lipman, the album was recorded in a 19th century Gothic church in Sydney. Pike has produced and performed two acclaimed duo albums with legendary jazz pianist Mike Nock, is a member of Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders, records with award winning Australian singer/songwriter Sarah Blasko, and 4AD recording artist D.D Dumbo, and has collaborated with artists as diverse as Bill Callahan, Jan Jelinek, Charles Bullen (This Heat), Daniel Johns (Silverchair) and ECM recording artist Kit Downes." ^ Hide Bio for Laurence Pike
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
10/1/2025
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
10/1/2025
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
10/1/2025
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Believer 10:03
2. Spirits Of The Dead Are Watching 07:25
3. Already Not Yet 24:30
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Jazz
Collective & Free Improvsation
Australian Improvisers, Composers and Experimenters
Quartet Recordings
New in Improvised Music
Recent Releases and Best Sellers
Search for other titles on the label:
Relative Pitch.