We're always open for new names and new approaches. If you're too, I suggest you listen to this album.
Chattermark are Norwegian musicians - and wife and husband - Gunhild Seim on trumpet and John Ilja on electric bass. Both use effects, and massively. The trumpet has a recognisable sound on most tracks, but the bass is so heavily distorted and played with extended techniques that it can barely be identified as such.
We have only one review on Norwegian trumpeter Gunhild Seim in our review catalogue, for her more modern jazz ensemble "Time Jungle" from 2009 (by the way, it's interesting to notice how either my ignorance on female trumpeters has decreased over the years, or that so many interesting female trumpeters have come forward).
This album is of a totally different nature, with Lilja creating huge noise and drone-like sonic landscapes that give Seim the opportunity to add her deeply moving playing. The total effect is one of desolation, doom and despair. The sound of the horn resonates, full of reverb, against the relentless and constantly shifting wall of sound. The duo gives as references the metal and dark ambient band Sunn 0))), composer and electronics innovator Anthony Pateras and Austrian trumpeter Franz Hautzinger, whom we know best of the three.
Chattermark started in 2016, as part of Seim's "Duo Projects", improvisations with selected other individuals, as a kind of manifestation of Hegel's philosophy of "The Other", combined with the zen-like effect of being 'in the moment'. "Part of my duos project is trying to get to know new people, but it is also about playing with people I already know well. When you think of it also as communication with “the other”, duos of any kind (ranging from me playing with my hubby to someone really different for instance different art form, background or skill) can be interesting. How do you REALLY listen and respond to the other person? And is the level of listening in any way traceable, is it for instance audible or visible? Or will it make a lasting imprint in other ways?" she writes on her blog.
The result of the duo with Ilja is astonishing and relatively unique, both creating a universe of terror and despair. Ilja's sound is so urban, industrial and violent, that it becomes uncanny in the end. Seim either tries to escape from this massive darkness with a few bright lines of light, but every so often her screams and howls on the trumpet intensify the feeling of being trapped forever, a deep and deranged sound of being held captive with no chance of redemption.
Both musicians present a very daring, courageous and shocking piece of new music, visionary and coherent, and an incredible listening experience.
By Stef GijsselsOur "Doom Jazz" label on the topic list of our blog is not the most crowded, but we can add this one that pushes the word jazz to the darkest corners of the musical universe. Portuguese tenor saxophonist Pedro Alves Sousa invites us to an electronic journey with Simão Simões and Bruno Silva on electronics, Miguel Abras on electric bass, and Gabriel Ferrandini on drums & electronics.
The result is a masterpiece of musical collage, repetitions, overdubs, distorted sounds, multi-layered and dark, but at the same time compelling, infectious and full of emotional power. I am usually very suspicious and often quite averse even of the use of electronics in jazz, but here it works to perfection. The colliding sounds create a sonic wall over which Sousa's horn weaves repetitive wails, while the bass and the drums underpin the bizarre sound with emphatic bursts of power and energy, or quieten the whole movement down to eery moments of anticipation. Sousa's sax is further 'amplified via guitar and bass amplifiers and an effects pedalboard', we read in the liner notes, ambient sounds are introduced, human voices, snippets of songs, drones are repeated, and the bass and drums keep the pace going, with the raw sax sounding full of despair, alternated by an unexpected jubilating phrase.
The music crackles, sputters, sizzles, rumbles, crashes, throbs, thumps, thuds, clunks, roars, clonks, drips, bursts and explodes.
The atmosphere is unreal, relentless and magisterial. The effect is far beyond the familiar and incredibly coherent, as if the whole piece was conceived as a suite. Even the strange shifting melody of the title song create an eery intro to the deep industrial sound of distorted and mangled shreds of music. Despite the unfamiliar and almost hostile setting - it is a journey to an 'unlucky star' after all - the music is captivating from beginning to end.
Purists will not like this, but again I can only invite them to give it a try, to go for the incredible sonic experience that Pedro Alves Sousa and his band have in store for us.
The liner notes end with the cryptic "Even inside the shadows you can find hope", so not entirely doom.
Despite the band's German name, and the album's Italian title, this is music from Russia, performed by a band consisting of Anton Efimov on bass-guitar and effects, Evgenia Sivkova on drums and saxophone, and Edward Sivkov on bass clarinet, saxophone and domra, the latter the father of Evgenia. The band is usually a duo, but the addition of an extra saxophone, makes this even for them an unusual album, at the same time lifting the music to a much higher level.
