ECHT!: Boilerism (SDBAN Ultra SDBANULP42)
In recent times I’ve written extensively on the new Scandinavian ambient-jazz, a free-floating music which for the most part incorporates electronics and signal processing into an established vocabulary. Brussels-based electro-jazzers ECHT! take a rather different approach, fusing instrumental jazz with dominant hip-hop beats. Both of their previous albums have seen Florent Jeunieaux (elg) Federico Pecoraro (elb) Dorian Dumont (kyb) and Martin Méreau (d) using conventional instruments, and you could easily imagine the music performed live, but with Boilerism they now take something of a radical departure.
An uncompromising journey into urban clubland culture, pieces such as Boilerbeek, Wacky Wave and Highed show a passing resemblance to earlier work, but from Mtwk Parts 3 & 4 onwards the album’s middle section is an abrasive and intoxicating kaleidoscope of UK garage, house and drum & bass. The dubby Black Sablon is marginally less claustrophobic, but it’s not until the Arctic ambiences of Penguin Alfred that the group surface for air. Granted it’s a long way from jazz as most people will know it, but even at its darkest and most intense Boilerism has an energy and a freedom that broad-minded listeners will surely recognise and applaud.
light.box + Tom Challenger: Eyre (Bead Records BEAD51)
Taking a different different approach again with electronics are the UK-based electro-acoustic improv duo of Alex Bonney (trumpet, electronics) and Montreal-born Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (bass guitar, electronics). This is their fourth album as light.box and the first to feature a guest artist, an honour bestowed on saxophonist Tom Challenger. His clean granite-hewn lines sit remarkably comfortably within the duo’s endlessly inventive soundscapes, and the incisive cut-and-thrust of the collective improvisations is as striking as the breadth of the music’s textural and timbal extremes.
Yet despite the music being heavily improvised the three clearly share an appreciation of form and structure, often seeming to operate within loosely agreed frameworks. Lateral Sway finds Challenger plotting a path through deep bass drones and electro-static, settling into an unlikely post-bop groove about five minutes in. The three parts (plus interlude) of Chain Chimes are delicate and more micro-tonal, Challenger and the un-processed Bonney finding a close rapport in the free-jazz passages of Part I. Part II is darker and drone-based, while Part III unexpectedly morphs into mutant techno. Closing in a reflective and lyrical vein, Covalent is a suitably thoughtful ending to this refreshingly original work.
Jo David Meyer Lysne: For renstemt klaver (Hubro CD2665)
Save for some strategically placed electro-magnets triggered by bespoke software, this latest set from composer, musician and instrument builder Jo David Meyer Lysne’s is entirely acoustic. The title translates as “For justly-tuned piano”, and the music is the result of a collaboration with the Norwegian art and technology centre Notam. Setting out to create a computer-enabled music that is humanly impossible to play, the team built what might be described as a pianola for the 21st century.
Lysne’s spirit of invention, not to mention the music’s minimalist aesthetic, remind me of such pioneers such as Arnold Dreyblatt, Paul Panhuysen and Annea Lockwood. Recorded at Gullbring Kulturanlegg on an adapted piano tuned by Jacob Solheimhe, the computer-controlled magnets work in much the same way as an EBow, generating complex sequences of tones of varying attack and duration. Lush sounds swell and resonate in unexpected ways on the chordal-based Parts I-III, Part IV cleverly juxtaposes bass and treble frequencies to create illusions of an orchestra, while the closing Part VII is a deep, bottomless drone worthy of Pauline Oliveros. An album of rare beauty and ingenuity, and I found it hard not to leave it playing on repeat.
Nicolas Masson: Renaissance (ECM CD 6024 7540837 6)
Andy Hamilton’s review of Benjamin Lackner’s recent ECM release highlighted some persistent criticisms of the label’s output. Finding it beautifully played but let-down by sub-par material, he observed a mannered coolness that seemed almost to invite lazy criticism. Happily this first outing since 2018’s Travelers from Swiss saxophonist Nicolas Masson’s quartet with Colin Vallon (piano), Patrice Moret (bass) and Lionel Friedli (drums) should satisfy even the most demanding of ears, both the quality of the writing and the group’s instinctive improvisations recalling the very best of the label’s output.
Opening confidently with Tremolo, it has Masson’s shimmering rubato lines mirrored by Vallon. The title track reminds me of how the quartet likes to sub-divide into improvising duos, though no amount of tumult can divert the majestic Masson from his path. Anemona is a pure celebration of melody, while the post-Radiohead manoeuvres of Subversive Dreamers and the ambient drones of Tumbleweed are as unexpected as Vallon’s ghostly intro to Spirits. Masson switches from tenor to soprano on Basel and Forever Gone, displaying the same patience and economy of line, but the quartet perhaps leave the best until last. Punctuated by a series of disarming fermata pauses, the hushed balladry of Langsam is a gloriously audacious finale.
Ingi Bjarni Skúlason: Hope (Losen Records LOS 299-2)
Not from ECM but very much in Eicher’s house style, this outstanding set by Icelandic pianist Ingi Bjarni Skúlason also succeeds in avoiding pejorative stereotypes. It features Hilmar Jensson (guitar), Anders Jormin (bass) and Magnús Trygvason Eliassen (drums) and the speed of the quartet’s interactions are matched by the raw beauty of Skúlason’s compositions. Seven of the nine pieces were written in 2021, the year that Skúlason’s late mother passed away, and there’s an inescapable sense that this project has been an important part of his healing.
Jormin’s wintry arco bass eases us into the pensive title track, Jensson’s guitar then sketching its attractive, spacious theme. With faint traces of Americana Uplift introduces a note of optimism, while Skúlason’s solemn intro to Chant prefaces a real ear-worm melody. Yet it’s the quartet’s willingness to take risks that really elevates this set above the norm. Hægur Dans breaks down into a tense passage of free improvisation, Jensson’s distortion-soaked solo on April Dreams recalls ECM-era Frisell, while the free exchanges of Continuation reminded me of Paul Bley’s great ECM quartet with Frisell, John Surman and Paul Motian. Superb.
