These are liner notes by Stef Gijssels for two recent albums by Swedish saxophonist and composer Martin Küchen, first with Angles 4, second for his solo album.
Angles 4 - (Relative Pitch, 2026)
Listening to Angles 4 here and now, in 2026, feels like a warm
homecoming. The album is filled with the grand themes that have resonated
throughout the various ensembles over the years, from the Martin Küchen Trio and
Angles 6 to Angles 9 and All Included. The quartet knows this material by heart,
having performed these compositions for decades. I would almost call them their
personal standards: they sound deeply familiar, yet they retain the same power
and vigour as they must have had at their very first performances—perhaps now
with even greater maturity, intensity and fierceness.
The smaller
quartet format gives the musicians more room to explore, express and expand,
particularly across the relatively long tracks, most of which run for seven or
eight minutes. There is a sense of space in the arrangements, but never a loss
of urgency.
The music digs deep into the history of jazz, drawing on
the spirit of Mingus and Coltrane, while at times reaching even further back
into the history of sound itself—and into the collective emotions of people
living through dire times: war, oppression and other horrors. Here, music
becomes both a source of comfort and a force of liberation.
Whatever
the size of the ensemble, this music remains as infectious as ever.
Listen
and download from
Bandcamp
Martin Küchen - Chase The Demons Out (Thanatosis, 2026)
Brutal sounds. Heart-rending, bleak. Gut-wrenching and abrasive. Sorrowful, dark, mournful, ominous. One musician generating a torrent of expression through three instruments played at once: sopranino saxophone, two horizontal hand drums, along with cymbals, metal plates, and bowls.
We know Martin Küchen from his work with the Angles ensemble—music that unfolds in epic arcs, sweeping themes that speak to a collective emotional space. This is the opposite. Here the music is stripped down to brutal poetry: visceral, concise, unadorned. Short, explosive statements. Limited means used to build intense dramatic pressure. Küchen’s anger at the state of the world is well known, and here it finds direct form in pounding drums and the wailing saxophone. Sound bursts collide and fracture, channeling raw fury.
The opening track, “Chase The Demons Out,” reflects a world drifting toward totalitarianism. Its title echoes a phrase from 1970s Chinese state media calling to “sweep away all demons”—to eliminate those who think differently. The theme feels disturbingly current as war again ravages the Middle East, where rockets, aircraft, and attack drones serve the ambitions of those in power.
The second piece, “Mach kein Krach” (“stop making noise”), recalls Küchen’s father telling him to quiet down as a child—something his son clearly had no intention of doing. The message is the opposite of silence: make your voice heard. Refuse passivity. Rebel, resist, speak up. Make noise.
The third piece, “Mit Ach und Krach,” uses a German expression describing something achieved with great difficulty—through blood, sweat, and tears. Speaking out and resisting the present state of affairs demands exactly that kind of effort.
Taken together, the three brief pieces form a suite: anger at the world, inner rebellion, and the search for the energy to act.
Every saxophone cry, every drum strike carries elemental emotion—horror, pain, rejection, fear—pushed forward by outrage, anger, disgust, and indignation. These forces build toward movement: to resist, to act, to stand together. It will take effort. It will take blood, sweat, and tears.
Once again, Küchen shows his artistic clarity. The music is raw, brutal,
uncompromising—and authentic.
The world needs this."
Listen
and download from
Bandcamp
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