Both bass and drums lay a very dense foundation of industrial doom, with neither instrument clearly recognisable, but still rhythmic enough to become hypnotic. The sax improvises over this never-ending flowing sonic magma. The improvisations of the sax only add to the deep sense of despair, angst and hopelessness.
Unlike our normal four season calendar - and Vivaldi's - they present us five seasons, as described in the "Illuminati calendar", the secret society which fought religiously influenced state power in the 18th century (and maybe still active today, you never know with secret societies). In the case of Der Finger, they also refer to the novels by Robert Anton Wilson, and his "Illuminati trilogy". I have to rely on Wikipedia to know more about him: "Wilson described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". His goal being "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything."
Understanding the context and the intent illuminates the appreciation of the music. The music indeed not only breaks down all conventions, but at the same time - and that's possibly the most fascinating about it - it originates without too many of today's influences in avant-garde music, allowing it to carve out its own space, its own sound, dark and relentless and scary and compelling.
The tracks are named by the original German names of the five illuminati seasons, each consisting of 73 days, "representing the development stages of everything from complete chaos to complete fuck-up (SNAFU) and then again in the eternal cycle". 1. Verwirrung (bewilderment) 2. Zweitracht (discord) 3. Unordnung (disorder) 4. Beamtenherrschaft (bureacracy) 5. Realpolitik (realpolitik).
Doom jazz may not be a very common subgenre of jazz, but Albatre exemplifies it well. The trio of Hugo Costa on alto sax & effects, Gonçalo Almeida on bass, keyboards & electronics, and Philipp Ernsting on drums & electronics manages to create - despite the limited line-up - a massive sound, with pumping heavy chords, changing slow rhythms and repetitive unison vamps. But despite the straightforward and almost predictable weight of the music, it changes the whole time, almost unexpectedly, taking the listener often by surprise, but without altering the intrinsic mood of despair, torment and agony. In a really interesting, rock-influenced way, they add complexities to a relatively simple basic structure, and it works well. A good example is "Dance Of A Dead Paradise", on which the tempo and the rhythm shift constantly, while keeping the maddening pace of the piece intact.
The whole album keeps the same unique violent sound, and I can only recommend that you put the volume high and prepare yourself for another great descent into the maelstrom, an unguided trip to a dark inferno. No prisoners taken, that's for sure, but you'll enjoy the ride ... or not.
Breaking boundaries, destroying preconceived notions, and then building up something new entirely is often a high risk, but when it works, as it does on this album, the result can be an absolutely unique listening experience.
The French avant-garde death metal rock band "Chaos Echoes" invited Mats Gustafsson to add his part over an improvised performance by the band, already recorded in November 2016. Gustafsson, recorded his parts with Andreas Werliin at RUD Studio in Stockholm, Sweden in May 2017, and the final result was again remixed in France. A rare approach, but not unique, and more importantly: the outcome is nothing short of spectacular.
The band are guitarist Kalevi Uibo, his drummer brother Ilmar Uibo,
bassist Stefan Thanneur and second guitarist Fabien W. Furter. The 45' vinyl album or cassette offers two sides of only 12 minutes each. And that is the only disappointment of the release, that it's so short.
The first track, "Spellbound", creates a crushing, slow eery wall of sound, with hard to identify instruments, in a long shifting drone, over which Gustafsson's baritone hovers full of agony and despair. We are in a sonic environment from which there is no escape. It is harsh, subdued and intrinsically violent, intense and measured.
The second part, "Harvest Of Souls", starts with the most incredible collective power beats, hammering in all the energy of the band in slow, precise measures. It qualifies as one of the darkest pieces of music I have ever heard, ominous, apocalyptic, haunting, and built over a steady repetitive drum beat, that gives the whole sound a level of inevitability like time progressing.
Gustafsson is his magnificent self: well-paced, precise and howling and roaring like only he can do it, expressing all the deepest emotions of torment and doom and pain that he can muster. And the French band is throughout at the same high level, keeping the unique sound steady and terrifying, without losing themselves in unnecessary excursions, which gives the whole improvisation that compact and coherent sense of direction that the listener's last minute is arriving, steadily, slowly, in all its horrifying terror.
