80 years [Vinyl 1LP]

Modern Jazz / Indie Jazz
premiera polska: 2017-12-01,
Wydawnicto Audiofilskie
kontynent: Europa
opakowanie: kartonowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com - ocena * * * * 1/2:
Za projektem Hess Is More stoi Duńczyk Mikkel Hess, prawdziwy człowiek orkiestra, poza Hess Is More prowadzi inne projekty jak “Hess / AC / Hess Spacelab”, “3 x Hess”, "Small White Man", “2s and 4s”, “Hess / Vibskov Trommefredag”, “SH101 Nightmare”. Jest cenionym kompozytorem muzyki filmowej i teatralnej. Spektakl baletowy “UROPA”, do którego skomponował muzykę (dla Królweskiego Teatru w Kopenhadze) odniósł wielki sukces, podobnie było z muzyką do sztuki teatralnej "Rosenkrantz i Guildenstern nie żyją", i muzyką do filmu “When Animals Dream”, który swoją premierę miał na Festiwalu Cannes 2014. Piosenka "Yes Boss" Hess Is More z płyty "Denial" z 2008 roku do dzisiaj jest wielkim przebojem.

W projekcie Hess is More artysta lubi jednoczyć przeciwieństwa, słyszalne jest to w jego twórczości, gdzie momenty wprowadzające w zamyślenie przeradzają się w kipiące humorem. Hess lubi zaskakiwać, stąd na jego płytach sięga po eklektyczne narzędzia. Sporo tu elektronicznych dźwięków, sample (a wiadomo, że Duńczycy i Norwegowie to mistrzowie współczesnej elektroniki). Słuchacz ma jednak często wrażenie, iż to nie muzyka z głośników zwróciła na siebie uwagę, a odgłos robót na zewnątrz albo niezidentyfikowane tony dobiegające z innego pokoju. Hess o procesie tworzenia mówi z rozbrajającą szczerością, że traktuje muzykę jak gumkę recepturkę, coś, co można naciągać, wyginać na różne strony...
I taka też jest jego najnowsza płyta, to kolejna eklektyczna próba zauroczenia słuchacza. Śmiało można powiedzieć, że ta płyta to eklektyzm najwyższej próby! I choć połączeń różnych stylów, dźwięków, brzmień i faktur jest tu sporo, to całość wypada fenomenalnie, a każda część ze sobą współgra.
Podczas nagrywania płyty Hess zaprosił do studio znakomitości współczesnej muzyki, zarówno jazzowej jak trębacz Tom Harrel, saksofonista Matt Parker, perkusista Rune Olesen, klawiszowiec Nikolaj Hess, jak i specjalizujący się w muzyce gospel, R&B, jazz i blues amerykański zespół wokalny East Coast Inspirational Singers, znany ze współpracy z Joshem Grobanem, Celine Dion, Alicią Keys, Mariah Carey, Johnem Mayer'em, Patti LaBelle, Quincy Jonesem i Davidem Fosterem.

Efekt jest po prostu znakomity, płyta "80 years', dostępna także na audiofilskim winylu to wykwintne danie dla wysmakowanego podniebienia!
autor: Paweł Matuła
Copyright © 1996-2018 Multikulti Project. All rights reserved


”80 years” jest dostępny na CD i Vinyl 1LP
Editor's info:
Led by Danish drummer Mikkel Hess, Hess Is More has built a strong following for their unique instrumentation and unorthodox arrangements, combining elements jazz, electronica, Scandinavian folk, soundtrack music, and classic pop blended with a playfully melodic and decidedly humorous sensibility. Their new album ‘80 years’ is being touted as their best yet. Featuring East Coast Inspirational Singers, jazz legend Tom Harrel, Matt Parker, David Mason, Rune Olesen, Nikolaj Hess, Rasmus Bille Bahncke, W. Andrew Raposo & Mikkel Hess, it’s catchy melodies and chant like lyrics will haunt you for days.

We all know what to do when encountering a rookie band: We fetishize the musicians for their freshness, if not necessarily originality, the promise inherent to their mission becomes ours. So, too, we know the drill with those aged and reunited bands, rotely retracing the footsteps of their youth: The artistically minded shun them, as if fearful that the musicians’ listlessness is contagious. But what of the third species? That is, the veteran band whose creative restlessness refuses to dim, the band that starts life as one entity, flowers into something more exotic, then grows into something more adventurous still, the band that, with every album, takes further steps toward the inimitable. These are the groups we must savor like fine wines and temperate summer days. Follow their every move, send them flowers and candies if you must, for they are one in a million.

