The Ethereal Soundscape of Edward Vesala: A Deep Dive into "Lumi"
Introduction:
In the vast and diverse world of jazz, few musicians have managed to carve a niche as unique and evocative as Finnish drummer and bandleader Edward Vesala. His 1987 album “Lumi,” recorded in June 1986 and released under the ECM label, stands as a testament to his innovative approach and distinctive sound. This blog post delves into the intricacies of “Lumi,” exploring its tracks,…
Jazz Para Ti. Programa 033 (2019-02-12) JPT.T2.15 [Podcast]
Jazz Para Ti. Programa 033 (2019-02-12) JPT.T2.15 [Podcast]
Por Pachi Tapiz.
En el programa número 33 de Jazz Para Ti suenan…
“Los Tilos” Razz: Miscelínea. Razz
“Borderland” Anders Fjeldsted: Jazz Getxo 2018
“22” Mats Eilertsen: And Then Comes The Night
“116” Lurpekariak: Itsasotik Iturrira
“Ida Lupino” Iro Haarla; Ulf Krokfors; Barry Altschul: Around Again – The Music Of Carla Bley
“The Eternal Triangle” Jorge Nila: Tenor Time
“Tunin’ In” Woody Herman
Justin Cober-Lake, Derek Taylor, Ben Donnelly, Joseph Burnett, Ian Mathers, and Bill Meyer cover new music from Sacred Bones and Drag City to Roaratorio and ECM, from the UK and Canada to New Zealand, Portugal, and Finland. Includes new music from Elias Bender Rønnenfelt (Iceage), the David Maranha Ensemble, Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, Fujiya & Miyagi, Tami Neilson, Ashtray Navigations, and more.
Marching Church—Telling It Like It Is CD/LP (Sacred Bones)
Telling It Like It Is by Marching Church
“Will the dust ever settle on us?” intones Elias Bender Rønnenfelt on “Let It Come Down,” the opening track on Telling It Like It Is. Rønnenfelt is better known as the decidedly intense lead singer for Danish punk band Iceage, but Marching Church represents a chance for him to explore his more contemplative side. The line’s a portent of things to come: there’s nothing bright or playful on Telling It Like It Is, even the slightly camp “whoo hoos” that he deploys on “Up for Days.” The singer’s voice is pitched somewhere between The Cure’s Robert Smith and Peter Murphy from Bauhaus, but you get the sense—and not just from the portentous lyrics with their imagery of doom and fatigue—that he’s aiming more for Nick Cave. The album’s melange of nocturnal post-punk and catchy folk-rock is certainly an echo of late-period Bad Seeds, and Rønnenfelt shares Cave’s taste for unusual song structures and dramatic subject matter. Fans of Iceage and Marching Church’s previous album, The World Is Not Enough, will find much to slake their thirst for angst and anger on Telling It Like It Is, but for the rest, the sense that Rønnenfelt, for all his talent, can’t quite shake his influences will persist. (https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/)
– Joseph Burnett
David Maranha Ensemble—Salt, Ashes, Goat Skin LP (Roaratorio)
Sometimes a man’s just got to cut loose, and so it has been with David Maranha. The Portuguese multi-instrumentalist (organ, violin) has been exploring the sounds that escape when drones rasp against each other for some time, but recently he’s turned up the rock elements in his sound. On Sombras Incendiadas, his duo with cellist Helena Espvall, that involved the radiant amplification of savagely stroked strings, but the flow of energy reverses on this recording. Maranha, guitarist Filipe Felizardo, and drummer Diana Combo seem less unconcerned with progress or any other sort of outward-bound motion. Instead they bear down on the riffs and repeat the beats, pounding the music into a ground that’s shrinking and crumbling, drawn into a black hole core. Sure, feedback tendrils escape and swipe around like sea monster tentacles swiping hapless sailors off some old whaling vessel, but they’re inescapably drawn back into the deep. Imagine how White Light/White Heat might have sounded if Faust’s drummer had taken over the band, broken the vocal mics, and throw out all the songs, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what this record is like. (http://roaratorio.com/)
– Bill Meyer
Lorelle Meets the Obsolete—Balance CD/LP/DL (Captcha Records)
Balance by Lorelle Meets the Obsolete