The limited editions vinyl and cassette are probably already sold out, but the digital version is available on Bandcamp.
It is unfair for sax trios to always be combined in a single review, but we get so many albums with sax trios that you wouldn't believe it. We'll point you in the direction of the most interesting ones.
This is one of those albums where you know that you will have fun listening to it from the very beginning. The album starts with sparse and slow sustained notes from the bass clarinet, a seemingly endless bowed note on the bass and some subtle cymbal touches, You are immediately invited into the universe of Agustà MartÃnez on alto sax, bass clarinet and clarinet, Eduard Altaba on doublebass, and Quicu Samsó on drums. The piece is magnificent, dark and sensitive and almost the opposite of the movie its title refers to ('Atoll K' is a Laurel & Hardy movie).
The next track shatters the calm of the introduction with some violent powerplay, with the title, "Das Schwarzkommando" being a reference to Tomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" (read it!).
"Isle de Sable" is a slow bass-driven piece full of melancholy and beautiful bass clarinet with Samsó's drumming again as efficient as it is effective. "Macunamia" inspired - I think - by a novel by the Brazilian author Mário de Andrade, continues in the same vein, with drums and bass setting an eery scene of anticipation for the bass clarinet to join to the end with sparse vibrating tones.
"Farfelu" is uptempo and boppish in nature, but then it gets deconstructed to areas of distress and unpleasant tension. "Wariri or Arnewi" a title referring to Saul Bellow's "Henderson The Rain King", and the last track "I Am Inclin'd to Think That Dougherty Island Has Melted" is again slow and dark and raw.
A very coherent album, performed by three musicians who share the same vision and deliver it well.
Gonçalo Almeida, John Dikeman & George Hadow - O Monstro (Creative Sources, 2014) ****
Things are of a different nature with this trio consisting of Gonçalo Almeida on bass, John Dikeman on sax and George Hadow on drums, three musicians who happen to be based in the Netherlands. As the title suggests, this is a monster of a trio, ferocious, raw, wild, fierce and sufficiently clever and creative to keep the interest going, including the wonderful shift at the end of the first track.
The second piece starts with a long bowed bass intro, and when the two youngsters join, the energy picks up again for some fantastic interplay, one in which all three musicians play an equal role.
And then it's hard to describe why this is good, why this is so much better than the average, because you have to hear it. The heat that drives these musicians, the phenomenal skills that avoid automatisms, the discipline to listen to each other, the inventiveness in the moment, the focus to stay in the same tune while feeling as free as a bird, a monster of a bird in this case, and if you're a fan of free jazz, you shouldn't miss this one.
Lucien Johnson, Alan Silva & Makoto Sato - Stinging Nettles (Improvising Beings, 2014) ***½
Lucien Johnson (°1981), hailing from Wellington, New Zealand, is probably the lesser known of the three members of this band, he spent some years in Paris at the end of last decade, the period during which he recorded this beautiful performance with Alan Silva (°1939) on double bass, and Makoto Sato (°1946) on drums, two veterans of the free jazz scene. Even if the rhythm section is twice the age of the frontman, he does not seem to be inhibited too much by it, and plays his role really well, at the same time offering lots of space to Silva and Sato. Johnson's tone on tenor is warm and round, and his playing offers a perfect balance between nervous energy, soulful howling and rhythmic phrases, in a sense that has almost become unusual in Europe's free improv scene, without abstractions, over-blowing or extended techniques. The trio's playing is not ground-breaking or innovative, yet highly enjoyable.
Watch a one hour performance by the trio here, with an impromptu appearance of Itaru Oki on trumpet near the end.
This trio is offers a great album full of relentless nervous tension, not only because of saxophonist Tobias Delius short and agitated phrases, full of colorful side-steps, squeeks and howls, but also because of intensity of Olie Brice on bass and Mark Sanders on drums. Their playing is far from exuberant, quite the contrary even, staying close to the main idea, focused on the core concept, but then exploring and amplifying the minute, giving details room for expansion, adding touches to encourage the dialogue that does not seem to develop but rather to wrestle with itself, with muscle power and force, yet without moving.
