Jakatta - One Fine Day

The confidence for this 'boast' stems from one prime fact, Lee's choice of vocalist is a 'Le Chanteuse extraordinaire' and a woman who already holds a sacred spot in all our lyrical memories - Beth Hirsch was the voice of Air's seminal track 'All I Need'. When a musician employs their voice with as much dexterity and range as a concert pianist dancing over the keys in mid-performance everybody takes notice of the talent, a point not lost on Dave Lee:

"I'm not keen on the idea of collaboration for collaboration sake," offers Lee, "but I always aspire to producing interesting sounds using the best musicians around and Beth's voice is one of the most expressive instruments I've come across."

It's a game of simple odds and when you set Hirsch's sensual tones against a backdrop designed and coloured by the 52-piece National Philharmonic Orchestra and their conductor Nick Ingman, you have, quite simply, a musical epiphany waiting to happen. The orchestral element contributes the kind of ornate, textured soundscape that Hirsch literally roams in - where she roams is kept under the watchful eye of a man who has become a sanctuary for taste over the years.

Everywhere you look Dave Lee's prodigious output is recognizable through its excellence. His recent critically and commercially acclaimed gold selling debut album 'Visions' is a successful departure from the disco/jazz-funk tracks that have kept funkateers everywhere happy for years. In every respect, Lee manages to straddle the commercial/underground divide with real aplomb and is always keen to strive for the various in his work.

It was this instinct which led him to make a song that the lazy will define as "chill out". For Dave this definition is not really good enough, "a lot of chill-out I find bland. It's stuff you have in the background. It's not meant to be listened to properly and I'm not into making music that's not meant to be to listened to properly." Listen then, if you have ears.