Goran Kajfes Tropiques - Tell Us - Import CD

Credits:

Goran Kajfes Tropiques

Description:

Tell Us is the third long-player from Goran Kajfe? Tropiques since 2017. Their founding, however, dates back to 2011 when, after the release of Kajfe? Nordic Prize-winning double album X/Y, he was commissioned to compose an original work for Swedens premier modernist dance troupe Vindhaxor. Their debut, Enso, was composed of a gradually unfolding, hour-long track with a fever of rolling grooves, hypnotic ostinatos, and shuffling, circular beats. 2019s Into the Wild was issued during the pandemic. Bass clarinetist Christer Bothen joined the lineup of trumpeter Kajfe?, keyboardist Alexander Zethson, double bassist Johan Berthling, and drummer Johan Holmegard. 2024s Tell Us fits the Tropiques aesthetic and is also a departure from it. It is the first of their albums to appear on WeJazz. Bass clarinet was left off, but strings from cellist/string arranger Leo Svensson Sander and violinist/string arranger Josefin Runsteen do appear. The influences of Alice Coltrane (particularly in string charts), Miles Davis, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Tangerine Dream, and psychedelia all register. Chamber strings introduce "Unity in Diversity." They duet then engage in call-and-response around a lyric fragment. Zethson adds a six-note organ pattern, then his piano in counterpoint, then a synth and gentle sequencer amid hand percussion, all in layered restraint. Kajfe? trumpet solo floats across Arabic and Spanish modes while framing Berthlings commanding bass pulse. Sander and Runsteen return to the frontline as her multi-tracked violin adds ballast and drama to his solo. The interplay between Kajfe?, Runsteen, and Zethson recalls John McLaughlin and Shakti in places. "Magmatique," introduced by a piano playing a minor-key, two-chord vamp is punctuated by double bass, melodic synth, piano, and muted trumpet before cello and pizzicato bass add dark, dramatic nuance. The pianists left hand is pronounced as it delivers single lines and vamps as food for strings, synth, and bass to feed off. The tension increases gradually before Holmegard and Zethson (playing piano, synth, and organ) get assertive, circular, and funky, folding futurist soul-jazz and post-bop into proggy rock progressions. The synth shades and prompts everyone forward, especially the trumpeter, who adds a generous layer of reverb to his compelling solo while engaging directly with the rhythm section and strings, which offer their own vamps. Closer "Prije i Posle" (translation, "now and then") emerges with a floating synth and vibraphone sounds, with a Far East lyric statement and pizzicato double bass. There are harp-like sounds as Zethson plays the piano strings glissando, harp-like, from inside. Halfway through, Holmegard plays double-time in a snare and tom-tom shuffle as cello responds from the lower register, and bass and synth propel the arrangement. Runsteen delivers a long, loping investigatory solo before Kajfe?, in reverbed solo, engages with her and Sander before they come together and whisper it out. While Tell Us initially seems to be a simple extension of the Goran Kajfe? Tropiques sound, thats a deceptive conclusion: The attention to detail, dynamic, harmonic interplay, and textural detail here are a leap forward into unknown sonic territory. ~ Thom Jurek

Tracklisting:

1.Unity in Diversity
2.Prije i posle
3.Magmatique