Something Different

The Something Different review series highlights albums that are unlike anything else and embrace the best qualities of creative vision.

*****

Originally commissioned for live performance at the 2012 Vossajazz Festival, trumpeter Gunhild Seim, thankfully, has released Story Water as a proper recording.  This is a good thing.  Whenever I see a promo that begins with the premise that the recording began, initially, as a commission for a live event, I expect to hear something different… because that’s what the festival organizers are expecting.  They aren’t paying out good cash to just hear more of the good stuff.  They want the musician to extend outward, to head into creative territory that, previously, the musician perhaps only considered briefly in the practice room and past recordings.  They will want the musician to not only challenge their own personal voice, but the boundaries of the music itself.  They want something different.

Gunhild Seim’s Story Water is just that.  A mix of jazz, rock, folk, country, pop, and, likely, a hodgepodge of other influences hiding amongst the trees, Story Water brings it all together with dramatic openness and unabashed theatrics, presenting a fearless vulnerability of music takes leaps from many angles and many distances, realizing that the magic found in the liftoff is far more potent than a satisfying, successful landing.  I’m not sure that there isn’t something about this album that is just a little bit courageous.

Your album personnel:  Gunhild Seim (trumpet, percussion, vocals), Trym Bjønnes (vocals, guitar), Klaus Holm (clarinet, baritone sax), Petter Frost Fadnes (c-mel sax, baritone sax), Vidar Schanche (guitar, vocals), and Ståle Birkeland (drums, electronics, vocals).

The twin baritone saxes of Holm and Fadnes endow the music with a substantive growl and weight, even as they dig deep trenches in which to lay down party-time grooves and thick tangles of euphoric lines.  Other times, they’re a lesson in playful shadowboxing.  They take turn throwing punches in the air, except those times when they intertwine their lines, creating a force of one moving in multiple directions.

Vocalist Bjønnes sometimes shouts out phrases with a clipped Stop-Making-Sense David Byrne style, and other times delivers an oblique melodic fragility of Efterklang’s Casper Clausen.  And most importantly, his voice often serves as the bridge between divergent instruments, bringing together a soaring trumpet section and the twin-burrowing of bari saxes or the drone of electronics and the bright notes of guitar.

“Who Says Words With My Mouth” has sax and trumpet digging a deep groove, and with shouted vocals, the music has a celebratory Friday Night atmosphere.

The title-track is a gentler piece, with vocals a pleasant hum and guitar picking out an ambient path.  Seim’s trumpet flaps its wings, gaining speed and power, but stays near the ground of Birkeland’s percussion, jangling and thumping like the pulse and heartbeat of the earth.

“Diary” begins with a pulsing rhythm on trumpet, an expressive, though subdued voice.  Saxes build up intensity, and eventually the piece becomes a twister of notes traveling free and fast.  But like much of the music on this album, the motif doesn’t sit in place for very long.  An ambient drone that grows into a free jazz expressiveness transitions seamlessly to a pop music tune of lovely hooks and lovelier harmonies.

“Interlude I” shouts out ponderous notes that lurch forward and then dissipate into a quavering drone.  “Interlude II” is sunrise peaceful, with a distant warmth.  “Interlude III” is a rock n’ roll torrent of ferocity, anchored by sax but driven by percussion.

The contemplative “Pale Sunlight” drifts like motes of dust on rays of daylight breaking through the window.  Vocals have an ethereal quality.  Guitar is the shadowy outline of the melody.  Trumpet delivers notes with an inviting casual ease.  And a song that begins with contemplation builds up to dramatic furor, trumpet and saxes calling out with wild abandon as drums pound out the measure of their progress.

“Drum” goes through several changes, beginning as a wisp of a tune, but then firing off avant-garde scattershot, highlighted by the growl of sax and Schanche’s guitar contributing some nifty twang.  This leads to a more conventional platform from which Seim is able to solo atop a pulsing cadence of clarinet and flurry of drums… a structure which threatens to break apart at the seams, but lands with an impressive grace.

“Breath” is a flurry of kinetic energy echoing off the walls of a tiny room.  Eventually the trails of scattered notes begin to form patterns of their own, and the song develops form and substance and shape, and then Bjønnes voice enters and the other instruments gather about him as he leads them through an angular tune with an indie-pop flair.  This transitions right into “Little Boy Blue,” a take on the old nursery rhyme, which the ensemble gives a dramatic rendition… Seim’s trumpet calling up to the heavens, drums a series of firework explosions, voices rising up in harmony, and guitar a flickering light in the storm that can be seen from miles away.  This intensity doesn’t abate until the song ends to applause, but it does develop a head-bopping cadence to see it through to the last note… a pulsing rhythm balanced by the high pitched drone and hum of electronics and guitar… and providing the performance with a dramatic climax that is equal parts furious and tuneful.

