Containing 6 tracks percussion journey into Dahlen’s imagination brings manifold cinematic memories to my mind. Music is very imaginative and spacious. Soundstage is simply epic. This are all big scores like sonic landscapes reminding works of the biggest names working for the movie industry. Like Hans Zimmer or Ryuichi Sakamoto. Or Antonio Sanchez to bring it more to the jazz drumming territory.

But the drumming is very propulsive as well, so it refers to the history of the rock music without a shade of doubts. Music of The Police, Tangerine Dreams, Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd or Grateful Dead alike comes to my head as a first impression.

Another subject worth mentioning is an extended range of instruments which had been used for making this sounds. Not just a drums and bells and all sort of percussion instruments, but also cutlery, strings and all sort of electronics to mix and loop it with at the end. Even Drone boxes, to jump out of usual approach completely. All that shows an incredible creativity and imagination and the frameworks he created and taking us indeed into multiply mental departures. Sort of things which I first time experienced from another percussionist wizard – Terje Isungset.

An opening Clocks, with gentle techno bit and ticking sounds of clocks and gongs reminds a bit a psychotic trip of Dark Side of the Moon that Floyds took us once to. But the tension brings even more dark feelings and multicultural images which are travelling through your head are revering to early period of Gong music, a bit like on Camembert Electrique with drumming pattern reminding a bit Dire Straits. I can see the crops from movies like Solaris, 5th Element or Delicatessen, humour wise. So, you got a picture now, I believe.

The Glas, coming after is Insugset’s universe. Short , but very rich ,spacious and dynamically extended, with this feeling of coldness coming from the upper transients of the percussion sounds.

Ship, Is almost like a tribute to the Gong’s Gazeuse with very rich tissue reminding me the best from Pierre Moerlen. But with this electronic plankton characteristic for the overall sound of CAN from the period of 70-ties and 80-ies, listen to the Tago Mago album, or to the Rite Time and you would feel it immediately. One can tell the music he grown on listening to.

Following two with the titles illustrating animals, the Bear and the Lizard I like to see as a portrait of the creatures themselves. In the first one monumental stepping power of the rhythm describes the rough power of the animal, with its ruthless sense of self confidence. Dynamic range makes this walk incredibly three-dimensional and almost touchable like a hologram.

On the other pole, we are getting repetitive pattern camouflaging the real nature of the sonic wave which gets twisted and modulated under the surface. Kind of weirdness which makes an easy natural association with a reptilian sort of nature. Some might however see completely different pictures there. Easy to understand if listened with no suggestion coming from the title.

That’s exactly the power of that music. One keeps reading in it like in an open book and never gets enough. Therefore, I am leaving closing Wood composition for your very own recognition.

These nine tracks are a joy to my heart and I can tell you right from the beginning that it is to me one of the best recordings I’ve heard this year.  As a debut, it is simply mind-blowing and equally addicting like last year’s Florian Favre one or Fabienne Ambühl’s two years ago. Why those two, you might ask, amount the hundred others. Simply due to its spiritual quality.

Kasia is one of those musicians who are down to the Earth honest. They bring you their heart in their hand. All nine compositions are coming from the band. Six of them sound to me like proper scores developed in a process. During playing and listening to each other for long. Three others, called Episodes are representing kind of suite to me, where every musician in the trio gets his own space to express himself and make a kind of signature. An order on the recording makes perfect sense when interludes are establishing a pace of the recording when placed between the tracks being played by the whole trio.

Episode 1 belongs to the drummer Piotr Budniak. It is a wonderful percussive framework, build with very subtle tissue. Changing tempos and the minimalistic approach on drums and rides are contrasting each other and bringing such an organic feeling to the table.

The piece called Passaic Avenue makes a perfect example to describe Kasia’s approach. It sounds a bit like Esbjörn Svennson, who’s emotional touch is audible in her play and a little bit Komeda like, with its folk sounding repetitive lines, bringing that unmistakable touch of Polish Romanticism. Kasia walks and watches. Music delivers in her head due to the feelings. She is like a painter. She is communicating with pictures. Every tune speaks its own story. Story she felt before she forged that into the sounds.

Take the Green Eyes which are Grey, another so much personal and intimate deeply emotional piece of music which makes listener almost feeling like a trespasser. But this is nothing else like this absolute emotional transparency she shares with an audience which is her best weapon of choice and makes her voice standing out of the crowd.

