They’ve done it! Again, perhaps, but Mikrojazz!, with the subtitle Neue expressionistische Musik (New Expressionist Music), is the latest, and arguably one of the first, completely microtonal jazz records to come out. With the combined talents of Philipp Gerschlauer on saxophone, David Fiuczynski on fretless guitar, Jack DeJohnette on drums, Matt Garrison on fretless bass, and Giorgi Mikadze on keyboards, Mikrojazz! has all the fuel it needs to develop xenharmonic compositions for jazz. Does it deliver? Yes, it does, but not without a few criticisms of mine. The players take up the challenge of writing and playing jazz in … Read more
Ariadne – Stabat Mater
On 27 October, New York’s experimental electronic multimedia duo Ariadne will release their long-awaited fourth album, titled Stabat Mater. While I wasn’t initially fond of their previous release, Tsalal, it grew on me tremendously, leading me to believe I might simply have not been ready yet for this sort of experience. On Stabat Mater, however, Christine and Benjamin take things to a whole new level. Here, songs are shorter, but there are a lot more of them: twenty, in total – but it could be argued that there is only one, a fifty-minute giant split into various … Read more
Charnia – Het laatste licht
Belgian post-metal band Charnia released their most recent work on 20 October: the forty-minute unbroken track “Het laatste licht”. Grossly, the album-length song is split in two vague sections. For the first half or so, it’s a chamber music session comprised of a violin and double bass duo where lazy and languid voices interweave to form a droning piece, between melancholy and despair. The second half starts past the twenty minutes mark with a drumbeat that is soon joined by the rest of the band. For the remaining time, strings and electrics join forces in a slow, heavy, and pounding … Read more
Special Providence – Will
The Hungarian jazz fusion metal quartet Special Providence has got me hooked since their album Essence of Change. Their newest work, Will, is an all-around improvement over the former, though, and to tell you this was unexpected without sounding like I’m discrediting the band is difficult, but it’s just to show how impressive I thought Essence of Change was. Yet, Will is even more so. The four talented Magyars put their chops on display in all of the ten songs on the album, by offering tremendous solos, odd-timed riffs with many a rhythmic complexity, and all that with … Read more
Tweet Tweet – Bearer
Tweet Tweet is a soft experimental project from Steve Pardo; it hovers between indie music, folk, and experimental pop. Bearer was released on 20 October and accounts for almost thirty minutes of gentle compositions with soaring flutes, saxophone, and vocals from Lindley Cameron. Some parts sound like some beloved passage on a Sufjan Stevens recording – one known to favour flutes in his compositions –, some are more electronic, with low fidelity guitar recordings supporting the uncertain woodwind notes, some still are almost like a singer-songwriter piece, but all undeniably appeal to the listener’s soft side with whispered notes to … Read more