As evening blurs into night, technicoloured lettering slithers around the concrete bulk of LOCH in Wuppertal. A sandwich board crouches in the shadow of the club’s graffitied façade. “Seid bitte leise.” Please be quiet. It’s a call for discretion from the venue’s visitors on 26 October. Inside, band Kaisa’s Machine is delivering 90 minutes of suitably subtle sound.
Finnish bassist Kaisa Mäensivu is the Machine’s operator. Her band has existed for nearly 10 years, with members changing for each studio session or show. For this night shift in north-west Germany, she’s joined by fellow Finn Max Zenger on alto saxophone and Danish pianist Rasmus Sorensen, with Spanish drummer Andreu Pitarch. The production plan features nine pulsating-but-patient compositions from her 2023 album, Taking Shape (Greenleaf Music).
It truly is possible to watch the music taking shape, even in the pastel-soft light that seeps into black curtains behind the compact stage. Mäensivu’s improvisations, for example, take shapes and move them around. Her solo on Dream Machine typifies her tendency to create solid rhythmic patterns and set them loose to wander around the fingerboard.
Strong tendencies are displayed in the compositions too. Eat Dessert First is one of several songs that uses a hard-driving groove to squeeze together clearly divided sections and chunks. When sax and piano trade solos, Zenger gives his horn permission to growl. Sorensen is a famine-or-feast improviser who switches from open space to rapid runs and back again.
The pianist drifts into the centre of the group’s sound on Shadow Mind. It’s a soft-edged and out-of-focus ballad for trio, where the saxophone takes a break. It’s also the highlight of a captivating performance. The audience enters a trance-like state in the trembling candlelight. Mäensivu shares another unforced and tender-hearted solo.
Outside, visitors float past LOCH’s supplicating sandwich board and melt into the darkness without disturbing the neighbours. Kaisa Mäensivu’s music enfolds the listener like the serpentine script that has wrapped itself around the venue. She operates her ever-mutating Machine with skill, control and a duty of care. Together, they put in a great shift.