Episode 2, lovely balanced bass walk, just like the drummer’s one, scopes massively from the contrast of tension and straight forwardness of the woody tone of the instrument. It is almost dreamy in its feeling. It comes to the end just when one starts to fall in love with. It is like unveiled promise. So, light and ephemeral. Not the feeling that one usual gets from the double bass. And it had not been played in a cello register either.

Intimacy starting with wonderful drummer’s intro is my absolute favourite of that forthright stories. It comes like a storm. First with a gentle tension of the percussive rhythms and accents, then joined with the full piano blow and, staying in the conversation with, bass. It is not about the volume here as title would clearly suggest, but about the intensity of the communication inside the piece. Culmination comes as a natural climax build on the spark of emotions which all the band is melting in that pot with equal intensity.

Kasia’s own Episode 3 is based on the silence between the notes. Tension and reverb are what makes that music, which is the darkest sounding one on the record. Intensity and the emotional feeling present there are reminding me my always beloved Mal Waldron. Such a joy to hear his spirit in her gentle feminine touch.

Long story short I admire her mature approach and the way she listens to her instincts and the inner voice. It is especially surprising given her young age. But as I said above, her lack of mannerism and complete openness to what comes are her greatest strengths. I am keeping that record close to the heart where it belongs and waiting impatiently for more to come from this incredibly sensitive young artist. I feel delighted and privileged for being trusted to come across those recording and being able to Harold it to you Ladies and Gentleman.

KASIA PIETRZKO on SOUNDCLOUD

I got that feeling that the third Masaa LP brings establishment to already well-spoken band. Western -Arabic bond which characterise their development was fresh and breath taking to me from the first contact with the band’s music, the Freedom Dance. The previous Afkar was my favourite since and it remains favourite even today. Let me explain why.

The music here coagulated. Became more firm and mature, maybe by the feeling of the fluidity which came as well from being together so long, continue touring and simply recognise each other spiritual feeling on the go. That’s all good but I was happy with what I already heard previously as well. It was just a little bit different, more intuitional if you wish.

Now the band explores the same territories as it did before. The romantic piano remains accompanied with Kappenstein’s sensual drumming, which I like so very much. It is the driving force behind the Lahoud’s voice as I pointed before and that intimate bond is still there and works wonders for the band. Trumpet arrangements keep bringing windy and spacious openness.

Take lovely Miah composition as an example. It is all there. It remains pretty and I am hundred percent confident that every new-comer who heard that music for the first time will be delighted. I am delighted myself as it difficult to remain blank to Rabih’s voice, always emotionally fragile. Delicately balanced, but in the same time so powerful with the message it brings. But it is also the same on the challenging level for those who already know him, like myself.

What I am missing here in that mix of otherwise wonderfully played and beautiful music is kind of interaction with the life as it goes now. When I heard them first time in Berlin it was all fresh and striking. It was sign of time and an imprint of what’s happening in the European culture right now. That’s exactly why it was so powerful. The honesty of that message was what was getting me. Now times have changed during the last few years since their debut and the dynamism of these changes is noticeable but their voice somehow got stacked in time.

That means they lost this power of the messenger who is bringing the news. This flash and blood freshness which makes this music so authentic when it is there. Now I can’t sense it anymore. It became more like a pattern. Beautiful and pleasant but it is not the same. One might say that maybe I am just missing that lost virginity, sort of innocence which one can lose just once in life. Maybe so. But maybe not. I am not an adrenaline junky and I am enjoying adultery after even more. Perhaps that’s why I am now event more convinced and dare to say so when something doesn’t turn me on anymore.

TRAUMTON PR:

Outspoken on SOUNDCLOUD:

The young piano trio from Norway is the 3rd one on the Label’s catalogue after In the Country and The Espen Eriksen Trio, but philosophically they are also following the footsteps of another two compatriots: Helge Lien and Tord Gustavsen. Especially the last one appeals with its incredibly romantic and melancholic approach. Performing in the past with Arve Henriksen alike would fit into the sonic universe he represents but names like Nils Olav Johansen(guitarist) or Ola Kvernberg(violinist) shows huge versatility as those two are flirting heavily with various popular genres.

The track called You Stood There In Silence, Having No Words makes to me the best example of what describes the trio’s music. Here is a band co-operation at the best. Wonderful melodic approach with sophisticated drum framework, full of changing tempos and various dynamic tensions. Challenging rhythm patterns with full pallet of dynamic flavors. Piano sporting full dynamic range in this joyful conversation. Mostly hymnal, almost touching the lament side, fantastically sparkling and never losing its gentle melodic core. Absolutely fascinating. Bass on the other hand is a show of the maturity, with every sound being played wonderfully woody and with a perfect tension.

