The two records have their own personalities, but there’s a strong connection between them. There’s plenty here to come back to.
Endectomorph Music
Kevin Sun I: Kevin Sun – tenor saxophone; Max Light – guitar; Walter Stinson – bass; Jon Starks – drums
Kevin Sun II: Kevin Sun – tenor sax; Walter Stinson – bass; Christian Li – piano; Kayvon Gordon – drums
Kevin Sun’s two new albums share the same musical DNA, but they have different personalities. Both are built around his searching tenor saxophone, and both can easily move from lyrical to abrasive. Kevin Sun, I is the more restless of the two, with guitar, electronics and rhythms that keep circling back on themselves. Kevin Sun, II has piano instead of guitar, and the music often feels quieter and more spacious, even when the quartet starts pushing hard.
Thumping drums, repeated fast saxophone phrases and bowed bass send “Go In” into motion. Max Light’s guitar comps behind Sun, then jumps in beside him in a fiery duo—the guitar throwing out quick, free-sounding single notes. For a while it’s just guitar and clattering drums. Then a walking bass line takes off and Sun is back, blowing out short phrases, stringing them together in a long jagged line. There’s a circular rhythm—the band is tight, but it feels like the music is constantly revolving around itself.
After that rush, “Souls of Fire” slows down. Guitar notes repeat, electronics drift and Sun’s saxophone hangs in the air, strung up by echo and reverb. His phrases keep returning to the same starting point before taking off again. The repetition is hypnotic, almost soothing. “Riot in Lagos” heads in the opposite direction, with swirling electronics, fast drums and Sun repeating short, skronky phrases. Light adds slowly ringing, dissonant guitar notes, and the whole thing builds into a maelstrom before ending abruptly.
“Between Night and Day” begins with low electronic waves, like a mechanical heart throbbing somewhere inside the music. Sun scatters notes, then pushes harder, grabbing higher notes and holding on to them longer. Light distorts a few guitar notes as the electronic pulse shifts and picks up some syncopation. The music grows louder until the electronic waves close out the piece.
On II, the rhythm section doesn’t push Sun forward so much as move underneath him. In “Unformed, Shrouded by Fog,” Sun’s talkative tenor moves mostly through the middle register over a throbbing bass line and Christian Li’s swirling piano. Li’s notes gradually slow and separate, almost as if he is taking the swirls apart to see what made them. There are hints of Pharoah Sanders in Sun’s playing. The piano, bass and drums provide strong rhythmic support, with cymbal washes adding a soft shimmer. Sun relaxes into the final passage, and the piece ends peacefully.
The spaciousness doesn’t mean the music stays quiet. “Souls of Mist” starts with searching saxophone lines and tinkling piano notes that pick up speed and force. Sun’s lines are faster but still melodic as Kayvon Gordon pushes his drums hard behind him.
“Laura Palmer’s Theme” takes a darker turn. Sun’s repeated short phrases sound eerie and almost squeak over Stinson’s rumbling bass. Li’s piano keeps changing shape—single notes seem to fall off the keys, then bunch together until they blur into each other. Stinson draws a woody, singing sound from the bass, and when Sun comes back, he drops all the way down into the bottom of his horn, groaning and moaning as if in pain. Then he plays the “Twin Peaks” melody, and that same tenor suddenly sounds warm and maybe even a little cheerful.
“Belong, Sonny” has a herky-jerky bounce, and Sun seems to enjoy playing against it. His tenor is bright and full, and when he takes a solo, the notes come out big and round, then spill into quick, fluid lines. He really swings here. Li runs up and down the keyboard, hanging behind the beat for a while and then suddenly pushing the pace. Even when the notes start flying, he never sounds hurried. Sun comes back in, sounding just as relaxed, and lets the piece wind down.
The two records have their own personalities, but there’s a strong connection between them. There’s plenty here to come back to.