Without losing any of the intensity, the second track, "Bones Shake Like Sticks", is slower, more open-ended and in my opinion also stronger because of the phenomenal interplay between the three artists to create an eery atmosphere of unfulfilled desire. The half-hour long last track is called "Like A Creature Let Loose In A Room", starts with some faux-bop sentiments of bass and drums, yet the intro collapses into some in-the-moment granular blasts and bursts, full of hard hitting surprises totally without rhythm and structure, yet with a great sense of pulse, pace and fabulous group dynamics. This is European free improv at its best.
Like Tobas Delius, Dutch saxophonist and clarinettist Ab Baars is also a member of the Dutch ICP Orchestra. On this album he plays in a trio with Wilbert de Joode on bass, and Martin van Duynhoven on drums, a band which has been performing and releasing albums since the early nineties. The ten improvised pieces are all relatively short, and in a way they offer a kind of poetic compactness to the music, which is forced to circle around a core atmosphere or concept, often inspired by nature, without straying too much, without real development, yet with some deepening of the idea, adding light touches and surprising changes.
The entire approach is light-hearted, gentle and free, a beautiful combination of lyricism, precision and tonal coloring.
Paul Rogers, Robin Fincker & Fabien Duscombs - Whahay (Mr Morezon, 2014) ***½
Now this is an unexpected album, led by famous British bassist Paul Rogers, and with Robin Fincker on clarinet and sax, and Fabien Duscombs on drums, both from France. With the album Rogers wants to bring a tribute to Charles Mingus, yet with the little fun of transposing the well-known Mingus tunes into a more up-to-date free improv environment. The Mingus compositions played here are : Better Git It In Your Soul, Ecclusiastics, Jump Monk, Canon, Pithecanthropus Erectus, Reincarnation of a Lovebird, Bird Call, Work Song, and Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, and it is great fun to hear these tunes in a totally different musical context, and I'm also wondering what Mingus himself might have thought of this, wary as he was of free jazz and free improvisation ("if the free-form guys could play the same tune twice, then I would say they were playing something . . . . Most of the time they use their fingers on the saxophone and they don't even know what's going to come out").
The trio proves him wrong, because this is great fun, and true, they may not be able to play it exactly the same twice, but I'm sure Mingus would have appreciated the band's authenticity, their musical prowess and their personal vision on the master's tunes. Rogers plays a determining role on the record, driving the trio forward and giving some wonderful soloing, yet both Fincker and Duscombs were an excellent choice as bandmates for this project. Great fun!
Judge for yourselves :
Travis Laplante, Trevor Dunn & Ches Smith - Ancestral Instrument (NNA Tapes, 2014) ***½
We know tenorist Travis Laplante from the bands "Little Women" and "Battle Trance", and I assume that Trevor Dunn on bass (Zorn, Junk Genius, Tin Hat Trio, etc.) and Ches Smith on drums ("Ches Smith & These Arches"). This is an audio cassette with two relatively short sides, one of thirty minutes, the other a little over sixteen minutes.
For Laplante this was his first performance in a fully improvised setting. The music was recorded at the IBEAM in Brooklyn during a snowstorm in front of a literally very 'captive audience'. The only agreement among the musicians was that "the sound should be followed", as vague a concept as one could create.
The long first track starts very slowly, with the long and stretched notes of the sax circling around a tonal center, with bass and drums creating a mesmerising foundation, and slowly shifting colors and timbres, all well-paced and well-measured. The second track is a little more ferocious, with Laplante screaming and howling, yet also leaving sufficient space for bass (arco) and drums to add to the overall sound, which slowly evolves into more sensitive playing and resulting in an emotional ending.
Giovanni Maier, Daniele D'Agaro & Zlatko Kaucic - Disorder At The Border (Palomar, 2015) ****
For those who are interested in how free improvisation can lead to a huge variety of tunes should listen to this album. Slovenian master drummer Zlatko Kaucic plays in his home country at a jazz festival (recorded end 2013) in the presence of Giovanni Maier, an Italian bassists whose skills I've praised before and Daniele D'Agoro on reeds, who played with the Mitteleuropa Ensemble before, but also with musicians such as von Schlippenbach, Bennink, Bishop, Delius, . Maier hails from the north east of Italy, not too far from the border with Slovenia, and I assume the album's title refers to this.