Starting as a guitar-drum duo, and now filling out their studio work with more layers, like the Gary Newman synth that drives the title track of Balance, Lorelle is band that makes garage hustle and heavy psych from certain angles. But if you want a perfect demonstration of the defining characteristics of shoegaze, check out the “tutorial” where they teach one of their songs. “We don’t really know how to explain this with chords,” says Alberto Gonzalez, while he plucks on an unplugged semi-hollow guitar. Dry, the riff ain’t too tremendous, and Lorena Quintanilla spends most of the vid nervously staring at her shoes. When they run it through a chain of stomp boxes it’s a different story, of course. This is their fourth album, with steadier, longer tracks than the haywire Chambers that preceded it. They really glide now. On “Eco Echo” the top layer of guitar is all moan, while more strums bleed into a marching snare. “It Must Be the Only Way” is a slow chant that builds a wall brick by brick, then tumbles on the turnaround. They’ve been one of the better artists working in oil-meets-watercolor. The chemical reactions demonstrated here make me think they’re one of the best. An unassuming nature means their bright lights can glow unnoticed. Until you fix your gaze upon them. Then you’ll be seeing spots. (https://captcharecords.bandcamp.com)
– Ben Donnelly
Erb/Adasiewicz/Roebke—More Dreams Less Sleep CD (Veto)
[no samples available]
Saxophonist Christoph Erb operates a cottage industry built around conclaves with like-minded improvisers. More Dreams Less Sleep marks the 12th such venture on his self-produced Exchange imprint through Veto Records, and one of the best to date as it reunites him with vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz and bassist Jason Roebke. Recorded over a pair of days in Chicago last year at two separate studios, the disc’s five pieces are brimming with evocative and unexpectedly emotive extemporization that hinges on contrapuntal communication and keen attention to spatial dynamics. Adasiewicz’s sterling skills as a colorist are central, his bright passels of mallet-sourced clusters contrasting and commingling with Roebke’s filigreed string patterns as Erb alternates between extended techniques (multiphonics, circular breathing, and reed pops) and more conventional melodic interjections. Roebke’s scuttling pizzicato figures and Adasiewicz’s use of sticks on the lengthy “Bizate” approximate a percussion section. Later the bows come out and a cloud of whirring overtones surrounds Erb’s analogous reed creations. The results carry a kind of gravity-defying freedom comparable to historical antecedents like the Jimmy Giuffre 3, thoughtful chamber-style improv with a protean, yet prosperous pulse. (http://www.veto-records.ch/exchange/)
– Derek Taylor
Equiknoxx—Bird Sound Power 2LP (DDS)
Equiknoxx’s Gavin Blair and Jordan Chung take the broad DNA of Jamaican dancehall—the wide, echoing space, the deep bass, the aggressive vocals—and project it into a modern era I don’t think has quite formed yet. The 12 tracks that make up Bird Sound Power are both dancefloor-friendly and strangely foreboding, with bizarre sound effects and strange samples buffeting up against languid snare attacks and loping bass. It’s a sort of full-on sonic assault that will appeal to the most endurant dancers, but works equally well when swirling around like warm soup inside a set of headphones. Because beneath the barrage of clipped percussion, gut-aimed kicks, growled vocal snippets and fuzzed-out synths, truly elaborate and elegant melodies take form like hypnotic Rorschach patterns. Track titles like “A Rabbit Spoke to When I Woke Up” give an idea of the fuzzy, tripped-out vibe that takes hold as the album progresses, whilst the manic use of clatters and rapid-fire snares displays a keen ear for global musical trends, from footwork to minimal techno. Even with so much going on, the music on Bird Sound Power is above all hypnotic to the point being irresistible, a high-octane but richly infectious journey into the outer realms of dance possibility. (http://www.equiknoxxmusiconline.com/)
– Joseph Burnett
Fujiya & Miyagi—EP2 12” (Impossible Objects of Desire)
Interestingly enough, given that this EP makes up the middle installment in a trilogy that will eventually become a full album, EP2 is a bit of a marked contrast to the first part of the series. Whereas EP1 focused on the more bright, danceable aspects of Fujiya & Miyagi's sound, EP2 not only serves as the most pronounced showcase for David Best's guitar the band has made in a while (check out the move from microfunk licks to the storming, fuzzy climax of "R.S.I."), but quickly settles in as the darkly sardonic Empire Strikes Back of this particular triptych. The opening "Outstripping (The Speed of Light)" and duskily gorgeous "Swoon" (the intro of which features maybe the first real New Order homage the Brighton band has committed to wax) are just as openhearted as the first EP, but the closing "Extended Dance Remix" gives us the story of F&M and their continued, sometimes declining small-scale success in a form that sonically lives up to the title. But it is emotionally pitched somewhere between the wry self-mockery of late period self-reflective Pet Shop Boys and the genuine, banked fury of, say, Local H.