There’s so much to like about this album, but for me personally, I just adore a recording that is able to combine fearless creativity and experimentalism with a pop music sensibility… resulting in an album that is a seemingly simple listen even as it challenges the senses in a game of shifting engagement.  Outstanding.

Released on the Drollehålå Records label, which may be Seim’s own label.

Music from the Stavanger, Norway scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

Really nice to see a new release by the Basquiat Strings, an outfit that synthesizes classical, jazz, and folk down to an enchanting beauty.  On their sophomore recording Part Two, the jazz and folk elements are toned down from their debut self-titled recording, in which they did renditions of Wayne Shorter’s “Infant Eyes,” the Zawinul/Davis “In a Silent Way,” and an outstanding version of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman.”  However, the combination of classical string quartet and jazz rhythm section return for the new album, and the heart of the music hasn’t changed, even if it pumps blood to a slightly different beat.

Your album personnel:  Ben Davis (cello), Seb Rochford (drums), Richard Pryce (double bass), Emma Smith (violin), Vicky Fifield (violin), Jennymay Logan (viola), and guests:  Amanda Drummond (violin) and Dave Smith (drums).

This is music that more often cuts like an icy blade, but there are plenty of moments when strings blanket the room with a sunlight warmth.  The album opens with the former.  “Calum Campbell” maintains a decent pace, led by Rochford and Pryce on drums and bass.  When strings enter, they do so in attack mode, sounding assertive, sometimes even caustic, and very cold.

This is followed by “Bobett II,” a tune which doesn’t raise the temperature much, but the icy sharpness is transformed into a comforting blanket of snow.  A lilting pattern of twisting notes on strings rises and descends with graceful precision.

The ensemble shifts away from the consistent tempos of the previous two tracks on “History of Her.”  A chatty cadence on strings and percussion slowly builds up to a tumultuous boil.  It’s the kind of thing the ensemble has shown a knack for over the course of two recordings… seamless shifts in tempo and tone, voice and volume, that sound natural, almost logical, even when they reach a point of hysteria grown up from the quiet beginnings of serenity.  “Scam” is more evidence of this trait.

“Slopes” is pure blissful harmony.

“Great Gables” initiates a thick groove on the back of Pryce’s bass.  When strings enter, they emulate the existing cadence.  Extrapolations and solos stay near, as surfing the crest of the groove’s wave.

“Bebella” is a Mobius Strip made into song.  Different views and angles are presented, and yet all the while, it never leaves the path, never traverses an edge or breaks from pattern.  There is a fluidity to the song that brings it back from whence it began, even though the path it takes may not make that clear.  It is full of intrigue and expectation.

“Hop Scotch” has an interesting swing and sway that occasionally breaks free from the tumultuous onslaught.  The song takes a few turns, a change of pace, and a whimsical reference to Gershwin’s “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”

The album ends with Ben Davis performing a solo rendition of another Gershwin tune, “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” from Porgy and Bess.  It’s a bundle of folksy charm and pragmatic blues.  And as an album finale, in stripped down form, the final revealing moment serves as a satisfying conclusion.

There is an odd beauty at play here, and through two recordings, Basquiat Strings gives no reason not to want more of it in the future.  As with all the albums featured in the Something Different review series, Basquiat Strings provides a creative view that’s pretty much in a category all by itself.

Released on the F-IRE Collective label.

Music from the UK.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

There is something undeniably courageous about an artist following a creative vision that isn’t likely, for all intents and purposes, to achieve any kind of mass commercial appeal.  The act of an artist simply throwing themselves into a project and all other considerations be damned is something not to be esteemed lightly.  And, often, it leads to some terribly engaging art.

That’s what’s happening here with Colin Stetson and his new release To See More Light.  The third and final volume in his New History Warfare trilogy expands Stetson’s solo saxophone explorations to dramatic effect.  With just his saxes, a strategic use of microphones, and no over-dubbing or loops, Stetson’s polyphonic attack conjures up the illusion that it’s not just him and his instruments alone in a room playing his heart out.

And that’s what he does.  It’s easy to imagine a Colin Stetson-shaped hole in a wall by the way he throws himself headlong into this music.  Stetson’s performance is unapologetic for its ferociousness.  To See More Light is a sonic bestiary of monstrous tunes.  But everything has a vulnerable side, and each icy blast of saxophone intensity carries with it a delicate fear of shattering into a thousand tiny shards.  It’s a display of the music’s soul.