The first track is a real power-tune, with all three musicians playing up a storm, tight and focused and fierce, shifting gears completely for the next piece, which is quiet, subtle and subdued and intense at the same time, a great moment for all three musicians to let us enjoy the pure quality of the sound of their instruments, clarinet, pizzi bass and refined percussion, growing in volume and force near the end.
They can also move into more playful moods such as on the fourth piece, or some telepathic interplay as on the fifth, with sudden pauses and simultaneous continuation. They sing, they dance, they play around like kids, they seem to enjoy their pyrotechnics and acrobatics, and so does this listener, but they go deeper than this, adding some great emotional or even spiritual content at times.
Recommended!
Mike Noordzy, David Freeman & Daniel Carter - The Imaginary Quartet (Nacht, 2014) ***½
This is a little bit the odd one out as far as trios are concerned. The band consists of Daniel Carter on tenor, alto and soprano, flute, clarinet and trumpet, David Freeman on drums, and Mike Noordzy on bass. The difference with the other bands is Noordzy's post-production of the recorded material, creating a kind of musical collage, which leads to various lead voices (often by Carter) superimposed, explaining the band's name: it is a trio, but it sounds like a quartet.
There is nothing wrong with that approach of course, as long as the music sounds great. And it does. "Modern Museum", the long first track is an uptempo high energy piece with Carter's saxes playing in the front and in the distance, with the occasional industrial noise mixed in to increase the uncanny sound of the piece, which reorients itself to a midtempo pulse with Carter switching to flute, joined again by himself on muted trumpet somewhere in the background, while Freeman and Noordzy keep the rhythm going in an inventive way. The second track, "Boating With John", manipulates the sounds into a kind of mix of lounge and noise, weird yet accessible, and quite compelling actually. Other pieces, such as "Reminds Me Of Billy", are quieter, more spontaneously jazzy, yet always with this kind of strange alteration of the basic forms, deconstructing the walking bass into more fragmented and counter-intuitive rhythms.
It's an interesting approach, quite welcoming even if not ground-breaking.
Gianni Gebbia Magnetic Trio - Prospero (Objet-A, 2014) ***½
I've been a fan of Sicilan soprano saxophonist Gianni Gebbia for a while now, primarily because he just does his own thing, outside of mainstream jazz, outside of avant-garde or even free jazz, playing his own kind of modern jazz, with local folk tunes as inspiration, or medieval music, composing for theatre, film, dance and other occasions, yet his approach is always extremely melodious, as it is on this wonderful album.
He is joined by Gabrio Bevilacqua on doubble bass and Carmelo Graceffa on drums. Because of the composed themes and the clear structure of the different pieces, the album is also a little out of scope of this review list, but then again, this is also far from mainstream and because of its quality, something worth recommending. The most beautiful theme of the entire album is "Francesco e Il Sultano", which was written for puppet theatre.
On "Never Been So Well", Laura Campisi joins for a vocal piece, almost musical-like. Like many of Gebbia's albums, there are plenty of ideas, excellent compositions, even if the overall coherence of all these compositions is somewhat lacking. But then again, if this album does not cheer you up, few things can. Listen and download from Bandcamp.
Call it doomjazz, or dark jazz, or whatever moniker fits the sound, but this is not free jazz at all, yet at the same time, it's such great fun to listen to, that we can recommend it. Even if heavily composed, the raw and relentless energy of the trio, together with the inventiveness, and their great match between jazz and heavy metal (or is it grindcore, fast metal or metalcore?), makes this really worth listening to. And I guess they must even be better in a live setting.
Jan Klare, Luc Ex, Michael Vatcher - RKeT (Skycap, 2014) ***
The trio of Jan Klare on alto and bass saxophone, Luc Ex on bass guitar and Michael Vatcher on drums brings us the most rock-influenced sax trio of the lot reviewed here. The rhythmic basis is typical for rock music, a solid pumping foundation for Vatcher to expand on, and for Klare to solo on. On "Adman" and "Anarchist", Vatcher (?) sings/shouts some lyrics. The band is all about energy, power, dark distress at times ("Lunt") and trio dynamics, yet the different pieces have a core theme, or even a riff, as on "Bribe" on which the bass saxophone takes the lead.
Even if not every piece is of the same level, listeners looking for fiercer excursions will have some good listening moments with this album.