It's rare to see bands so honestly address the struggle to get heard and break past whatever narrative time, fans, and the press locks them into (in this case, at least partially falling between the two stools of rock and electronic music), but the tonal shift never feels jarring, possible partly because the grooves stay compelling. Musically, Fujiya & Miyagi are as strong as ever (and as skilled at operating in that area between full on EDM and rock, in a way that really shouldn't be hard for people to parse). Yet, if these EPs show anything, it's that they're getting more honestly emotional and less stylized with age. Even if you love "Ankle Injuries" (and we all love "Ankle Injuries"), it's a good look for them. (http://fujiyamiyagi.bigcartel.com/)
– Ian Mathers
Ashtray Navigations—To Make a Fool Ask, And You Are the First LP/DL (Blackest Ever Black)
To Make A Fool Ask, And You Are The First by ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS
Even by the standards of the UK psychedelic rock-noise-folk-drone underground, Ashtray Navigations are obscure, revered by those who know or have played with them, influential beyond reckoning on the Yorkshire scene that is currently home to the likes of Vibracathedral Orchestra, Astral Social Club, and Skullflower, but never given even the relatively mild limelight that those acts have benefited from, despite (or perhaps because of) a discography that stretches into the scores of releases. For AshNav’s debut release on respected alt-everything London label Blackest Ever Black, bandleader and founder Phil Todd barely deviates from the cryptic formula he has mined over the last twenty years, although To Make a Fool Ask, And You Are the First is more succinct than, say, the colossal A Monument to British Rock 3LP and therefore perhaps acts as neat entry point to an unique discography.
On first listen, it’s a quirky, drifting mixture of kosmische synth exploration with added guitar mulch, more Harmonia than Popol Vuh, but as the tracks develop and unfurl, the use of mutated drum machines by Todd and his partner-in-music-and-life Mel O’Dubhshlaine adds a certain rhythmic aggression to proceedings and, as the synths soar more robustly, it’s clear that To Make a Fool Ask, And You Are the First owes just as much to the Acid Mothers Temple/Ramleh tradition of psych than pure retro-kraut nostalgia (opener “(Another) Hour of the Grubber” is a potent example of this tension). And in Todd they have a guitarist who, by his own admission, takes as many cues from the blues as he does psychedelia and folk, something that emerges gradually as you trace his intricate, soulful solos between the lines of synthesizer bliss. (https://blackesteverblack.bandcamp.com)
– Joseph Burnett
Matt Christensen—Honeymoons CD/LP/DL (Miasmah)
Chicago’s a pretty Catholic town, but even though Matt Christensen lives and works there he displays a Protestant work ethic that lives up to his Nordic surname. Not only does the guy successfully sustain membership in the band Zelienople, employment, and family life, he has issued upwards of a dozen albums on Bandcamp in the past year. Despite his appreciation for the lightness of digital publishing, he hasn’t abandoned the good old-fashioned LP just yet. Unlike the often casual, exploratory Bandcamp sets, Honeymoons is a top-to-bottom expression of a particular set of sentiments and experiences. Christensen has the sort of voice that would impart regret even if he were singing about ordering his favorite flavor of ice cream, and he puts that effect to good use on this six-song sequence of ponderings about sundered and regenerated bonds. All of these songs could have worked on a Zelienople record, and anyone who appreciates the way his liquid guitar leads curl around his voices on their last couple LPs will find the same forces at work here. But the settings are different. Instead of the band’s loping drums and bass there are icy synth textures that sound like they were culled form your favorite mid-80s 4AD recordings and sparse, unhurried drum machines that occasionally let slip the bounds of repetition to quietly protest the stately progress of Christensen’s melancholy melodies. (http://www.miasmah.com/)
