Beyond Jazz Reviews

Jul 5 2014

Before Floratone: Mount Analog – “New Skin” (a Safety Net review)

 

Mount Analog - "New Skin"Tucker Martine is a studio magician.  His ability to pull together a diverse array of elements and bundle them up into a spellbinding cohesive whole is both impressive and rewarding.  Of recent note is the Floratone collaboration of himself, Lee Townsend, Bill Frisell and Matt Chamberlain (plus various guests).  Both the self-titled debut and the sophomore release Floratone II were a cagey mix of Frisellian Americana, ambient electronica, post-rock, minimalism, and strains of modern jazz.  More relevantly, however, was the music’s mix of mesmerizing beauty and folksy charm… qualities that appeal to both heart and head.  And it was music that didn’t really sound like anything else on the scene.

But it wasn’t what started it all.  There were similar collaborations which preceded Floratone.  Most notably is that of the Mount Analog ensemble and their 2004 sophomore release New Skin.

Mount Analog utilizes many of the same influences and many of the same musicians that conjured up the music of Floratone, but where Floratone is heavier on the Americana sound, Mount Analog is heavier on the post-rock and it also throws in some light doses of the avant-garde.

Mount Analog’s 1997 self-titled debut was all well and good, but it stuck to a minimalism that didn’t really flesh out the other possibilities.  It stayed in a comfortable pocket and that was that.  But seven years later, on New Skin, Tucker Martine brought a new, dynamic approach to the ensemble, and the result is something quite hypnotic from a cerebral perspective, and, at times, so damn pretty it’s heartbreaking.

The way in which Martine is able to bind seemingly disassociated sounds into a singular expression is what carries this recording.  The eerie call of strings, the strangled effects and unpredictable bursts of percussion create an ambiance that is equally alluring and chilling.  And on “Harry Smith’s Cats,” Martine adds the field recording of kids playing and laughing to the accompaniment of the slow tolling of piano notes, and the contrast between laughter and fearfulness is jacked up a couple extra notches.

More of this manifests with the deep resonance of bass clarinet providing contrast as the darkness that surrounds the glittering moonlight of omnichord.  This alone is worth the price of admission, but that it bursts free from the persistent crash of an upbeat tempo and a guitar contribution that strikes a melodic path right down the center of the song makes for a transcendent moment.

Some tracks are more single-minded, though no less compelling for it.  “Freeze Green” has the field recordings of a train station leading into a din of sound that embodies a freight train passing through… drums, harmonica, harmonium, percussion, effects, guitars… they all come blasting through, with a plume of steam the only thing missing.

Just a marvelous album that finds multiple ways to captivate.

Your album personnel:  Tucker Martine (drums, cymbals, guitar, harmonica, harmonium, field recordings, omnichord, various other percussion and effects), Fred Chalenor (bass), Bill Frisell (guitar), Jon Hyde (nylon string guitar), Eyvind Kang (harp, viola), Keith Lowe (bass), Steve Moore (piano, trombone, vibraphone, harmonium, mellotron, muted trombone), Doug Wieselman (clarinet, bass clarinet, guitar), Tim Young (guitar), and Bruce Wirth (harmonium, organ, violin).

Released in 2004 on the FILMguerrero label.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD | Amazon MP3

The Safety Net, a Bird is the Worm series that highlights outstanding older albums that may have flown under the radar when first released.

*****

Here’s a video that uses a portion of the song “Gospel Melodica” to create a video postcard of Nathan Clifford Elementary, Falmouth Street, Portland, Maine.  It appears to be the class assignment of someone named Leanna Elisabeth.  I think it’s really good, maybe even better than good.  Definitely right up my alley.  Here’s a link to the other videos she’s uploaded to her YouTube page.

*****

Floratone_2And, speaking of Floratone, here’s a link to a review of their second album that I wrote for this site, which, tangentially, talks about their debut, too.  Admittedly, I like their debut recording better, but both are way enjoyable.  Following this LINK to the review.

Cheers.

By • Beyond Jazz Reviews, Jazz Recommendations, The Safety Net • 0 • Tags: ,

Jul 4 2014

Moskus – “Mestertyven”

 

Moskus - "Mestertyven"There is something particularly charming about the ramshackle sound of the Moskus trio.  It is jumbled music that is perpetually coming apart at the seams, and yet is presented with such a solemn tone that it embodies the imagery of a gospel hymn tumbling down the church steps on a peaceful Sunday morning.

Their new album, Mestertyven, was recorded in a church in a tiny town in Norway, though this doesn’t have any causal effect on their sound, as their debut album, Salmesykkel, possessed a similar disposition (review HERE).  That said, switching out a studio environment for something with the ambiance of age, in addition to the switch from grand piano to upright makes this a more intimate affair, and the disjointed music becomes more personable and simpler for the ear to gather up.

Most appealing about the recording are those moments when the trio suddenly comes together in unison, providing a bridge between the disjointed tunes and adding a necessary melodicism and rhythmic cohesiveness.  That the deconstructed piano-led jazz tune “Fjesing” transitions into the pop tune ditty of “Tandem med Sankt Peter” is a welcome bit of contrast, and the way in which the unpredictable tides of “Yttersvingen” and the staggered slow crawl of “Jag är ett ägg” lead into the melodic wind sprint of “Rullings” and the similarly inclined, glittering starlight of “Lille Trille” provide not only infusions of beauty, but also a decisive context in which to view those tunes comprised of pieces that don’t so easily snap into place.

The album closes out, first, with the pretty lullaby of “Tradisjonskvelern,” a simple tune that inspires the nuance of dreams, and then, second and final, the murmur of “Gammel-Erik,” a piece that encapsulates the trio’s overarching solemn tone… a quality that serves as the glue to all of the jumbled, disjointed tones and rhythms that comprise this charming music.

Your album personnel:  Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson (double bass), Anja Lauvdal (piano), and Hans Hulbækmo (drums).

Released on the Hubro Music label.

Jazz from the Trondheim, Norway scene.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon: CD – MP3 – Vinyl

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May 10 2014

1982 – “A/B”

 

1982 - "A_B"It’s the avant-garde touch that the 1982 trio of Økland, Apeland, and Skarbø applies to their minimalist chamber music that draws the ear in.  A variety of strings, keys, and percussion establish a quick foundation of serenity, then immediately goes about chiseling peculiar formations into that peacefulness.  Ultimately, they never come close to shattering that penultimate serenity, but they do shape it into something that is vaguely disquieting and supremely compelling.

After a couple trio albums, 1982 added pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole on their self-titled 2012 release.  Aside from the intriguing results of an additional element added to the mix, there was the observation at how seamlessly Cole and his pedal steel fit into the odd framework of the 1982 sound… that something as differentiated as 1982 could incorporate an outside element (and, in its own right, the pedal steel on a chamber music album could be considered a little different) and not skip a beat is more than a bit illuminating.  It’s a scenario that repeats itself on 1982’s newest release, A/B.

Your album personnel: Nils Økland (Hardanger fiddles, violin), Sigbjørn Apeland (harmonium, piano), Øyvind Skarbø (drums, percussion), and guests: Fredrik Ljungkvist (clarinet), Erik Johannessen (trombone), Sofya Dudaeva (flute), Hanne Liland Rekdal (bassoon), Matthias Wallin (tenor horn), and Stian Omenås (trumpet, composer).

The 18-minute plus “A” side of the album sees the trio joined by a sextet of wind instruments, and in that same way that it played out with the BJ Cole collaboration, the wind instruments suss out new textures of the 1982 sound, even as they are absorbed into its prevailing nature.

The “A” part sheds most of the jazz and folk elements of 1982’s previous pieces and focuses on the chamber music element en force.  There is an abounding grace to the “A” piece as it leaps from expression to expression, a parade of surprises that, immediately after the fact, make perfect sense.  They chart a course that, looking ahead, is bereft of useful sightlines, but with the gift of hindsight is revealed to be a brightly lit path.  This results in a potent mix of suspense and comfort, the intensity of danger and the warmth of having been safe all along.

Wind instruments flutter and squeak and moan.  Occasionally there is an undercurrent of harmony that gives the music some lift, but mostly there is a weight to this music that is terrestrial in nature.  On strings, Økland often adopts a flight pattern that mirrors the wind instruments, though near the conclusion of “A,” he enters a melodic space that shepherds the piece to a sublime end.  This, accompanied by a long low drone with well-timed shifts in tone and percussion that bubbles up at delightful moments marks the “A” piece (titled “18:06”) as one of 1982’s more distinctive endeavors.

The “B” side of the album is comprised of five short pieces, and has 1982 scaling back to their standard trio format.  Here, their serenity is enhanced with a liveliness that accelerates the rate of wakefulness for their typically early morning music.  The trio returns to its intoxicating mix of chamber, folk, and Nordic jazz.  The song “03:51,” shuffles along peacefully to the beat of Skarbø’s drums, while Økland soars melodically just over the surface of Apeland’s harmonium.  As distinctive as the extended “A” piece was, this track best exemplifies the absorbing beauty of the trio’s music.  And, this, followed by three pieces that are, in turn, eerily unsettling, hypnotically pulsing, and a long melodic sigh, encapsulate so much of this trio’s winning formula.

Released on Hubro Music.

Music from Norway.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon: CD – MP3 – Vinyl

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Apr 8 2014

Something Different: Stein Urheim – “Stein Urheim”

 

Stein Urheim - "Stein Urheim"Aside from excellent musicianship, the eminent quality of the music of folk guitarists Leo Kottke and John Fahey that draws in so many fans is the storytelling nature of their music.  Whether accompanied by a band or, even better, in a solo setting, Kottke and Fahey were able to create entire worlds in their music, populate them with a variety of characters, and then lay down a little bit of plot into the foundation of a tune.  Live, it’s common for Kottke to tell anecdotes from his own life, and show how they inspired the next song to be performed… additional exposition adding more texture, more color to the story of the song.  And the music had so much to say, even in its simplest forms.

Stein Urheim has that quality.  Building on the territory covered on his excellent 2012 release Kosmolodi, his new recording, the self-titled Stein Urheim, creates entire universes from scratch, then presents a microcosm of each one song at a time.  A kaleidoscopic array of influences of regional folk musics, of blues, of jazz, of classical, of avant-garde, of whatever unique expressions reside in his head, Urheim presents them all with the heart of the storyteller.

Your album personnel: Stein Urheim (guitars, flutes, harmonica, slide tamboura, fretless bouzouki, gu qin, mandolin, langeleik, charango, banjo, analog synths and effects) and Jørgen Træen (modular synth and effects).

These are stories told patiently and thick with details, but at its heart is some universal truth, untranslatable, but represented by its melody.  Second track “After the Festival” reveals a diverse parade of expressions so typical of this inventive recording, and at the very end of the tune, Urheim reveals the simple, yet poignant melody that had existed all along, hidden until the last moment, and illuminating the meaning of it all… like watching a reverse time lapse of the life of a magnificent flower, and at its conclusion, witnessing the tiny seed that led up to the majestic bloom.

Urheim uses a vast array of instruments for his purposes, with Jørgen Træen adding some synths and effects.  The looping effects on album opener “Kosmoloda” provides the ethereal magic reminiscent of Bill Frisell solo folk-jazz recordings like Ghost Town and The Willies… an alien warmth that is both comforting and spooky.

The harmonica on “Beiing Blues” spreads all kinds of sunlight over the languorous tune, and the blues of “Great Distances” adds an appealing grey-skies quality to the affair, whereas “Watch the View” rustles up tension between those opposing forces… an unsettling ambiance from knowing that the world can turn on a dime with a downpour of rain or blanket of sunlight.

Perhaps most compelling about this album is that the presentation of this myriad of sounds and influences is done with a casual ease, a lazy Sunday atmosphere that is supremely compelling… intricacies and complexities delivered with an easy grace.

Just a beautiful album, where there is no end to the details and their magic never fades.

Released on Hubro Music.

Music from the Bergen, Norway scene.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD – MP3 – Vinyl

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Apr 3 2014

Season of Solitude: Erik Friedlander – “Nighthawks” and “Nothing On Earth”

 

Erik Friedlander photoThe act of artistic creativity is an isolation drill.  There is an art to the solitude, of forging a bond between the artist and their creation, a method of communication so strong and seamless that it becomes instantaneous, bypassing all the doubts and fears and hopes and ephemera careening wildly around the artist’s head.  Ideally, the artist exists in a state of passive confidence, a frame of mind that allows for focused uninhibited expression, fueled by perseverance and drive, softened by the desire to be universally communicative to one beating heart at a time.

It’s often done alone.  Others may become involved at later stages in the creative process, but when that first idea is born, there is an essential solitary nature to its first breath.  And, depending on the nature of the project, that solitude can become like fuel to the artist, spurring on the imagination and the drive to cause its manifestation.  This is no small thing.

2011 ended tragically for cellist Erik Friedlander.  The passing of his wife was followed by an injury that prevented him for months from playing his cello… at a time when he likely needed it most.  That left him plenty of time for contemplation.  Eventually he regained his health and ability to play.  This led to more contemplation, but now armed with his cello to channel his thoughts and emotions.

