A fixture in Oslo's creative music scene, pianist Jonas Cambien often works in a trio setting, but here leads a quartet, and, on a couple of tracks, a quintet, rendering sympathetic and articulate performances of his wily compositions.
The nine tunes that make up this CD release display Camien's compositional chops as well as the ensemble and solo skills of the members, Norwegian musicians, including the stalwart Ingebright Haker-Flaten on bass (and minimoog on "Pseudoscience"), saxophonist Signe Emmeuth and drummer Andreas Wildhagen. It is a quartet except on two of the nine tunes....as Guro Kvale guests on trombone on "Once Low Now High" and "Good Frenemy". Otherwise, this is a saxophone and rhythm section setting, with the focal point being keyboardist Jonas Cambien's ingeniously rhythmic compositions.
The first piece, "A Terrible Misunderstanding," is in a kind of Balinese gamelan percussive style, and this stylistic character continues with track 2, titled "Holy Fishtail," and recurs throughout the album. A change of texture occurs when the trombone blends in with the saxophones on the two above-mentioned tunes, and in "Question the Answer" there is a welcome change of pace with a kind of lilting chant of peace. Sometimes the music has a 1970s prog rock band feel, partly due to the Ace Tone Top 5 organ Cambien plays on some of the tunes, but also due to the tight ensemble playing that makes these sinewy and complex lines sound free and easy.
Things get a little excited and prancy in the carnivalesque "Blue Eyed Pleco," replete with a Cecil Taylor/Myra Melford-esque flurry of notes from the piano, and a tutti articulation of the staccato rhythm that is tight as tight can be. The band breaks out into a very free type of improvisation in "The Lesser Evil is the one that Hits You," and the album closes with two percussion-centric tracks titled "Kontrakten" and "Good Frenemy," bringing a coherent ride through a kind of rhythmic wonderland to an end.
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