– Bill Meyer
Axis Sova—Motor Earth LP/CS/DL (Drag City)
There’s a dedication to Stonesy two-guitar bramble that makes Motor Earth more down to earth than the riffs-and-nothing-but-the-riffs debut. They play over presets from a Crazy Eddie Casio, guaranteeing no one tries to boogie to this stuff. There are advantages to this, landing the knuckles of blues rock without having to fake the swing. But other times the click track puts them in a cage, like gibbons trying to bend the bars with lesser-ape fists. As with Ariel Pink, the tunes are thick with fantastic ideas captured through shorted out equipment. Here is the FM radio that plays in the cafeteria of Purgatory, so good going down, leaving you hungry twenty minutes later. (http://www.dragcity.com/)
– Ben Donnelly
Rats on Rafts/De Kift—Rats on Rafts/De Kift CD (Fire)
The collaboration between Rats on Rafts and De Kift could be seen as a Dutch torch-passing, but the self-titled album has too much energy and too much forward-looking in its tradition to actually feel that way. The younger Rats on Rafts have honed their post-punk sound, with last year's Tape Hiss marking a strong refinement of it. The elder band, with its decades of blending seemingly everything European has a more expansive sound, moving from punk roots to folk sounds to beer hall singing. The merging of styles (which aren't as disparate as might be expected) leads to an exciting middle ground. What could have been as simple as throwing horns over Rats' moody tunes becomes something more complex, with the each band energizing the other. In that sense, it's less a torch being passed and more a couple fires being lit. (http://www.firerecords.com/)
– Justin Cober-Lake
Iro Haarla—Ante Lucem CD (ECM)
Ante Lucem means “before the light,” which serves as, if not a concept, then at least a guiding principle of this ambitious suite for orchestra and jazz quintet by Finnish pianist, harpist, and composer Iro Haarla. Most immediately impressive is the way her compositions intertwine the orchestra with her smaller usual ensemble, so seamlessly as to make it tricky to see where one ends and the other begins. As befits a work focused on the nocturnal hours before the break of dawn, the arrangements are generally restrained and melancholic, although there are a few awkward moments when the strings and horns swoop a little too enthusiastically, as on “Songbird Chapel,” leading to a rather stereotypical “daylight is coming” coda. More effective are the tense shifts between quietness and vigor on “Persevering with Winter” and “...And the Darkness Have Not Overcome It,” the latter being the album’s real highlight. Equally impressive are the solos Haarla and her regular band, notably saxophonist Trygve Seim, embark upon at key moments, which simultaneously sound as perfectly-suited to an orchestral hall as they would a smoky jazz club. Whilst at times Haarla’s themes of winter and night get lost in the breadth of the orchestral arrangements and her focus seems to wander, the marriage of symphonic music and jazz is note perfect. (https://www.ecmrecords.com/)
– Joseph Burnett
Norberto Lobo—Muxama CD/LP/DL(Three:Four)