You put on this music, and you immediately understand that this will be special, with wind chimes, sax and guitar creating a strange, rhythmic pulse, repetitive and ambient, dark and ominous. The trio is Michael Monhart on saxophone and electronics, Tom Baker on fretless guitar, theremin and electronics, and Greg Campbell on drums, junk percussion, and French horn. As the piece evolves, it becomes increasingly difficult to recognize the instruments, as they get processed and repeated into a gloomy tapestry with the light wind chimes keeping up their spiel.
On the title track, the horror increases with a dark noise and slow percussive rumbling providing the background for equalised sax tones in clear pain. True, the electronics and latpop technology allow for lots of layers and studio possibilities, yet this is not the kind of nu jazz that we know from for instance Nils Petter Molvaer. The trio manages to create their own sound, their own vision of music, and this throughout the album. The result is a fascinating, sometimes hair-raising journey into madness and misery. Despite this, the music is very appealing, without needing to be in a state of utter depression to be able to identify with it, in a strange and undefinable way.
A strong achievement ... that could be better if even more radical in the future, without losing the vision. A challenge.
What we see - On a field of carcasses, bones and (what I assume are) kilometres of viscera we see hanged and tortured corpses (how did they die?) and a romantic as much extreme cannibalistic hug between two undead characters. We are in a pretty eerie forest.
What we read - Massimo Pupillo plays “low end bowel chainsaw” Paal Nilssen-Love plays “battery of total limb annihilation” and Lasse Marhaug takes care of “electronic torture devices”. The track-list of the two sides of the LP is as follows:
First Offense
A1. Sloppy Necrophiliac Cunnilingus
A2. Rope for the Undead
A3. Vomit Buffet
Second Coming
B1. Rib Cage of Rotting Brain Mush
B2. Feast on Infected Pus
B3. Forest of Grotesque Copulation What we fear - Will my ears bleed? What we hear - The album is really less noisy than it would be reasonable to expect after all the aforementioned references to the dark, industrial and death metal context. Sure, the sound is vicious, buried under the mantles of distortion and feedback provided by Marhaug’s equipment, but still the inner nature of the jazz heritage is strong and perceivable in the structures and in the development of the composition that the combo deploys. The subdivision in different tracks is obviously ironic and fictitious. This is a long and coherent live act of improvised music. Nilssen-Love is at his best, switching at ease from background feverish cymbal carpets to massive crescendos. But the cherry on top here is Massimo Pupillo, free to run alongside the fretboard of his bass with tons of distorted chords, fragmented and syncopated phrasings, waves of noise and notes sustained so long that they seem to transfigure in orotund engines running. Two remarkable moments: the bass solo at the beginning of side B together with the moment when the drums breaks in for an explosive interplay and the almost prog-rock gallop growing in the middle of the same side. Marhaug is there to open all the circuits of his devices and to embroider sci-fi lullabies in the warp of his mates.
What we learn - Sometimes ago Stef used the definition “Doom Jazz” reviewing an album by the Italian trio Zu - maybe not by chance Pupillo is featured also in this group. I think the same tag fits also to this album. Maybe dirty, but still clearly jazz!
Listen some and buy the ghoulish and enjoyable object from the label.
You can call it headbangers jazz, or metal jazz, or industrial jazz, the band itself tags its own genre as "ambient avant doom metal brutal prog free jazz". If you have difficulties grasping what this means, I can recommend that you listen to this Bandcamp link. The band is Martin Archer on organ, electronics, zither, tambourine, sopranino, alto and baritone saxes, Bb and bass clarinets, and bass recorder, with Mick Beck on tenor sax and bassoon, James Huggett on fretless 5 string bass, Mike Ward on tenor sax, bass and concert flutes, reindeer horn and drone flute, and Derek Saw on trombone and trumpet. The drums are all programmed.
The result is quite stunning and even better than "Dematerialised Passenger", the only other album I ever heard by the band, because they take their concept to the limit, using jazz instruments (basically) to generate the rock feel of heavy metal with all its connotations of slow and relentless doom and oppression.
It is actually great fun, although some might call it torture to the ears, and well, I'm sure the band won't mind this description either.
Kumiko Takara, Massimo Pupillo, Paal Nilssen-Love - Raids On The Unspeakable (2011) ***
Less impressive but equally violent is this EP by Kumiko Takara on vibes, Massimo Pupillo on electric bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. The trio manages to create a heavy and powerful sound, full of darkness and forward drive, keeping the tension even in the sparse lower volume moments. Despite some really strong parts, and the unidirectional strong musicianship of Pupillo and Nilssen-Love, the sound quality is not excellent, and at times the sense of cohesion gets a little bit lost.
