Box - Studio 1 (Rune Grammofon)
4/5
By: Charlie Potter
This unusual mix of open minded, eclectically experienced musicians reminds you that improvisational music can actually be exciting and not just self indulgent.
When I get given improv jazz albums to review, often my heart sinks a little. It's not because I don't like improvised jazz, more because it's hard to review such abstract music. Yet also, there is just so much of it in the world, so much that it is tempting to propose that any improvisational musician should only be allowed to appear on a certain amount of albums per year.
But then this of course is ridiculous, an artist can do whatever he or she wants and it is not a band's responsibility to determine their audiences' listening habits. The main problem is that improvisational musicians rarely will come out and say anything along the lines of 'this is an album I am particularly proud of - if you want one really good album that I appear on, then this is it'. So it means fans either have to a) buy all of their albums, burning a massive hole in their pockets and presumably buying a fair amount of rubbish in the process, or b) take a shot in the dark and risk ending up with only rubbish, or c) put your trust in idiots like me.
Yet ever since I have started receiving things from Rune Grammofon, that has all changed. Every one of their releases I have reviewed has been interesting, unusual, and every one has been improvisational. Every time I receive an album from this label, far from my heart sinking, my face lights up and I say out loud the words 'oh lucky day!'. And then I jump up and click my heals together.
It does seem an unfortunate necessity to take you through each member and give a bit of back history, but this may just explain a bit for a few of the jazzmatazzerzz out there. First of all Raoul Björkenheim is a guitarist/viola player who has worked with a great deal of orchestras, and everyone from the Bill Laswell region to the Jah Wobble region. Trevor Dunn was the bass player for Mr.Bungle (and wrote some of the best tracks on Disco Volante e.g. 'Carry Stress in the Jaw'), and still plays with Secret Chiefs 3 (basically Mr.Bungle without Mike Patton) and Fantômas, but spends most of his time in down town New York, doing improv jazz with a lot of the John Zorn affiliates as well as anyone else who finds themselves at a loose end down town. Ståle Storløkken is a keyboard player for Supersilent and Humcrush who has also worked with overrated composer Arve Henriksen. The drummer is Morgan Ágren, who has drummed for a wide range of people, most notably Zappa and on the other end of the scale a guy from Messugah.
The mix here makes for a really good sound. It's hard to believe that these guys had never before written let alone practiced any of the music before recording this brilliant little experiment. You really get the feeling that the musicians bonded on Studio 1, as corny as that sounds, as there is not a hint of them fighting against each other. Each musician proves that he can play with the up most professionalism.
The sound of the album is largely characterised by Ágren's incredible drumming and Storløkken's fearlessly weird keyboard sounds. The music was also recorded on analogue tape, which has given the drums a really nice crusty natural compression, a method which overall gives the recording not only a warmth but also an edginess to the drums that is reminiscent of something much more rock. The more traditional rock sound can also be found in the structure of the tracks not to mention the use of electric guitar.
As with most improv jazz albums, there are inevitably a few tracks with long boring build ups where the band haven't really figured out what they are doing. With Box however, things will often come out of nowhere, members of the ensemble being quick to react and almost instinctively foresee the sometimes complex rhythms. Not only this, but the elements will sometimes recur giving a much stronger defining character to each track, making the album over all less of a monotonous dirge. As usual Mr. Dunn is a master of tension and using virtually every style in the book to achieve this tension. The guitarist is fantastic and is happy to use his guitar as a percussive instrument when is needed, but could possibly take more of a backseat at times.
So there is your answer - don't buy every impov jazz album, don't just buy one, and don't even necessarily trust me - just buy every album from Rune Grammofon.
Artists in this article: Box, Box Codax
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment