Space Jazz

On Space Jazz, mysterious Finnish DJ, electronicist, and producer R Cut teams with his countrymen, the innovative saxophonist Esa Pietila, and firebrand guitarist Raoul Bjorkenheim. The six-track, 28-minuute EP charts an aurally speculative pathway through futurist psychedelia and avant jazz wherein electronics are stitched onto both compositional process and improvisational strategy. R Cut isnt big on beats here, instead hes decided to graft massive, nearly all-encompassing atmospheres that allow his bandmates full instrumental freedom. Nowhere is this more evident than on "Cosmic Dark Ages." Intrusive washes of dark psych and ambience emerge from thick, swirling electronic darkness and a forbidding synth bass. Pietila enters from the lower register as Bjorkenheim frames his partners with spectral feedback, jagged single notes, and mutant angular riffs as the saxophonist meanders, Ornette-like, into the maelstrom, embracing disorder and providing a center point in the musical storm. "Galaxies" is the sets hinge track. It commences sparsely with Bjorkenheims ringing single-string harmonic tones atop a sinister waft and wave. Pietilas tenor enters at two minutes as the guitarist increases his dynamic, using effects to add shard-like undertones. The saxophonist herds and guides his bandmates into a fractured vamp and asserts a post-bop melody. A circular bassline claims the role of bridge master, encouraging not merely exchange, but entwined interaction in an urgent conversation. "Quasar Phase" is, simply put, avant future jazz-funk. A percussion loop undergirds a punchy low-end bass groove as Pietila beckons Bjorkenheim to paint the soundscape with effects and intuitive fills and accents. At 2:42, "Reionization" is at once a surprise and frustrating as hell due to its brevity. Its insistent three-note bass guitar vamp is ushered in with warm distortion and airy dark passages. Pietila enters playing notes so low they creep out of the mix. In truth, the central vamp sounds like an intro to an unissued Velvet Underground song. The saxophonist ratchets up his dissonance with slowly but very physically played notes and phrases meeting the sonic tension head on. Closer "Solarsystem" finds Bjorkenheims guitar playing an angular take on a slow blues vamp atop R Cuts flanged, disruptive electronics; they create a bed for the saxophonist who delivers a melody that sounds like a ghost attempting "Harlem Nocturne." One of the best attributes of Space Jazz is how it doesnt even attempt to disguise the bands speculative, inquisitive approach to interaction under musical prowess. Its as if each member knows that what is being attempted is happening as discovery. This recording is as refreshing as it is wonderfully unwieldy. ~ Thom Jurek