Enhancing the delicate nature of this ferocious music is the contribution of Bon Iver vocalist Justin Vernon, who provides a stunning accompaniment on the opening track “And In Truth” and, later, on the jaded “What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?”  Vernon also adds harmonization on a few other tracks, and the way his sunny vocalizations mesh with the winter frost of Stetson’s saxophones lines is the kind of contrasting elements that loft an album’s brilliance up a plateau.

Balancing the velvet fuzz of vocals is the rhythmic endgame that results from Stetson’s attack strategy on sax.  The combination of breathing technique and microphone placement creates a pulsing tempo that perfectly counterbalances those soaring moments when Stetson just erupts with one long slow note after the other.

Stetson’s New History Warfare trilogy is a remarkable accomplishment, and the finale To See More Light caps it off with all the wild abandon and unabashed creativity with which it began.

Your album personnel:  Colin Stetson (alto, tenor, & bass saxophones), and guest:  Justin Vernon (vocals).

Released on the Constellation Records label.

Cool cover art & design by Tracy Maurice.

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

*****

Also, you can check out my review of the second volume of Stetson’s New History Warfare trilogy, titled Judges, HERE, on this site.  I still find the album no less startling or enjoyable than when I first discovered it.  As always, with the review comes embedded audio, links to artist and retail sites, and whatever else seemed important at the time.

The Something Different review series highlights albums that are unlike anything else, and which embrace the best qualities of creative vision.

*****

When done right, it’s a fascinating experience to witness the fusion of disparate influences into one amalgamated whole.  It’s a game of tug-of-war.  With music, the ear is drawn to specific elements.  Those elements, voluntarily or not, become the focus of the ear.  If the musicians are only partially successful in merging them, specific elements become a refuge for the listener.  They serve as foci to block out the aspects of the whole that don’t work as well… a sign that the music construct didn’t quite come together as intended.  But when the musicians are successful, when that finished product appears as a singular object and not a construction of separate pieces, it becomes impossible to focus on any single aspect of the music for very long.  The ear can’t give all its attention to one part, because the music’s beauty is so much more than one individual part and is perpetually drawn to both individual parts and back to the singular whole.  Nothing can be enjoyed in isolation… it must always be listened to in the context of the universe that is a particular album.  Otherwise, it just sounds incomplete.

This is not a new thought.  But in the current modern jazz environment, where genres lines are constantly getting blurred, when the absorption of varied influences into Jazz compositions is a common approach, there is an increased danger of the examples of Nearly Successful diminishing the memory of how it feels to hear an album where individual influences are obliterated and all that’s left is a Sound that’s describable only by inadequately referencing solitary traits.

That’s what has shaken out with Sewn, the new release by Stirrup.

Your album personnel:  Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello, tenor guitar), Charles Rumback (drums), and Nick Macri (bass).

The trio of Fred Lonberg-Holm, Charles Rumback, and Nick Macri find the sweet spot between melodic and tumultuous.  This is driving music.  “The Profit of Field Stripping” has a tempo that won’t quit, that forges ahead without the respite of deceleration, and yet Lonberg-Holm’s cello lines sail peaceably atop the song’s crest.

Maybe this is Jazz, maybe it’s post-rock, maybe it’s a psych-rock fusion, maybe it’s true avant-garde, maybe it has a dash of folk, and maybe if stripped away of everything, a simple blues would be revealed.  It is all of these things and, thus, ultimately, it is none of these things.  This isn’t an innocuous blend of influences; it’s a distillation of ingredients into something with its own flavor and its own sound.

“Super Seeded” has Lonberg-Holm picking up a tenor guitar and leading the trio on a casual stroll.  And even when he initiates a contortionist act on tenor guitar, Rumback and Macri keep things rooted in the easy gait of an afternoon walk through the park.

“Insen for Yonsei” has Rumback and Macri whipping about each other meditatively like drifts of autumn leaves across an empty parking lot.  Lonberg-Holm, who has a deft touch on electronics to enhance his cello, swoops in and rides the cross-currents.

Lonberg-Holm’s cello howls up to the heavens loudest of the three on “Convulsive,” but it’s the pensive distress of Macri’s bass, barely a murmur, that is the defining sorrow of the tune.

The album opens with “In Zenith 1” and closes with “In Zenith 2.”  Both tracks have Rumback pecking away at the rhythm on drums and Marci giving his bass a whimsical bounce, and while they each feature blistering sections by Lonberg-Holm, on the former of the two tracks, his cello offers up an invitation, and on the latter, he slams the door firmly shut.

One of those remarkable albums that everyone should give a shot, even though it’s likely not to connect with most.  Music, that if it connects with a listener, it will hit hard and fast and forever.

Released on the 482 Music label.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3