Swedish saxophonist and composer Martin Küchen has taken the current parlous state of the world as a leaping-off point to undertake what is described as a jazz-opera — but don’t stop reading; this is far more impressive than that might sound.
Keeping his amorphous Angles group at a steady eight and enlisting a string quartet as well as Other Woman performer Elle-Kari Sander as vocalist, they have constructed a far-reaching and emotionally resonant suite that reflects a self-indulgent modern humanity.
It is an extremely involved and musically adventurous series of pieces that the assembled players tackle with great enthusiasm. Writing the music as well as the libretto must have taken a long time, and for the end result to be as accomplished and varied as it has turned out is an extraordinary feat. Starting off with dervish gypsy strings with reeds at the lower register and Ell-Kari’s extraordinary voice, dramatic and emotional tearing over the top.
Considering the subject matter and also the fact that personal tragedy impacted on the writing process, large portions of The Death Of Kalypso are slow and aching, deep and resonant, relying on the slow strokes of the strings to highlight the wildness and frustration of the vocals. The range of the octet’s instrumentation means that there are snippets of sound, whispers of reeds that are indulged by the main theme. The pieces ache and growl, the voice ever raising the temperature even over a gently simmering backdrop.
In places it feels like an elegy; but then the dam bursts and it all swells out into the open and an angry explosion of unexpected free expression jams the switchboard with squeals and howls, and even the piano and drums rattle the windows with glorious volume. They can only cope with so much of this before tolling bell piano sends us undercover, foggy gloom dropping the temperature. Stasis is reached and the sounds are lost, stuck in a vacuum that requires a lovely xylophone solo accompanying Elle-Kari’s lachrymose torch song vocalising.
In fact, the voice often drags the instruments with it, scaling unexpected heights, reaching for unlikely notes as if standing on a mountain top addressing the crowd away in the distance. Towards the end, there is more of melancholy European edge, all gentle drumbeat and down-chord inflections, that slight tragic heartache of a sunset. A truly lovely horn solo lifts us from the reverie and drops us ultimately into a final ambient drift. Here all ties are cut and the slow, sinuous motion is both welcoming yet strangely disconcerting, as if the story is not quite finished and they are not sure of the ending.Perhaps that is the case as not a single one of us knows the conclusion; but as the tumult that we are currently experiencing throws up more and more unwelcome surprises, this could be the ultimate soundtrack to steer us through.
-Mr Olivetti-
