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.No 

Paradise. Jenn Grant

A mysterious cover. A head, en profile, with a light source right behind the head, lighting up only the edges and strands of hair. Creating a photographed cut up like they (used to?) sell e.g. in Paris decades ago. It could be anyone, couldn't it? For now I'll take it to be Jenn Grant.

The album starts just as mysterious. The titlesong is a world of musical influences put into one. Massive (Attack), Lana del Rey, but the first one mostly in the verses, before the more poppy chorus takes over. The song almost seems a hybrid of two different songs. Modern, post-pop, electronics mixed with a weird rhythm moves into the soft flowing chorus, that has a heavenly melody. Where a traditional sounding piano does its utmost to be heard through the synths. Where modernity touches tradition.

This way of working is what shines through for most of Paradise. For this to really reach you there is one major prerequisite: listening. I mean, sitting alone in a room and turn up the volume a little to emerge in the album called Paradise. The only alternative is a headset. My experience is that this is the only way this album works. Jenn Grant forces one to unhaste. To sit down and enjoy her music. The spacious mix allows for the room to breath for that same music. Her voice is found up front with enough echo to make it sound wide. Behind her instruments come forward and leave again. Like in the very organic sounding 'Lion With Me'.

With that the downside of Paradise has also been laid bare. The album doesn't reach me, as soon as 'Paradise' is over, and I'm doing something else. Which is most of the day. The little time I have available to exclusively share with an album, is only for the very best ones. And then Paradise runs short.

Promo photo: Daniel Ledwell

Now, when alone with Paradise for this review, something the album without doubt deserves, I am struck by how fine the album sounds. How relaxing the atmosphere is. It makes me unwind and follow the little changes in the songs, the additional melodies that are added to songs. 'I Am A River' is a ballad with Air influences that lets in more and more organic instruments. Each interesting to follow, notice them disappear again or come back.

Whether Jenn Grant takes as big a step in her development as she announces in the bio that accompanies the album, I can't tell. This may be her sixth album, it is my first. What I can tell, is that once 'Paradise' is over, despite that it is the most exiting track of the album, I have the idea that in what follows I hear "the real" Jenn Grant. A singer experimenting with electronics in her harmonious singer-songwriter songs. She has come up with a great, atmospheric album, that is most worthwhile listening to. Where modernity meets tradition in a successful, unforced way, again barring the title song.

So, to come back to the cover, Paradise is a mysterious album. That cover is totally justified.

Wo.

You can listen to and buy Paradise here:

https://jenngrant.bandcamp.com/album/paradise

Too Sorry For Any Sorrow. Mountain Bike

Too Sorry For any Sorrow? What kind of an album title is that? and who has to be sorry for what? Listening to this album for the nth time, I have no time for any regrets. The only question that remains is how much retro can a man take? As long as the quality of the retro music on offer has the quality of Mountain Bike, my best guess is a lot.

Mountain Bike takes the trail that, if followed backwards, takes you passed Blur and straight up to The Kinks once that band shed its pre-punk raucousness and started shedding the great pop songs of the second half of the 60s. Strangely enough I never was a real Blur fan. You'd have found me in the Oasis camp in the 90s. The Kinks were my absolute number 2 band in the late 60s. They were and are so good.

Mountain Bike is a Belgium, Brussels based band moving around in the alternative, British post punk segment of music. With that the band apparently has made a move from a more garage rock oriented music on its debut album from 2014, 'Mountain Bike'. That may have been a great record, I just don't know. For me this switch is more than fine. I'm really, truly enjoying myself with Too Sorry For Any Sorrow.

Why is that? It has a few reasons. let me start with the singer. He has that nice kind of sneer in his voice. Something that really goes well with this music. He sings like there's no tomorrow. It doesn't matter who is offended, hurt, or loved. The consequences are something that is not overseen by a voice like this. The voice of puberty, of the age that lives in the moment. Not even acknowledging that there will be a tomorrow. Thus he walks a very thin line and comes up trumps. The moment is where I want to be when listening to these songs. There's no tomorrow for just a short while. So mission accomplished, Mountain Bike.

Promo photo

The musicians in Mountain Bike work around this voice and have come up with the sound to complement that voice. The sound and the songs. The rhythm section lays down a solid firmament from which the two guitarists can play. The foundation is solid, without any outspokenness, truly giving the room for the two guitars to excel in their two (or three) sounds. One clean and the other dirty. Usually left and right in the mix, but not always. There's a keyboard here and there as well.

