The Thing: Shake [Vinyl 2LP]

Avant Jazz / Free Improvisation / Avant-Garde
premiera polska: 2022-09-06
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Szwecja
opakowanie: Gatefoldowe etui
opis:
fyh.com.pl
Nordycka supergrupa w akcji. The Thing kolejny raz chwytają za serca swoją zróżnicowaną wizją free jazzu. Jasne, improwizacja ma to do siebie, że najlepiej, aby nudno nie było, raczej wielowątkowo. I the Thing właśnie tak grają. Trio Mats Gustafsson – Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – Paal Nilssen-Love to śmietanka w skandynawskim światku muzycznym, prawdziwa free-impro czołówka.

Shake! wybrzmiewa jak w zegarku, tu nie ma przypadkowych melodii, nietrafionych dźwięków czy partii. Perkusja Paala Nilssen-Love w wielu przypadkach jest raczej przytłumiona saksofonem Matsa Gustafssona (wyjątkiem będzie „LOOP – The Nail Will Burn”, jakby wyrwany z solowych albumów norweskiego perkusisty), a bas Ingebrigta Håkera Flatena połyskuje między rytmem a dęciakiem. The Thing, jak na nich już przystało, łączą noise z bluesowymi wstawkami, wszystko jednak w temacie frywolnej i niespokojnej improwizacji. Ale co należy zaznaczyć, całe Shake! konstruuje raczej ponure wizje. Tak jest w przypadku „Fra Jord Er Du Kommet” i „Sigill”, utworach powolnych, niemal mrocznych i smętnych jednocześnie. Ciężar melodii wygrywanych przez Skandynawów jest na płycie całkiem spory, i nie zmienią tego żywsze „Bota Fogo” (rewelacyjne partie basu) i wspomniane „LOOP – The Nail Will Burn”, które mogłoby być dłuższe (raptem ponad dwie minuty), choć zapewne siła rażenia nie byłaby aż taka duża i taka mocna. „Aim” ze swoją wielowątkowością to pokaz muzycznych umiejętności całej trójki, każdy z artystów ma swoje pięć minut. Można rozbijać Shake! i poszczególne utwory, myśląc o pojedynczych partiach, bo i Flaten, i Nilssen-Love, i w końcu Gustafsson są wirtuozami w swoich kategoriach, ale całościowo, pomijając solowe wyczyny, The Thing kolejny raz potwierdzają, że to jazzowa czołówka, free-impro z niemal funkową duszą.
autor: Piotr Strzemieczny

freejazzblog.org * * * * 1/2
In my review about The Thing’s last album Live, a collaboration with Thurston Moore, I said that they were my favorite band. So I was excited as usual when I picked up their new album and put it in my CD player … and it was not what I expected. To be honest, I was puzzled. Shake didn’t get me as promptly as Garage, Bag it, Mono or Boot, for example. But why was that so? Did that mean that their music was not as fascinating as before?

Mats Gustafsson (saxes), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (b) and Paal Nilssen-Love (dr) have followed an interesting concept with The Thing. They take the power of blues and heavy rock and mix it with the freedom of improvised music using the riff as the foundation of their pieces. They do this on Shake as well but it wouldn’t make sense if they had just repeated this idea over and over again, without trying out something different. What is new on this album are the three tracks with Scandinavian titles: Håker Flaten’s composition “Til Jord Skal Du Bli“ (Norwegian for “To Dust You Will Return“), Nilssen-Love’s “Fra Jord Er Du Kommet“ (meaning “From Earth You Have Come“) and Colin Bergh’s “Sigill“ (Swedish for "Sign" or "Emblem"). All three compositions are unusually reflective for The Thing. In “Sigill“ Gustafsson meditates gloomily over gongs and a hypnotic bass-line, the music sounds like one of Nick Cave’s murder ballads (just without lyrics). Nilssen-Love’s “Fra Jord Er Du Kommet“ quotes his solo album “Cut and Bleed“ using reverberant metal material. Gustafsson and Håker Flaten only add sparse notes here and there before a melodic waltz emerges almost out of nowhere. Together with “Til Jord Skal Du Bli“ the piece makes a spiritual pair, in which The Thing integrate music of their other, more traditional free jazz projects.

However, there is still a great deal of the music which has made this band so successful. There are are cover versions of jazz classics like Ornette Coleman’s “Perfection“ (in a medley with “Viking Disco“) which they turn into a Blue Cheer track (something they did quite effectively with John Coltrane’s “India“ on Boot as well), and they also cover a rock song: their version of Loop’s “The Nail Will Burn“ rides on a five-note-riff, turning it upside down, wringing it out and using what’s left of it for a short and precise collective improvisation.

Finally, like on many albums before they have been augmented by guest musicians which add new sound colors to their music. Here they are joined by Anna Hogberg on alto sax and Goran Kajfes on cornet for “Aim“, the longest piece on the album, which starts with a reflective Gustafsson solo before the band displays another one of their rock riffs. Hogberg and Kajfes drop in after around five minutes and the piece literally blossoms out so that one might wish that they invite more than one musician for a cooperation on their next album (like Brötzmann’s Full Blast did with Keiji Haino, Mars Williams and Peter Evans on Crumbling Brain).

Shake is more varied than other The Thing albums, it needs more time and attentiveness but it is as fascinating and grows with every listening.
By Martin Schray

muzycy:
Mats Gustafsson: baritone saxophone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: electric bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: drums

guests on track 5:
Anna Högberg: Alto Saxophone
Goran Kajfes: Cornet

utwory:
A1. Viking Disco / Perfection
A2. First Shake
A3. Til Jord Skal Du Bli
B1. Second Shake
B2. The Nail Will Burn
B3. Sigill
C1. Aim
C2. Third Shake
B1. Round About Lapa
B2. Bota Fogo
B3. Fra Jord Er Du Kommet

wydano: Oct 30, 2015
nagrano: Recorded June 1st and 2nd 2015 at Duper Studio, Bergen Norway.

more info: www.thethingrecords.com