Coming after C&R brings the same maturity with careful listening to each other and responding to what comes rapid fire fast. Music might not be up tempo, pretty much is melancholic and laid back but the way they are building up culmination and then realize it with such a natural ease is mesmerizing. Here one can here that there is a lot of space left for the improvisation. I don’t believe that all the lines are written into the score really. I can sense this joy of tracing each other and bringing the spark to the surface. Drummer’s snare cannonades in that piece with phenomenally controlled dynamics between conversations with the piano are nothing but master class show off.

Another one which I truly enjoyed is improvised Time /Breath, with very contemporary spacious character, dark piano clusters and minimalistic percussion approach with creative play on the rims of the toms and cymbals and fantastically controlled and the dynamic tension dosed.

Leaving Home is kind of Jarrett  alike burlesque, again wonderfully dynamically executed with nice drive and perfect inner communication.

I like the way that tracks are mixed on that recording. You can listen to them randomly and they are nothing but the pleasure, but simply put this cd into the tray and just sit and listen without messing with an order and you will notice truly mature concept behind that. It brings the flow this way and the dynamic control of the recording becomes easier to understand. Plus, it shows another skill of the young pianist as a composer and an arranger as well and ability to control the tension by making the right choices.

That’s why closing Three Last Words, are making such a lovely outro here. Fading piano with gentle plunking, assisted by swirly bass lines and long-lasting sounds from triangles disappearing into silence in such a natural way leave the listener completely immersed to the tissue of the recording.

This trio is really speaking with its own voice and they left me with huge hunger for more, so I will stay alerted and will be looking forward to the next chapter to come – Not Nearly Enough To Being Done With Them.

Second album from the Echos of Swing – German Quartet led by British trumpeter Colin T. Dawson, playing traditional jazz music seems to be the perfect choice for the summer time review. Issued under the Good Time Jazz series, just like their Blue Pepper debut, it continues bringing nice and chilly moments to the listeners. It was laying around for quite a long time, so I did spin it to give it a go.

The music the quartet plays reminds us that Jazz, when it came first time was actually a dance music! All wrote for fun, entertainment and for people’s joy in general. From crazy barns where first the black plantation labourers kept coming after work to relax till the ballroom days when shiny brass band was playing music for couples enjoying dancing.

So we have here the Ragtime Dance f.ex., well known Joplin’s standard, played in full respect to the Rag tradition, but with a little Dixie drums treatment as well as nice stylish coloraturas added by trumpeter. The main band’s stylist who devoted long time in his life for researching this music tradition.

But we also have Miller’s the Moonlight Serenade. Stylish and gentle without big-band behind. Here Dawson also sings. So he does in Porter’s Dream Dancing. Funny enough his articulation reminds a bit the way that Chet used to sing, with a little melody lines twisted with almost whispered lyrics. Other way there is nothing else what would refer to the West Coast. Johnson’s All you Wanna Do is Dance, on which he also sings,  confirms his lack of mannerism completely. Here they play straight joyful Charleston and he sings in purely woodvill style as it belongs to the Art Deco era.

But band’s tribute goes further that careful and stylish interpretation of the Swing era music.

Here we have then an opening Hipsters Hop, composed by saxophonist Chris Hopkins, cleverly written piece in which he merges what Cool Jazz brought to the table into Swing-alike tissue. Still perfect tune to dance to. Another one called the Ballet of the Dunes is equally elegant Caravan-esque like sounding tune bringing memories of Tizol’s original. Wonderful laziness is pictured here with trumpeter’s lines played with plumber in. Slow Mambo makes you want to hold your girlfriend tight and close. What’s not to like ?

Additionally we have here some Latin influence represented by Diplomata by Pixinguinha. With a bit of up tempo treatment it became a fast Rumba, with brass lines refereeing to the original but piano and drums drifting towards pure Cuban Sol. So is Dawson’s wonderful solo in the middle of the piece.

No one would expect to hear the J.S.Bach’s Gavotte I from an English Suites book 6^th in that mix , but they did it too. You don’t have to believe me, just listen. As for Gavotte, even if it belongs to 18^th century, it still is a dance. And those gents gave it a treatment that would get your lazy four letters back on the parquet. They really did.  Check it if you are after romance with the charming melody lines in the background.