When all is said and done it is about the songs of course. In the end I've never liked an album when the songs are not o.k. Yes, it may sound beautifully, but a bad song is a bad song, just like a boring one is boring. Mountain Bike presents a bunch of songs in the 90s Britpop style of Blur, infused with a more garage rock sound. Blur with a bite. Mountain Bike is not trying to be cleaver, like Blur was. It's direct, in your face with hints at 60s psychedelia coming through the voice and guitars. In other words retro and totally 2017. The downside is of course that I'm not surprised, but then that sensation just doesn't happen every day, no not even every month, any more. Too much has come by in the past decades for huge surprises.

The fun factor remains though. Discovering a band like Mountain Bike and seriously enjoying this record makes my day. I can't say Mountain Bike is "the rescuer of my day" (from 'Good For Nothing'), they certainly made several of my gloomy winter days days a bit brighter with this great, direct alternative rock music.

Wo.

You can listen to 'This Lonely Place' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp4xVL3i9k0

Jupiter, Part II. Blaudzun

From the bright and colourful to the dark and drab. That is what the cover art of part I and part II seems to suggest. Does that come to light as well in the music of Part II? You are about to find out.

My favourite Blaudzun album is and remains 'Heavy Flowers', that does not change with the release of Jupiter, Part II. Yet, I notice that I like this album a lot and have a load of respect for how Blaudzun has carved out a little piece of the rock pantheon exclusively for himself. The band has a totally unique signature sound that is recognisable instantly. My girlfriend, who forever is lost for names and titles, can listen to a song by Blaudzun for just a few seconds and knows beyond doubt within seconds who she's listening to. Without knowing the new songs being played in our home.

The story behind the Jupiter trilogy will be known by fans by now. Blaudzun, like musicians of the 60s and early 70s is writing new songs and records them while on tour, with his band, instead of locking himself up in Barcelona to come up with new ideas to develop over time and record them, mostly on his own. That ought to lead to more direct songs, more elementary.

Promo photo, Andreas Terlaak

It does in fact. Now Johannes Sigmond has a fairly large band around him with a few people who keep switching instruments the whole time, so diversity in sound is not a problem for Blaudzun. Were it not that on Jupiter, Part II the sound is even more uniform than on Part I. So in that sense the album does sound somewhat darker. Exaggerating just a little I could write that Part II is a black hole from which an individual instrument can't escape, caught in the extreme gravity of the imploded star. This is exaggeration, of course, each instrument can be heard. However, the mix hardly discriminates, creating this front of instruments, a wall of sound, where the melody is a part of the wall, not the icing on the cake. A solo like in 'Tear Gun' is at best the mortar between the stones in the wall.

With 'Tear Gun' one of the highlights of Jupiter, Part II is mentioned. But highlight is a very relative notion on this album. Not unlike Part I Part II is of an uncanny high level. As stable as the sound is. It is extremely hard to name just one song, as this is an album. In sound, in execution, in mood. If Blaudzun really worked on the concept as announced, it simply works wonders. The band is extremely tight, there is an enormous focus and a uniformity that lifts this album ever higher. As I wrote 'Heavy Flowers' remains my favourite Blaudzun album. It was my first, that usually explains that fact, but also it has a lightness which makes it a 4,5*, when in the right mood a 5* album. And now comes the true confession. Jupiter, Part II reaches that qualification as well. Having listened to the album several times over the past weeks I can only conclude that it reaches perfection.

As I wrote in the review of Part I, I thought that I would not really appreciate another 'Proimises Of No Man's Land'. With that album I had reached a Blaudzun tolerance. With Part I Blaudzun went for a more direct sound, but did not convince me for 100%, but certainly made the right move.

Promo photo, Andreas Terlaak

So now let's return to the black hole analogy. We on earth can still see the final flashes of light from before the implosion, light years away. Listening to Jupiter, Part II is extremely fascinating. There is so much to discover and I do, session after session. All these little melodies hidden in that wall of sound and then there is the signature sound of the bariton saxophone! Jupiter, Part II is a musical adventure that I gladly go on time and again. So whatever the future brings, no one takes this album away from me. I can't wait to listen to Part III sometime this year.

Wo.

