Everyone Knows You Won’t Return

Koma Saxo featuring Sofia Jernberg, Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger “Koma Kaprifol”

Petter Eldh and his Koma Saxo ensemble approach jazz as though they’re just trying to organically get to where DJs and producers like DJ Shadow and Luke Vibert got with jazz through sampling and digital approximation by themselves 20-25 years ago. “Koma Kaprifol” has the compositional logic of a DJ track – the flute part is played like a loop over the beat, every other element seems to get layered in like a collage. The break sequence that leads to a shift in beat and a more wild bass part even sounds to me like the way Shadow would sometimes cut away from neat loops for a bit of carefully composed funky chaos. Eldh really gets the best of both worlds here, this balance of that meta compositional approach and the energy of musicians in a room actually deliberately playing the stuff rather than having it repurposed later on.

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Pom Poko “Enduro Corner”

Pom Poko songs tend to be very dynamic to the point that they can sometimes feel twitchy and impatient, as though the band is always eager to leap to another section from where they are in the moment. “Enduro Corner” has the big dynamic swings but a more mellow disposition as Ragnhild Fangel sings a gentle tangle of melody on the verses over guitar parts that seem to sway in a breeze. This is the tone that dominates most of the song, but it’s in some ways just an extended set up for the big dramatic moment in the chorus as the guitars feel like they’re suddenly dropping you off a cliff. The song eventually resolves into a more relaxed state, but only after a staccato part that somewhat disrupts the calm.

Buy it from Bandcamp.