Box is an ambitious improv project consisting
of four highly skilled artists who have brought together their
immense free-jazz and leftfield-rock talents to create a new vision
in the realm of experimental jazz. Something of an international
supergroup, the founding of this excellent ensemble is a touch
of genius that remains something of a mystery. Hand-picked by
writer and film-maker Philip Mullarkey to record and play live
as part of the art/film project [box], the ensemble consisting
of Raoul Björkenheim (Scorch Trio), Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle,
Fantomas), Ståle Storløkken (Supersilent) and Morgan
Ågren (Mats, Morgan Band), met for the first time in Atlantis
Studio in Stockholm without having planned anything in advance.
Like Supersilent before them, the lack of pre-jam verbal communication
is an ultimate embodiment of ‘free-music’, and from
the studio sessions, it quickly became apparent that there was
a high degree of sonic communication between the ensemble. The
music on this album was recorded directly to analogue tape and
mixed directly without any digital editing, pro-tool shenanigans
or overdubs!
Across the 6 cuts, the ensemble engage
in a deftly crafted master-class in menacing subtlety which fuses
the worlds of micro-rock and free-jazz into one throbbing entity.
The opener ‘Untitled 9’ is a 17minute monolith which
acts to separate the wheat from the chaff as those that stay the
duration will no-doubt be impressed by the whole album. Bursting
into life thanks to a throbbing concatenation of boisterous yet
softly played percussion, swirling melodic’s and psychedelic
skree, there is a remarkable edginess about the ensembles subtle
yet dark aesthetic which results in the kind of sound you could
imagine if Soft Machine where cross-pollinated with Italian avant
post-rockers UFOmammut, although the track does end up in distressed
mechanical sci-fi territory. The interplay between the players
is truly something to behold and requires several captive listeners
before their synergy is fully revealed to the listener. For example,
keep your ears tuned into the bass and drum interplay as Ågren
lines up his bass-drum with Dunn’s looming bass guitar loops
whilst the rest of his drumkit engages in percussive warfare.
The edgy yet softly delivered sound of
this first track is a trait of the album and gives a classy touch
to the sci-fi jazz-rock fusion ramblings that ensue. Of all of
the elements, it is Morgan Ågren’s drums which prove
to be the most endearing. The skins are hit furiously yet performed
with such delicacy it is a real joy to hear with his shuffling
micro-blasts providing the momentum behind the hypnotic glitchscapes
of the other elements. Although Ågren shines across the
album, his contribution reigns supreme on the percussion heavy
‘Untitled 11’ which again showcases a mind-bending
interplay between Dunn’s bass and the skittering percussion.
On ‘Untitiled 7’, Ågren’s manically angular
percussion dances mesmerizingly with micro-electronic glitches
which eventually morph into a skeletal Mahavishnu-esque jazzscape.
On the second half of the album, the crunchy metal underpinnings
of ‘Untitled 13’ come across as a natural progression
of the sounds which preceded it as the track sees a downtuned
motorik guitar-motif chomp along with increasing aggression until
it is consumed by a bout of ‘attack-mode’ free-jazz.
The closer, ‘Untitled 12’ is an altogether more ambient
affair with instruments and electronics gradually gathering confidence
and building up into an eerie and drawn-out slice of jazz-rock
atmospherics which come across like an industrialized ‘Zombi’
until the last 2 minutes which sees a heavy yet muffled kraut-ish
vibe start to appear courtesy of the guitar, bass and percussion
clusters.
All in all, Box proves to be an extremely
successful experiment which has resulted in some top-draw material
being committed to tape. Fans of experimental jazz dynamics embossed
in a distressed avant-rock aesthetic will be smitten with this
purchase as it will no doubt provide the entertainment behind
many engrossed listening sessions. (KS)
For
fans of: Supersilent meets Gatekeeper III era Skullflower
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