You can listen to 'Press On (Monday's Child)' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMn2wxeuMRo

Kairos, February 2017 by .No on Concertzender

Each month .No has his radio show Kairos broadcasted on Concertzender. Each month Wo. listens to what .No airs and expands his musical experience by the brainful. Not seldom he is in for a surprise with no way of telling which way the musical wind blows nor how his mood during the listen session influences his perception of said music. Let's see where all this took him during this month's Kairos.

The well-known introduction passes and, of course, solitary piano notes come by. Dreamy, as if from far away. Although, solitary? There are some bass notes involved on a contra bass. Where in Nighthawks At The Diner territory again. Late, no latest night music. When nearly all have gone home. except for these two musicians who have no true home to go to. A cigarette dangling from the lips, a lone light beam accentuating the curling smoke that hurts the eyes. The player oblivious of it all, playing his soft impromptu notes, followed by the bass. Looking for a new melody? Just playing away? There's no way to tell. No haste, time in abundance and a few night cats in the club. Drinking their last drinks.

Listening to the Ignacy Jan Wisniewski Trio musing my thoughts, something extremely weird seems to have happened. Another composition, by Anna Backerra, was mixed into the music. And I never even noticed?! WTF?! Is .No this good?

It is even stranger! By the time I notice this, reading the playlist, the Ignacy Jan Wisniewski trio has returned with a different composition as well. I noticed that percussion entered, but it could have been the same composition as far as I'm concerned. It's just that the trio seems to hit on a theme they like and start expanding on it. The few notes that are played over and over on the piano sound simple, but are beautiful. It allows for soloing in a most elementary way. The pace is picked up by the drummer and bass player, while the pianist keeps doing his thing. The smoke still curling into his eyes, blinking all the time, not giving up, because he knows he's on to something good.

Next up is one of .No's heroes and one that all but one time never touched me in any way, favourably. Arvo Pärt's deeply resonating cello is mixed with the jazzy drumming of Wisniewski's Trio. An extremely slow composition unrolls itself before me. The piano is after the intro, more the lead instrument. It all sounds like a calm before a storm. As a part of a piece called 'Lamentate' this music does what it promises. Lamenting it does. A very quiet despair comes with the notes played. Inward sorrow, "quiet desperation is the English way", drifts into my mind.

The move into the next song is again so subtle. A modern bass enters the picture, not unlike Pink Floyd's, strangely enough, for a very short period. As if the composer guessed my thoughts before I did, before I even ever heard this music. Dark, brooding, extremely slow again. Pauline Oliverios' 'Lear' is a soundscape disguised as a song. The instruments are more modern, but fit as a sequence to Pärt's composition like a glove. This is meditation alright. The drone being that near subconscious state that a brain hovers on. The lead tones the thoughts that pop up, conscious or subconscious. Who knows? The thoughts that are allowed in or to be discarded as they try to push in every day. 'Lear' goes on for about 10 minutes (and still is only a fragment), but in the right mood, this is so beautiful. At the right moment Pauline Oliveiros allows for total resignation to her music. Makes a mind go through ages in a matter of seconds. Eternity in the palm of your hand.

Life returns with a French song from Switzerland. Sophie Hunger's rendition of Noir Désir's 'Le Vent Nous Portera'. Now Hunger is my favourite Swiss artist for some years now. One of the songs in which the flügelhorn features, as it does in some of her songs. This is a tremendously beautiful ballad, that gets a subtle, fleeting rendition by Sophie Hunger and her band. It's 2017. If we're lucky there may be new work by her under way.

'Dart for piano' the next composition is called. All of a sudden I have a view of these beer-bellied, primitive noises shouting, dart throwing men behind a piano. I could be mistaken of course, never judge before sure, but somehow I do not see how this relaxed, atmospheric piano sounds played by Gabi Sultana, come out as a result of a darter behind a piano. Still, there is a similarity. Both are able to be in a trance like concentration and have mastery over mind, fingers, muscles and eyes. So who knows?

A bass cuts in and a drum. Even an electric guitar. All very atmospheric. It could be I Am Oak or another Snowstar Records artist, but it is not. Codes In The Clouds is on one of .No's other favourite labels, Erased Tapes. The fragment is extremely short. Before I got my mind around it I already hear a female voice joining it all, changing the tune.

