Friday, June 28, 2019

PORTUGAL: Angles 9-BEYOND US(CLEAN FEED 2019)




 Johan Berthling double bass | Magnus Broo trumpet | Eirik Hegdal baritone saxophone | Goran Kajfes cornet | Martin Küchen alto – and tenor saxophones | Mattias Ståhl vibraphone | Andreas Werliin drums | Alexander Zethson piano | Mats Äleklint trombone

Wonderful news, folks: Angles 9 are back. The modus operandi is the same as ever, enabling infinite possibilities: suggestive melodies and a vibrant rhythmic pulsion. You’re familiar with it by now, but it sounds completely new and even surprising. Emotional music it is, some times joyful and exhilarating, and in other moments full of sadness and pain. As always, the compositions are simple and the improvised solos and collective passages can be complex as a mathematical equation. This is no longer the original Angles 6 plus the piano of Alexander Zethson, the cornet of Goran Kajfes and the baritone saxophone of Eirik Hegdal: the mentor of the ensemble, Martin Kuchen, gave it an identity of its own. You can root it under the influence of historical big bands like Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath (the mix between the composed and the improvised, and also the African references), Carla Bley’s Jazz Composers Orchestra (the vivacity and the ability to make sudden changes) or Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra (the political element), but with fundamental updates and additions, going from the use of the typical energy of rock to Swedish folk motives and the kind of party sense you only find in the Balkan region of Europe. This isn’t only jazz committed to make you stand and move, reminding you that, in the past, jazz was a dancing music. So lets go contemplating this world´s many dilemmas while dancing our truly own way in a listening state of stumbling bliss. CLEAN FEED