Khmer Live in Bergen

ECM Records released trumpeter/composer Nils Petter Molvaers Khmer in 1997. A radical aesthetic move for the label, it was also successful, helping to pioneer the use of electronica in jazz. In 2023, the Vossa Jazz Festival commissioned the trumpeter to revisit the album live. The concert took place on May 25, 2024, at Nattjazz, in Bergen. Original guitarist/electronicist Eivind Aarset and drummer Rune Arnesen reprise their original roles here alongside Jan Bangs live sampling, Auden Erliens bass, and additional drummer Per Lindvall with programming by DJ Strangefruits (Pal Nyhus). These musicians have all been collaborators for decades and perform as a seasoned ensemble. Despite the title this is not an exact re-creation of Khmer. This set includes four of its tunes, four from 2000s Solid Ether, and a 2020s composition. From Khmer they perform "Song of Sand" "Tion," "Platonic Years," and "On Stream." Its "Song of Sand" introduces the evening with thudding tom-tom and kickdrum loops, Erliens foreboding, circular bassline, a trap kit, live and sampled trumpet, and Aarsets outer space guitar. The circular beat and dubwise production offer a labyrinthian, brooding dreamscape that travels across eight minutes. "Platonic Years" offers a jazzy guitar vamp under drums, a soloing bass, and layered electronics. The vibe recalls David Sylvians early solo experiments as dialogue between trumpet, guitar, bass, and drums asserts itself to become a jam with canny improvisation. "Solid Ether" and three other performances here are drawn from the 2000 album of the same title. The sparse, intimate ballad "Kakonita" reveals the breadth and complexity in Molvaers lyric economy. Jon Hassell is the muse behind "Ligotage." Its fourth world approach is wedded to thick, sinister dub (think Bill Laswell remixing King Tubby) in which Aarsets solo playing moves directly into the bassline and the trumpeters sparse fragments and phrases. Bang pours his samples into the mix adding color, space, and texture. "Vilderness" joins space funk to fusion and groove with sharply articulated guitar and trumpet lines. While "Solid Ether" is funkier, rising from a palette of colorful electronic expressions that push toward neo-psychedelia, "Tion" spends the first few of its nearly 13 minutes exploring spatial abstraction before articulating a minimal folk melody. A sampled marimba traverses the shifting density before the band pick up steam in an abstract collision of EDM, roiling funk (driven by Erliens bass playing), and psychedelic jazz fusion. Set closer "Maja" is a gorgeous, melodic read of the opening track from 2023s Certainty of Tides recorded by Molvaer with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. It winds open country atmospherics via guitar and trumpet into humid, amorphous electronic colors and a mantra-like bassline. Khmer Live in Bergen reveals the timelessness in Molvaers compositions and musical approach. While abstract, nocturnal, and borderline free, its also warm, focused, and alluringly speculative. ~ Thom Jurek

フィル・ウッズのヨーロピアン・リズム・マシーンでの活躍等で知られる、フランスが生んだジャズ・ベースの巨人アンリ・テキシェのニュー・アルバムが登場!近年の作品も衰え知らずで刺激的、他と一線を画すソリッドで重厚なサウンドがとにかくカッコいいのですが、この音楽活動60周年を記念した一枚も最高です!フリー・ジャズ黎明期を思わせるナンバーも、コンテンポラリーなテイストが入った曲も...彼が歩んできた歴史が凝縮されたような、聴きどころ満載のオリジナル・ナンバーたちを息子であるサックス/クラリネット奏者のセバスティアンら精鋭メンバーとともに。
intoxicate (C)谷本真悟

ノルウェーのトランペット奏者、ニルス・ペッター・モルヴェルが1997年にリリースした作品『Khmer』とそのあとの『Solid Ether』は北欧の空気感と電子音が絶妙にマッチしていて、ECMレーベルの美しいジャケットも相まって未来の音楽のように感じていました。それから20年以上を経て...現在の技術も加えられてライヴ演奏されたこれらの楽曲たちはまだ、未来の音がしています。JAZZの未来を担ういま最も注目されるレーベルのひとつ〈Edition〉からの一枚、クールなビートとひんやりとしたトランペットの音色にどっぷり浸ってください。
intoxicate (C)谷本真悟