Back to Iceland with Larus Sigurdsson. This time with a composition that could well have been composed for a church. 'Entry Through The Wolf Door' suggests something different. And do they have wolves on that faraway island? I would say no. The mood is again so serious. Lamentation as this month's theme? It may well be. I tend to close my eyes to follow what's going on here. Again. Writing and listening do not go together, really. As I an;t tupe vlinly. (See if you can figure that out.) Slowly more elements are added to the sound. Let in and let go of one by one.

I hear an acoustic guitar enter and a soft drum. Ha, Snowstar Records is on board this Kairos any way. Ian Fisher returns with a song from his latest album 'Koffer', called 'Thinkin' About It'. His German Americana works a miracle in this song. The arrangement is so subtle. A slide guitar, a few piano notes is all to give this song so much atmosphere. Again lament for what's been is the theme. Fisher has just the right voice for this mood. Sadness is something he can lay in his voice without any problem.

And next we move into the church realm any way. Gabrieli Consort is not an unfamiliar choir on these pages. In Herbert Howells' 'Requiem Aeternam' the choir's voices melt, blend, move over and through each other. Again I notice the eternal voice of cathedrals. Voices that have sung there since the Middle Ages. Making use of the acoustics, giving the listeners the impression to listen to the voice of angels or even the Lord himself. A spell that worked for centuries.

Before I know it I have left he Gabrieli Consort behind me and am listening to 'Lux Aerterna' by A Capella Amsterdam. It is hard to notice the difference. The mood changed slightly, that seemed all to me.

"Is that the way the story ends?". Chuck Deely's story ended on 9 January of this year. At the end of Kairos we hear the most famous street musician of The Hague play one of his own compositions. From the cds he sold on the street. Always playing Bob Dylan or some hero from the 60s or 70s and now listen to this. It may not be original. Fact is that Deely was talented, but hard on luck. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong life most likely. 'Nice Guys Never Win'.

And for once I return to the beginning. What have I (not) heard? Yes, that's what you get from writing and listening. Musing on a thought probably and the clear change is there. After which the piano music takes over. It's the jazz that has disappeared to come back again later. The "experiment" is clearly still there in Backerra's composition 'First Touch' played by Maarten van Veen. When the bass takes over it could be the move into a new experiment. You fooled me, .No.

Wo.

You can listen to this Kairos here:

http://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_368227/


This is February's playlist:

Playlist Kairos 2 feb 23.00 / 11 PM CET

00:01  Ignacy Jan Wiśniewski. Proanek. Ignacy Wiśniewski trio. Album ‘Jazz Shirim’. Wood and mood.

02:11  Anna Backerra. First touch. Maarten van Veen, piano. Opname in eigen beheer.

03:54  Ignacy Jan Wisniewski. Port (fragment). Ignacy Wiśniewski trio. Album Jazz Shirim. Wood and mood.

14:29  Arvo Pärt. Pregando uit Lamentate. SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra; Andrey Boreyko, dirigent; Alexei Lubimov, piano. Album ‘Lamentate’. ECM NEW SERIES 19304763048.

19:18  Pauline Oliveros. Lear (fragment). Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis. Album’Deep Listening’. New Albion ‎NA 022 CD.

29:21  Bertrand Cantat (tevens tekst), Denis Barthe, Jean-Paul Roy, Serge Teyssot-Gay. Le vent nous portera. Sophie Hunger. Album ‘1983’. Two Gentleman, twogtl 009-J.

32:29  Benjamin van Esser. DART for piano and electronics. Gabi Sultana, piano. Voor zover bekend niet op album uitgebracht.  Zie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRyGrD4GzFc

38:11  Codes in the clouds. We were alive, together. Album ‘As The Spirit Wanes’. Erased Tapes Records ERATP027CD.

39:39  Larus Sigurdsson. Entry by the wolf door. Album ‘We are told that we shine’. Volkoren.

44:39  Ian Fischer Thinkin’ about it. Album ‘Koffer’. Snowstar Records.

48:56  Herbert Howells. Requiem Aeternam (3) uit Requiem. Gabrieli Consort o.l.v. Paul McCreesh. Album ‘A Song of Farewell’. Signum Records SIGCD 281.

53:31  György Ligeti. Lux Aeterna. Fragment. A Cappella Amsterdam, Daniel Reuss & Susanne Van Els. Album ‘Ligeti Lux Aeterna’ hm Gold edition HMC 501985 

55:59  Chuck Deely. Nice guys never win. Album ‘Shelter from the storm’. Uitgave in eigen beheer Chuck Deely.