Monika Roscher Bigband – Witchy Activities And The Maple Death

Zenna / Membran

Although Monika Roscher‘s Bigband has been together for over ten years, this is only their third album.

Judging from the website however, playing live is where they grab their thrills and also how they have managed to hone such a seemingly unwieldy outfit into a really precise and beautifully organised band.

Containing four trumpeters and five trombonists as well as an array of sax, clarinet, percussion and electronics, it really does hold within an army of noise-makers that on opener “8 Prinzessinnen” makes me visualise an orchestral Cardiacs with its harsh, blaring staccato bursts offset by dreamy robot voice. It feels a little like being poked in the chest as someone makes a strenuous point while travelling on a roller coaster.

The lyrics are intriguing and strewn across the rugged rhythms. There is lots of pulling and pushing, guitar rupturing, bass sax blaring, the drums a madcap dash. In fact the drums set the tone and everybody else has to keep up or be left behind, even the trombones interjecting with plenty to say.

There is a real intensity here and I love the kraut-groove that the strings put together on “Firebird”. There is absolutely no way to second guess who will be doing what with momentum breaking down and textural elements descending to fill in the spaces and then sweeping back up into a whimsical switchback. The directional switches unveil a surprising bar-room piano as all manner of other sounds come raining down.

Insistent cyclical repetition is often the maypole around which orchestra winds its disparate strands, particularly on the sprawling “Witches Brew”, sometimes taken like a baton and passed between instruments; but the textures vary from thick, sticky strands to gossamer thin, with some too hot to touch. Horns churn up an eastern atmosphere while flute and birdsong gives a more pastoral, woodland flow. This enormous cornucopia of sound clocks in at twelve minutes, its constant state of flux causing it to feel a lot longer, but in a good way

Finger-snapping double bass and cornet give a prog-jazz feel to “Creatures Of Dawn”, with really propulsive drums which seem essential to corralling the overwhelming number of players into some semblance of order. The precision and insistence of the staccato delivery can at times be extreme, but there are points where a dark fairground vibe appears, hypnotising you into an unlit tent, luring you with a promise of something you didn’t know you needed but can be fulfilled right here. Night falls and shadows loom, all is not as it seems as martial drums insinuate, intensity ever present.

It is hard to believe so much is on offer here; as the album progresses, the feelgood funky jazz groove of “A Taste Of The Apocalypse” gives way to the sleepy trumpet-led “The Leading Expert Of Loneliness”. Things turn more contemplative with “Direct Connection” and then the creeping dread of “Unbewegte Sternenmeere” brings things to a close.

Besides the omni-present drumming the other presiding ingredient is Monika’s voice, its savoury sweet charm unleashing abstract tales of spirituality and strength. There have been comparisons made with Björk, but apart from a northern European inflection, I can’t really hear it; and musically, there is so much going on it puts all other bands to shame. How she manages to write and arrange for so sprawling a collective is a feat in itself, but Witchy Activities And The Maple Death is a roaring success and well worth investigation.

-Mr Olivetti-