CD Review: Richard Spaven, Light of Day

Richard Spaven has spent twenty years making other people’s music groove harder, and Light of Day is the sound of him finally putting that instinct at the centre of his own writing. This is a contemporary record that sits deliberately on the fence between genres — jazz, ambient, R&B — while never losing its rhythmic footing, and it’s one of the strongest things to carry his name as leader.

Spaven’s CV as a drummer needs little introduction: Loyle Carner, Jordan Rakei, Petter Eldh, Alfa Mist, a stint holding down Mark de Clive-Lowe’s Freesoul Sessions at the Jazz Cafe. What that history gives Light of Day is a rhythmic confidence that lets everything else breathe. These are extended, groove-driven compositions rather than the standard theme-solo-theme jazz format, and the instruments are used as much to construct the sound world as to carry melody. It’s a heavily layered, multi-textured record, and the writing and production are excellent throughout — contemporary without ever tipping into difficult listening, which is a much harder balance to strike than it sounds.

Oli Rockberger’s piano and keys sit right at the centre of the record, and his co-writing input alongside Stuart McCallum and Jack Brown is felt throughout — this plays like a genuine collaboration rather than a leader-and-sidemen date. The trumpet and flugelhorn of Nils Petter Molvær, Verneri Pohjola and James Copus carry real weight in the soundscape too.

Out of the Quiet opens the album on arpeggiated piano over a beat, with synths adding texture in an ambient, patiently built introduction — simple at first, then layered up, with trumpet adding melodic interest toward the close. Distant Signal follows in a similarly ambient vein, trumpet stating the theme up front while the piano sits nicely in the feel and provides real melodic interest. Finders shifts the mood into something more urgent and introduces a guest verse from Wildchild that works far better than a jazz-rap pairing has any right to.

Photo by: Dave Stapleton

Let Me Say It for You moves firmly into contemporary jazz territory and is, for me, one of the clear highlights of the record. Light of Day brings a Middle Eastern-tinged feel, both rhythmically and tonally, with guitar and keys used well to build that sound world. Fine Line is a favourite for its flute melody and the polyrhythm hiding underneath it, which adds real interest on repeated listens. Bunny Bread is the quietest moment on the record, though the guitar work at the close is worth waiting for. Tilt takes on an Afro feel and is genuinely engaging, with the flute again well used. Magnolia closes the album out in a highly layered, cinematic fashion that feels like the right way to end it.

This is an album that works on every level — concept, writing, production and playing all pulling in the same direction. Highly recommended.

Release Date: 24 July 2026
Format: LP | CD | Digital
Label: Edition Records

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