The trio make the sort of exuberant, energetic music that ought to be played anywhere the weather is sunny and hot and people want to dance.
Stunt Records: STUCD23142 Released 21st June 2024
Oliver Lauridsen: tenor saxophone; Thorbjørn Øllgaard: baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, vocal; Albert Holberg: drums: Lina Ersahin: vocal
Recorded 2023 by Danni Pougstrop at Sølyst, Christiana, Denmark and by Elias Anguyo Arentoft Jenesen at Bark Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The press release recommends the opening and closing tracks. The closing track, ‘Negiri’, takes a rave rhythm pattern and blends this with vocals that have a middle Eastern pattern (together with stringed saz playing from Ersahin). The opening track begins with a simple riff played in unison in low and higher saxophone registers before this slips neatly into a euphoric dance tune. Between these two tracks, the trio present their own take on putting contemporary musical shapes on jazz (or using jazz to explore the shapes of contemporary music).
Track 2, ‘Hvide Maend Spiller Afrobeat’, with its pulsing bass line and aggressive tenor playing, is reminiscent of the punk-jazz of, say UK bands like Melt Yourself Down, or, for readers of my vintage, Pigbag. It is the ‘afrobeat’ in the title that hints at the pulsing rhythm and this is remodelled in track 4, ‘Middlelassen avler kun skeletter digt’ where the bass is much slower but carries the same dynamics as track 2. Separating these tracks is the spoken poem that provides the impetus for track 4. From these tracks, the music shifts to a sort of early 2000’s techno beat with the tenor and bass saxophone sharing the opening rhythmic riff and then shifting into a repeating motif before this segues into slower hazy, ambience and then, following some shouting, shifts back into the rave beats. When we get to track 6, ‘PVC’ (following a spoken word piece called ‘start a punk band’), the ingredients of the previous tracks are shaken together and further spiced with broken beats that sound very contemporary and track 10, ‘Total power full extreme nuclear confusion’ shares this feeling.
The trio make the sort of exuberant, energetic music that ought to be played anywhere the weather is sunny and hot and people want to dance.
