Food: Last Supper

Experimental / Indie Jazz
premiera polska: 2005-06-14
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Norwegia
opakowanie: digipackowe etui
opis:
Editor's Info:
The fourth album from this quartet and quite possibly their very best. Brilliantly performed and recorded, it´s highlighting the delicate balance between Ballamy and Henriksen´s melodic and lyrical playing and the electronic soundscapes they fully started to explore on “Veggie”. Which speaks volumes when we know that “Veggie” was nominated for a Norwegian grammy and received some outstanding reviews, ”this is remarkable, visionary music (Jazz UK), “a very important work” (Milkfactory, UK). And lets not forget Mats Eilertsen and Thomas Strønen, one of many excellent rhythm sections currently working in Norwegian jazz.

There´s enough space on ”Last Supper” to allow for an immense delicacy to play itself out. Brass from Ballamy and Henriksen assume high-floating melody lines that are kept aloft by some understated rhythm work from Eilertsen and Strønen, aided by tiny electronic atmospherics. Superb.
The Wire (UK)

On “Last Supper” Food still opts for open-ended textures with no chordal center. The subtle use of electronics by all Food members and the focus on harmonic and melodic playing demonstrates the affinity between these players. Last Supper offers unique dreamlike soundscapes, highlighting the idiosyncratic playing of Henriksen, a whispery mode as if he were playing the Japanese shakuhachi flute (very close to Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's style, especially solo or in duets with his partner, pianist Satoko Fujii), and the lyrical and restrained playing, mainly on the soprano sax, of Ballamy. But this release introduces Strønen as the key player, supplying irregular, fractured and loose rhythms in the tradition of great European improvising drummers such as Paul Lytton, Paul Lovens or Tony Oxley, but always keeping a rhythmic center, except on his own “Daddycation,” the only track on which he does not appear. Strønen's wise and imaginative choice of brush strokes, delicate touches of the cymbals and hand drumming define Last Supper as Food's most mature release. Strønen take the lead part on only one track, the too-short, upbeat “Junkfood,” in which Ballamy, Henriksen and Eilersten try to catch his driving rhythms. As usual with Rune Grammofon's meticulously done releases, a beautiful minimalist sleeve of Kim Hiorthøy matches this beautiful music.
All About Jazz (US)

Attempting to summarise Food's music is something of a challenge. A number of seemingly disparate elements are arranged successively or in combination. These include gentle electronic ambience, folksong keening, chain-rattling worthy of Marley's ghost, impassioned paeans to nature, wistful and highly melodic unison lines, crazed scat singing and lively jazz improvisation. "Daddycation" (first heard on Rune Grammofon's Money Will Ruin Everything anniversary release) is heart-meltingly gorgeous. "Exeter Opening" begins pensively and ends up in a lengthy passage that would do a Miles Davis 70's group proud. The title piece and final track on the album sounds as if Food were soundtracking an Ingmar Bergman or Andrei Tarkovsky film. It's medieval, mythic and haunting with a beguiling solemnity that belies the album's occasional humour to deliver a mourning farewell. Try listening to Last Supper in headphones while walking through your local shopping centre. It may just make for a transporting, surreal experience: the music gave me the feeling that I was a traveller out of time, a brief visitor from another place entirely. Last Supper is a moving antidote for our beleaguered times.
BBC Online (NO)

State of the art electro-acoustic improvisation from the Norway-UK all-star quartet whose previous three albums made a well-deserved splash. This may well be the best of the lot, though much of it is closer to a kind of musical version of the Shipping Forecast than it is to jazz. Themes ebb and flow as musical tides turn, from chilled and lyrical loops to free-improv tempests, but such is the mastery editing that nothing outstays its welcome and the disparate parts coalesce into a very satisfying whole. The opening piece is audio-heaven: Arvo Pärt meets ”In A Silent Way”. 5/5.
The Independent (UK)

Anglo-Norwegian group utilise electronics and many of the sounds and textures of ambient music to create their own beautiful post-jazz electronica. ”Last Supper” has a folksy choral feel with Ballamy´s poignant lyricism and Henriksen´s breathy trumpet sound perfectly framed against the resonant bass notes and squidgy swirling electronics. It´s their finest album but has a melancholic quality that sounds suspiciously like a farewell.
Time Out London (UK)

Ooh, nice. Rune Grammofon´s a label on a deeply interesting roll right now with a slew of new releases of brainy, beautiful contemporary music and this, with its half-breath, half-note trumpet tones, electronic soundscapery, acoustic bass, shiny percussion and sweet saxes from Iain Ballamy, is a lovely example. Colourful, clever and often properly affecting, the restraint, instrumental virtuosity and admirable commitment to seeing every song through mean that even when ”Last Supper” is complex it´s never flashy.
Straight No Chaser (UK)

muzycy:
Thomas Strønen: Drums, Electronics, Producer
Iain Ballamy: Saxophone, Electronics
Arve Henriksen: Trumpet, Voice, Electronics
Mats Eilertsen: Bass, Electronics

utwory:
1. Exeter Opening 7:40
2. Christcookies 4:47
3. Quinoa 3:56
4. Temporary 1:17
5. Junkfood 1:44
6. Daddycation 4:04
7. Exeter Ending 6:52
8. First Supper 2:32
9. Last Supper 6:06

wydano: 2004-10-18
nagrano: 2004
more info: www.runegrammofon.com