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Monday, March 12, 2012

Nordeson Shelton - Incline (Singlespeed Music, 2011) ****


By Stef

After the recent great albums by Ken Vandermark and Tim Daisy, or Joe McPhee and Paal Nilssen-Love, we now have another great sax-drums duo album with Aram Shelton and Kjell Nordeson. Both musicians were also to be admired in "Cylinder", in my opinion one of the better albums of last year.

Shelton and Nordeson more than fully deliver the goods here. Both musicians are incredibly creative in their interaction, enjoying highly rhythmic interplay without falling into clichés, to more minimalist and subdued playing as on "Tower". They deliberately look for novelty and they find it, offering a highly enjoyable and captivating listening experience.

The most striking element on the album is Nordeson's rhythmic and percussive-sonic foundation, fully highlighted on "Orbit", odd-metered, with stop-and-go dynamics and counter-rhythms. Fascinating stuff, that creates the perfect context and challenge for Shelton to delve deep into the realm of possibilities, a task well taken care of, without the need to resort to extended techniques, keeping a voiced tone throughout.

The end result is one of deep authenticity, purity and novelty, uplifting and fresh. Easy to recommend.




Listen and download from eMusic.


© stef

4 comments:

Arekusu said...

I love duos, thanks for making me aware of this!

Foka said...

Stef, maybe you meant Joe McPhee/ Michael Zerang Duo - Creole Gardens? Was there Joe McPhee/Paal Nilssen-Love cd I don't know? How is that possible? :) Best wishes

Stef said...

Hi Foka,

Indeed, with Zerang is more recent and maybe I should have mentioned that one. But here is the duo with Paal Nilssen-Love : http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/2008/09/joe-mcphee-paal-nilssen-love-tomorrow.html
All the best
stef

Foka said...

Thank you:) For the link and for all of your work:) Best wishes