I was listening to this album today, and I have to say that it is definitely one of the coolest avant-garde discs from the 1990s. For circumstancial reasons, this album is, sadly, almost a totally forgotten session. It definitely deserves more recognition. Firstly, the line-up is an amazing combination of the most far-out players from the U.S. and Hilmar Jensson's native Iceland:
Hilmar Jensson - Guitar
Skuli Sverisson - 6-string electric bass
Tim Berne - alto sax (on 3 of the tracks)
Chris Speed - tenor sax, clarinet
Andrew D'Angelo - alto sax, bass clarinet
Jim Black - Drums
With this group of formidable players, Jensson succeeds in pulling as much out of them all as possible. Black and Sverisson provide the same free-ish rhythm that is heard on the early Yeah No! albums. The three reed players are definitely a plus, bringing a large sound to Jensson's unusual written parts. In many ways, the composition is reminiscent of Tim Berne's stuff from the same time period, combining strange harmonies and bizarre rhythmic layouts (with lots of triplets, 4:3 ties, and quintuples) over odd time signatures. Jensson's playing has him combining the sounds of John Abercrombie and the 80s Bill Frisell with his own specific approach, which is at turns ambient and cutting. When he locks in with Sverisson's excellently chunky bass lines, they sound tight as hell. I'm not going to rip this album apart track by track, but I definitely have to say that this album deserves more attention, especially in light of Winter-and-Winter's active reissue campaign of the brilliant JMT catalogue (which includes tons of work by great avant-garde players like Berne and Marc Ducret). It'd be a shame if this under-discussed masterpiece got more attention before fading completely into obscurity. I think it's actually still available at
Bad Taste Records , which is based out of Iceland. That's where I got my copy just this past year. I'd love to hear from anyone else who digs this album.
April 18th, 2005, 10:44 PM
Linear Mode