Norberto Lobo isn’t the sort of guy to make the same record twice. That’s a laudable quality in an artist, but induces a twinge of regret when he refrains from following up an excellent record with more of the same. The effortless flow of finger-picked melody and atmospheric bowing technique made his last solo LP, Fornalha, a standout in the crowded field of solo acoustic guitar records. On Muxama he opts for pith, offering nearly twice as many tracks in less time, and electricity. He favors a heavily processed, pedal-sculpted tone reminiscent of Eric Chenaux’s recent work, and applies it to deliberately paced themes that sound like they were learned from someone else’s singing. This vocal quality imparts a very different emotional quality. Instead of telling you things, he seems to be asking—for favors, for comfort, for warmth. While it’s hard not to miss Fornalha’s virtues, regard for them earns Lobo the indulgence to do something that is different and, in it’s own way, appealing. (http://www.three-four.net/)
– Bill Meyer
Tami Neilson—Don't Be Afraid CD/LP (Outside Music)
Canadian-born, New Zealand-based Tami Neilson may have roots in roots, but her new release Don't Be Afraid is much heavier on the soul and gospel. The circumstances around the album—the death of Neilson's father—might overshadow the accomplishments of the record if Neilson weren't so adamant throughout. “Don't Be Afraid,” a slow-building force, lies somewhere between the Biblical book of Joshua and a contemporary scene of parting. “Holy Moses” has the Saturday night romp with the Sunday morning plea. On an album full of faith and persistence and plenty of hurt (whether in the mid-20th century ballad of “Lonely” or the disguise of “Laugh Laugh Laugh”), that sort of big-voiced appeal finds the heart of the record. Neilson doesn't rely on emotion, though. She's a careful artist capable of well-phrased lines and memorable deliveries. Later tracks swing back more to her country tradition, but it's a smooth transition because she's never relinquished any of that sound. Neilson would have been comfortable on stage with Patsy Cline, but it's easy to imagine her singing with the Dap-Kings too. Mixing that breadth with strong melodies and potent lyrics, Neilson's done something special. (https://tamineilson.bandcamp.com/)
Juhani Aaltonen Extended Quartet jaZZanti-konsertissa Laulumiehissä 21.11.2013
Eilen torstaina oli miellyttävä nähdä paljon jazzin ystäviä liikenteessä. Tuvat olivat istumapaikkojen osalta suurinpiirtein täynnä niin alkuillasta Laulumiehissä jossa Juhani Aaltosen vahvistettu kvartetti julkaisi uuden levynsä To Future Memories kuin myöhemmin illalla Koko Jazz Clubilla jossa Teddy's WestCoasters soitti kolmannen keikkansa, ensimmäistä kertaa festarien ulkopuolella.
To Future Memories -levyllä Juhani Aaltosen kvartetti on vahvistunut kuusihenkiseksi basisti Ville Herralalla ja lyömäsoittaja Tatu Rönköllä. Eilisessä julkaisukonsertissa ei Rönkköä kuultu, mutta kahdennetulla bassomiehityksellä mentiin.
Levyllä kuullaan Antti Hytin säveltämää musiikkia ja siitä koostui myös valtaosa julkaisukonsertin materiaalista. Hytti muistetaan basistina useista yhteyksistä vuosien varrelta - mainittakoon Piirpauken alkuperäiskokoonpano, 70-luvun lopun Tomasz Stanko-Edward Vesala Quartet, Jone Takamäen trio ja 2000-luvulta Suhkan Uhka. Bassonsoiton lisäksi Hytti on kunnostautunut elokuvasäveltäjänä ja suurin osa musiikista onkin alunperin elokuvamusiikkia. Hytin sävellysten lisäksi konsertin lopuksi kuultiin Otto Donnerin muistolle versio legendaarisen Strings-levyn kappaleesta Och det går, det går.
Juhani Aaltosen nykyinen kvartetti on toiminut vuodesta 2007. Maestro Aaltosen lisäksi kvartetissa soittaa muita keskeisiä hahmoja muutamastakin sukupolvesta - rummuissa 60-luvun ja 70-luvun keskeisiä jazz-hahmoja Aaltosen ohella edustaa Reiska Laine, pianossa 70-luvun lopulla Edward Vesalan projekteista maineeseen noussut ja 2000-luvulla säveltäjänä ja omien kokoonpanojensa johtajana kunnostautunut Iro Haarla ja bassossa 80-luvun lopulla Edward Vesala Sound & Furysta ja Raoul Björkenheimin Krakatausta tunnetuksi tullut Ulf Krokfors.
Lähtökohdissa oltiin siis syvällä suomalaisen modernin jazzin ytimessä. Itse musiikki oli tummasävyistä ja rikasta, viipyilevää ja voimakasta. Tunnelmissa siirryttiin Kukunorin herkästä huilusta Usvan voimakkaaseen rytinään joka toi luonnonilmiöistä mieleen enemmänkin jylisevän myrskyn Laineen rumpujen johtamana. Paikoitellen oltiin yllättävän lähellä 70-lukulaista spiritual jazz-soundia Haarlan kompatessa McCoy Tyner-hengessä. Kahden basistin vuoropuhelu oli uljasta kuultavaa. Krokforsin rooli ehkä useammin jäntevänä pohjana Herralan värittäessä.
Konsertti alkoi vahvasti ja bändi paransi vielä menoa keikan edetessä. Aina mukava kuulla, että veteraanisarjan muusikoissa palaa vielä voimakas musikaalinen liekki.
Levy on jo kaupoissa. Sitä myyvät ainakin Digelius ja Levykauppa Äx. Lisää levystä tässä blogissa myöhemmin...
Syksyn jaZZanti-sarja päättyy Laulumiehissä 5.12. konsertilla Black Motor feat. Verneri Pohjola play Edward Vesala.
Kolibri on Iro Haarlan suomalaisen sekstetin ensimmäinen levytys. Sekstetti on perustettu 2009, ensiesiintyminen tapahtui Pori Jazzin 2009 Ultra Music Nightsissa ja valtaosa uuden levyn materiaalista on samaa ikäluokkaa.
Kokoonpanon erityispiirteenä johtaja/säveltäjä Iro Haarlan portfoliossa on se, että puhaltimiin on lisätty Haarlan suomalais/norjalaiseen ECM:lle levyttäneeseen kvintettiin pasuuna joka on laajentanut harmonisia mahdollisuuksia big band-ilmaisun suuntaan.
Haarlan lisäksi kokoonpanoon suomalaisen kokeellisemman jazzin ydinnimiä joiden yhteinen historia ulottuu kauas. Basisti Ulf Krokfors, pasunisti Jari Hongisto ja saksofonisti/huilisti Kari 'Sonny' Heinilä vaikuttivat Haarlan tavoin Edward Vesala Sound & Furyssa 80-luvulla. Rumpali Markku Ounaskari on tehnyt pitkään yhteistyötä Krokforsin kanssa ja on tyyliltään tähän kokoonpanoon luonteva valinta. Nuorempaa sukupolvea edustaa trumpetissa Verneri Pohjola, joka Ounaskarin tavoin tuntuu sopivan kokonaisuuteen täydellisesti.
Musiikki on mietiskelevää ja herkkää. Ollaan syvällä pohjoismaisen jazz-soundin kuulaassa, luonnonkauniissa ytimessä. Sävellysten nimissä toistuvat keskeisenä teemana linnut, jotka edustavat Haarlalle vaikeassa ja vihamielisessäkin maailmassa hauraasta ulkomuodostaan huolimatta selviytymisen kauneutta. Sävellysten päällä leijuukin usein uhka ja niissä kaikuu uupumus ja kaipuu lepoon ja rauhaan. Toisaalta on myös määrätietoisuutta ja yhteissoiton harmoniaa.
Levyssä oli ainakin Jazzpossun korviin vahva yhtenäisen ensemble-soiton tunnelma. Yksittäiset soolot tai solistit eivät luonnostaan korostu vaan kaikessa on yhtenäinen tunnelma ja musiikissa on jatkuvuutta. Levyyn on helppo uppoutua kokonaisuutena ja unohtaa, että yksittäisiä osatekijöitäkin voisi analyyttisemmalla korvalla kuunnella.
Ulkomusiikillisissa arvoissa levy edustaa tuttua huippulaatua CD-paketoinnin suhteen TUMilta. Erittäin tyylikäs paketti ja hyvä oheismateriaali jälleen kerran.