For those interested in the genre, I can also recommend the French band Kolkhöse Printanium.
If the genre of doomjazz exists, this album easily fits in it. The mad Italian trio pushes its own musical concept a notch further, into the darkest territories of the human pysche, full of slow heavy metal stalling rhyhms, and a mad bass, sax and cello to add the weirdest sound textures, agonizing, screaming, full of distress and derangement. The trio is Massimo Pupillo on bass, Jacopo Battaglia on drums, and Luca T Mai on saxophone, with Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello for the occasion. Their gloomy worldview is clearly illustrated by the song titles, such as "Things Fall Apart", and "Farewell to The Species", or "Anatomy Of A Lost Battle". The music is not violent nor aggressive, but it has this weird slowly distructive power, full of unworldly sounds, totally unexpected and forceful. It is frightening and oppressive and mad and utterly creative. In its sub-genre, it is absolutely exceptional, albeit with a total of twenty-five minutes too shortn too short, too short.
Originally released in 2005 on CD via the now defunct Xeng label (Italy), this incredible album gets the deluxe 180 gram, gatefold vinyl treatment and it's the first release of this newly created US label. If you're open to new things (and if you're not really an optimist), you shouldn't miss this one.
I'm not quite sure what subgenre of jazz PHAT brings, call it underground jazz, dark jazz or doom jazz. The point is that this young French band, with Fabien Duscombs on drums and percussions, Marc Perrenoud on bass and electric doublebass, and Heddy Boubaker on alto and bass saxophones, does not have the most optimist world view. The title itself gives already sufficient clarity about the tone and mood, "La Grande Peste", means "The Great Plague", and the titles of the tracks leave even less to the imagination, "Between The Titty And The Beer", "The Feast of The Cockroaches" or "The Great Purgatory Of Dead Porn Stars" (the last one being a contender for the title of the year award, but also the best track on the album). The music is jazz, with lots of rock and even punk influences, but then without being violent, aggressive or even angry. The overall mood is more one of anguish and gloom, despair and revulsion. You must like the genre to really appreciate the music, but even if you don't, you cannot but admire the unbelievable coherence of the approach, the energy and intensity, the focus and the uncompromising attitude of these three young musicians. They give what they have and they give it without restraint. The musicians are not bad either, Boubaker is a powerful saxophonist, Duscombs is unbelievably energetic and Perrenoud is a wonderful listener with lots of creative ideas. All three manage to deliver the goods : jazz as you've rarely heard it, creating an unusual atmosphere but with sufficient emotional depth to keep the attention going. Many more gifted and skilled musicians could learn a lot from this band's musical vision. To make it even better - and appreciate the coherence here - the music is free, in the monetary sense. You can just download it from their website.
As its title and the cover suggest, the music on this album is dark, gloomy, depressing, but more than that, it is minimalistic, repetitive, slow and all about style. Jamie Saft plays piano and bass and Bobby Previte drums, two musicians who no longer need any introduction, and what they're doing here is to move away from conventions and create their own pretty unique musical universe. The amazing thing about this album is the absolute darkness, despair and sense of fatality they conjure up with just these instruments, without any electronics or special effects : just piano, bass and drums. And it sounds like the soundtrack of a psycho-thriller from beginning to end, never once releasing the tension, never once lighting a light, never once opening the possibility of even a tiny speck of hope. In that sense, it is truly unique and exceptional, something you've never heard before, attractive on the surface, frightening in its totality. But this unbelievable musical focus is also a dead end. You can do this on one album, and push it to the extreme, as they do here, with little but subtle variations, yet this also closes any perspective of a sequel that could add anything more. Yet that's irrelevant when you listen to the exceptional power of these two musicians, not in terms of instrumental pyrotechnics, but in terms of musical effect. Saft can play very sparse piano notes over a repetitive bass line, while Previte plays the most unbelievably "right" things on his kit, accentuating, emphasizing, changing speed and touch, creating drama and tension almost on his own. This is without a doubt one of the most unusual piano trios in a long time, and a record that definitely deserves wider attention, and yes, why not among metal fans ...
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