‘The Point In A Line’ is
the latest album from jazz trio Free Fall and follows the critically
acclaimed ‘Amsterdam Funk’, their first record for
specialist imprint, Smalltown Superjazzz. Consisting of jazz notaries
Ken Vandermark (clarinet), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (double-bass)
and Håvard Wiik (piano), the trio creates a brand of jazz
that is as dark as it is sparse. Utilising an experimental approach
and delivering it in a style that embraces skeletal melodies,
‘The Point In A Line’ is a perfect meeting between
the innovative jazz scenes in Oslo and Chicago.
It has to be stressed that ‘The Point
In A Line’ is a not a jazz album to spin on a summers day.
Its dark and minimalist aesthetic will have listeners regressing
into their shells to contemplate about life’s trials and
tribulations. Feather-touch harmonics drip in unformulaic fashion
to form an off-kilter (and on occasion) dissonant tapestry of
dark post-jazz that brings the heritage of legendary 60’s
trio, the Jimmy Giuiffre 3, into the new millennium. The interplay
between clarinets, double-bass and piano paints vivid yet unfussy
pictures, a combination that creates a melodic spine that catches
ones attention, yet leaves enough space for listeners to use it
as a medium for deep reflection. Flaten’s double-bass acts
as the pulse, throbbing profusely with strategic abandon to provide
a molten layer of sound over which Vandermark’s choppy clarinet
interconnects telepathically with Wilk’s micro-piano noodling’s.
On denser tracks like the stunning opener ‘Music for Clocks’,
the trio flex their musical muscle, carving out a sound that borrows’
from early experimentalists like Paul Motian and Paul Bley, yet
is steeped in the Chicago school of melodic post-jazz. The tight,
clustered keys of ‘If It Goes’ and ‘Cottonfield’
are played with tremendous sensitivity and nuance whilst holding
down the melodic core of the tracks, and towards the end of the
album, the trio move into a more boisterous mood with ‘Open
not Closed’ being a sharp and jabbing affair reminiscent
of a Henry Cow piece.
‘The Point In A Line’ is not
an album that will jump out an leave an immediate impression on
you but listen closely in a captive environment and its moody
and melancholic soundscapes will stir your soul. (KS)
For
fans of: Chicago Underground meets Bohren & Der Club of Gore
meets Vandermark 5
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