80 Years is Hess Is More’s seventh LP, give or take—it’s hard to keep track. What’s clear is that it could never be the band’s first, second, or third album, much as The White Album (to cite the starriest example of this exalted subgenre) could never have introduced the Beatles. The record is far too eccentric and confident, reflecting the zigzagging journey the band has embarked upon to arrive at this place.

Let’s recap! Hess Is More first flickered to life more than a dozen years ago in Copenhagen, where drummer and singer Mikkel Hess had recently graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music. After spending his young life steeped in jazz, Mikkel greeted adulthood by falling under the sway of pop. From its first rumblings, Hess Is More reveled in the simple pleasures of pop music—all juicy dance beats and whistled jingles—while never abandoning the perspective of an art-damaged jazz act. In time, Mikkel relocated to New York. Hess Is More had long featured the drummer and a revolving cast, yet in the city a dynamic band slowly gelled. It is the type of project impossible to conceive outside the boundaries of New York City, with members hailing from far-flung corners, both geographic (Denmark, Ireland, the States) and stylistic (jazz, electronic, Disney pop). In concert, the band encircles Mikkel as he drums and sings. A drummer singing lead is an unexpected sight, but this is no schtick: Hess Is More is, in effect, a drummer-led jazz band that happens to play a bastardized form of rock music.
To pick up a Hess Is More record from a few years back was to encounter an avant-garde pop band with its emphasis tilted toward the latter category. Songs were contained—three or four tidy minutes—and very much stamped by the studio. One song became a bona fide hit in Russia after a popular exotic dancer, immune to the lyrics’ ironic tilt, employed it in a web video. 80 Years is a different beast. Tracks sprawl out to nine, ten, even twenty minutes. As with the album’s predecessor and companion piece, 2014’s My Head Is a Ballroom, the record is a resounding band effort, with each musician scattering his fingerprints across Hess’s wondrous melodies. “It’s Backwards No Matter What I Do,” which dominates the album’s b-side and runs about as long as a Seinfeld episode, features a veritable album’s worth of solos and moods. Perhaps even more adventurous are the album’s short songs: “Recollection of 80 Years,” a surprise trumpet solo by guest star Tom Harrell (reprising his role from the title track) that would sound at home on a jazz record, and “You May,” the Eno-esque lullaby at the LP’s conclusion.
Throughout, the band sounds like itself and only itself. This music is never weird but always unique. It will move the sedentary to dance and the pitiless to weep. It is music created by men with experienced hands and young souls, rooted in their respective traditions but eager to break any rules that stand before them.
by Jay Ruttenberg


All music composed by Mikkel Hess.
Produced by W. Andrew Raposo, David Mason and Mikkel Hess with Matt Parker and Rasmus Bille Bahncke.

Tracks 1,2,3,4 arranged by W. Andrew Raposo, David Mason, Rasmus Bille Bahncke and Mikkel Hess.
Track 5 arranged by Tom Harrel.
Tracks 6,7,8,9 arranged by W. Andrew Raposo, David Mason, Nikolaj Hess, Matt Parker, Rasmus Bille Bahncke and Mikkel Hess.
Track 10 arranged by W. Andrew Raposo and Mikkel Hess.

Recorded by W. Andrew Raposo at Midnight Sun Studio except Rune Olesen percussion recorded at Studio 4 in Copenhagen and Tom Harrel trumpet recorded by Mikkel Hess at Vallekilde Summer Session.

Mixed by Eric Broucek, mastered by Heba Kadry

Cover photo by Alastair Wiper, shot on set for Henrik Vibskov film “Harmonic Mouth” commissioned by Manhattan Museum of Art and Design.

Art Direction by Jacob Wildschiodtz / NR2154.

muzycy:
East Coast Inspirational Singers - Vocal
Tom Harrel - Trumpet
Matt Parker - Tenor and Soprano Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet
Rune Olesen - Percussion
Rasmus Bille Bahncke - SH101
David Mason - Electric Drums, Sequencer and Drum Machine Programming
W. Andrew Raposo - Bass
Nikolaj Hess - Keyboard
Daniel Nentwig - Keyboard
Mikkel Hess - Vocal, Drums, Keyboard, Bass, Guitar

utwory:
A1. 80 Years, Part I
A2. 80 Years, Part II
A3. 80 Years, Part III
A4. Chopin
A5. Recollection of 80 Years
B1. It's Backwards No Matter What I Do, Part I
B2. It's Backwards No Matter What I Do, Part II
B3. It's Backwards No Matter What I Do, Part III
B4. It's Backwards No Matter What I Do, Part IV
B5. You May

total time - 46:22
wydano: 1st December 2017
more info: www.editionrecords.com
more info2: www.hessismore.com