Erik Friedlander - "Claws & Wings"It led to his late-2013 release Claws & Wings, an album described, in a review on this site, as having “the statuesque beauty of chamber music, the ambient distant warmth of minimalist post-rock, and the wry charm of folk.  […] sometimes taking languorous sighs of harmonic brilliance, sometimes prancing lightly from one note to the next, and sometimes swirling about with the unexpected motion of mist on a stormy eve.”  It was beautiful music created at a time of heavy introspection.  It also signaled the start of a very rich creative period for the cellist.

Isolation and introspection are central themes to the two new Friedlander recordings, Nighthawks and Nothing On Earth.

Erik Friedlander – Nighthawks

Erik Friedlander - "Nighthawks"The parents of Nighthawks are darkness and silence.  The power was out and the city locked away during Hurricane Sandy.  Friedlander wrote the music for Nighthawks while ruminating by candlelight on his own life in a world of darkness, and he expounded upon those thoughts by considering the lives of others lived in a similar environment, in the normalcy of their lives without the oppressive presence of a natural disaster… where being surrounded by people is no guarantee of freedom from isolation.

Your album personnel:  Erik Friedlander (cello), Doug Wamble (guitar), Trevor Dunn (bass), and Michael Sarin (drums).

The opening two tracks are all well and good, but the album comes alive on the third track “Hopper’s Blue House.”  A reference to the classic Edward Hopper painting of strangers at a late-night diner, the melody bends with the grace of moonlight on this rustic tune, simmering with passion.  It’s a sound that carries through much of this beautiful recording… like “Nostalgia Blindside,” with its melody like warped glass, revealing hidden shapes within… a moody ballad breathed out with a Jazz Americana voicing.

Several pieces adopt an up-tempo gait, often with Doug Wamble’s guitar providing the fuel.  The lively “Carom” proceeds right along with an oddly appealing choppy motion, and the seemingly happenstance good fortune that the sounds of percussion land in just the right spots.  “26 Gasoline Stations,” on the other hand, has Wamble out front on electric guitar as the quartet develops a nifty shuffling cadence.

“One Red Candle” and “Poolhall Payback” breathe the same air.  The former is a slowly developing piece that provides a nice opportunity for interplay between Friedlander and Dunn on cello and bass, as well as moments for each to stand solo in the spotlight.  The latter of those two tracks breaks out a down-home twang, and nicely swings back to melody at well-timed moments.

The album closes with “The River,” a song expressed effusively, but with a comportment that speaks more to a life of casual ease.  Sarin is a craftsman on drums, shaping the skewed tempo into a fluid trajectory.  There is something in the way that the quartet comes together on this song reminiscent of how a city wakes at sunrise, flooding the streets, all together at the start of their day… a poetic way of ending an album about the night and the separate lives led within it.

It’s a different kind of isolation reflected in Friedlander’s other 2014 release, Nothing On Earth.

Erik Friedlander – Nothing On Earth

Erik Friedlander - "Nothing On Earth"Originally hired to create the soundtrack to the Michael Angus documentary of the same name, in which photographer Murray Fredericks is followed as he attempts to capture the vast beauty and solitude of the ice caps of Greenland’s landscape, some of Friedlander’s solo cello pieces went unused.  Revisiting those pieces, Friedlander saw an opportunity to reunite them with those compositions used in the film soundtrack.  He developed them for trio, and by combining them with the soundtrack’s solo pieces, it resulted in Nothing On Earth.

Your album personnel:  Erik Friedlander (cello), Satoshi Takeishi (percussion), and Shoko Nagai (accordion, piano, mini-xylophone).

This is an album of two faces.  The solo cello pieces are delivered like lullabies, yet possess an austere grace that speaks more of wakefulness.  The trio pieces adopt a brisker pace even as they register strongly at the serene end of the intensity scale.  Droplets of piano splatter off the surface of cello’s peaceful melody, and percussion is a gentle splash into the harmonic pool of accordion’s warm embrace.

Percussionist Takeishi has a conversational approach to the music, and his instruments speak in a hushed voice, whereas Nagai’s accordion raises up its voice, either to speak the melody or to mirror it.  Friedlander’s cello has a deep resonance throughout, both filling the silence with a gorgeous sound and accentuating the vastness of the silence yet untouched.  The way silence settles in across the length of this recording is as evocative as the way in which the trio goes about dispersing it.

That comfort with silence and isolation have manifested as a string of wonderful recordings, a creative productivity deserving of notice.

Both albums are released on Friedlander’s SkipStone Records.

Explore more of Friedlander’s music on his site.

Nighthawks available 5/20/14 at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon

Nothing on Earth available at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon MP3

By • Beyond Jazz Reviews, Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2014 Releases • 0

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