JÜ & Kjetil Møster – JÜ Meets Moster (2014)

Miren que joya exótica: una mezcla extraña de un saxofonista noruego y un power trío húngaro, en un especial para oídos crimsonianos traído de la mano del Mago Alberto. Y como dice él, si no fuera por este blog estos trabajos quedarían seguramente fuera de cualquier circuito. Inconseguible en cualquier otro lado. Resulta que Kjetil Møster es un saxofonista noruego que un día se juntó con unos húngaros afiladísimos e hicieron explosión con un jazz muy alocado y cercano al Avant Garde y al rock duro... pero mejor que lo escuchen ustedes, y de verdad que ésto no lo van a encontrar en ningún otro lugar, son joyitas que solo crecen en el blog cabezón. Han ocurrido milagros para que eso llegue a tus manos, imagino que no lo vas a dejar escapar...

Artista: JÜ & Kjetil Møster

Álbum: Ü Meets Møster
Año: 2014
Género: Jazz fusión / Avant prog / Jazz rock
Nacionalidad: Noruega + Hungría

Lista de Temas:
1. Dear Johann
2. Bhajan
3. Morze
4. Hassassin
5. Kiu
6. One

Alineación:
- Adam Meszaros / guitars
- Ernö Hock / electric bass
- Andras Halmos / drums
with:
Kjetil Møster / saxophones, clarinet

Muy diferentes tipos de música se conjugan aquí, pero dan un resultado homogéneo. Así que podemos escuchar muy diferentes referencias, hablando musicalmente, y ni hablar en referencia a idiomas o lenguas. Pero eso aquí no importa porque está la lengua universal de la música.
Composiciones complejas, ritmos impares, jazz que se confunde con Black Sabbath o Led Zeppelin y uno no sabe porqué, pero registra música experimental y de improvisación con una intención feroz, y la resultante es casi indescriptible. El disco se convierte en un poderoso manifiesto a favor de la música libre, exploratoria: free jazz distorsionado, hardcore armado desde el saxo, pero sin llegar a ser Avant metal.
Pero vamos con el comentario del Mago Alberto que es el que vale.

Pienso que todos tenemos archivado algún grupo o solista que de pronto viene algun conocido y te pregunta ¿qué carajo es lo que estamos escuchando?, ese cuestionamiento viene perfecto para este trabajo que van a disfrutar. Mezcla extraña de un saxofonista noruego y un power trío húngaro, mezcla rara si las hay, y encaja perfecto dicha mezcla con lo que van a encontrar acá.
Una buena sugerencia es que escuchen COMPLETO el primer track, y después me cuentan. Un saxo que chilla con una bata de fondo parece introducirte en una suerte de discola improvisación típica de grupos de Avant, pero la cosa no es así, porque de pronto entra un fraseo de bajo que culmina con la aparición de una guitarra exquisita y te llevan despacio a una atmósfera totalmente esquizoide y no es aleatorio el adjetivo porque esos fraseos te depositan en un clima muy similar al "21st Century Schizoid Man" de King Crimson. Van a descubrir a un guitarrista impresionante con un feeling y buen gusto que solo te dará placer.
Si no fuera por este blog estos trabajos quedarían seguramente fuera de cualquier circuito bloggero, primero por lo exótico y segundo por la intención. Este trabajo es para oídos abezados, es un disco especial. Creo que hasta el arte de tapa te orienta un poco de lo que vas a encontrar, si tuviste el buen atino de escuchar a ZU y su impresionante "Carboniferus", te digo que esto es muy similar, aunque un tanto mas raro y colgado. Especial para oídos crimsonianos. Y se me viene a la cabeza Carlos el Menduco (que anda desaparecido).

Los cuatro intrépidos músicos exploran colectivamente una expansiva y explosiva forma interpretativa creada desde la pura tensión, creando texturas multiformes de otro mundo antes de construir a una eclosión de potencia de proporciones y obteniendo un resultado dramático. Resulta que se juntan unos húngaros y un noruego y Los cuatro hombres resultan ser almas gemelas, deseosas de asaltar el cielo por la fuerza. Cosas de la vida, como la que el Mago Alberto haya conseguido este disco por obra de su magia y se los traiga a ustedes.
Imagínense suertudos y tocados por la buena suerte del Universo.

Y vamos con algunos comentarios, generalmente relacionados desde el jazz, y de lo poco que encontré. Pero todos los que escucharon esto aclaman al disco, vean ustedes...

Worlds collide when the raucous Budapest-based power trio JÜ (consisting of fire-breathing guitarist Adam Meszaros, fuzz-bassist Ernö Hock and the remarkably flexible drummer Andras Halmos) joins Oslo-based saxophonist Kjetil Møster for this subversive meeting of the minds on RareNoise Records.
A powerful manifesto for ecstatic, exploratory, envelope-pushing music mixed by Bill Laswell and mastered by Michael Fossenkemper. JÜ Meets Møster bridges the gap between free jazz and hellacious, distortion-laced, guitar-driven hardcore rock. Music this ferocious hasn’t been heard since Laswell’s late, lamented Last Exit with Sonny Sharrock, Ronald Shannon Jackson and Peter Brotzman.
The album opens on an explosive note with a turbulent tenor sax-drums breakdown between Møster and Halmos on Dear Johann which takes on the feel of latter day John Coltrane or free jazz icon Albert Ayler jamming with the Allman Brothers Band on “Whipping Post” or vintage King Crimson on “21st Century Schizoid Man.”
Bhajan opens on a darker, more mysterious vibe before building to a potent crescendo, with Møster wailing on baritone sax, which is steeped in the tradition of Jimi Hendrix’s bold jazz-rock anthem “Third Stone From the Sun.”
Møster stretches freely with baritone sax on the moody and spacious Morze (For Agoston Bela) while Hassassin full of slamming unisons and fierce overblowing by Møster, is an intense showcase for drummer Halmos. Meszaros adds another frantic six-string onslaught at the tag of this intense offering.
The four intrepid musicians explore collectively on the more atmospheric KJÜ and they close out the collection with the expansive, 15-minute One which makes dramatic use of echo to create an otherworldly texture before building to a powerhouse conclusion of thunderous proportions.

RareNoise Records

To experience this collaboration between Norwegian saxophonist Kjetil Møster and Hungarian power trio JÜ is to alternately move through hazy soundscapes and the perilous rapids of progressive music with avant-jazz leanings.
JÜ—the trio of guitarist Àdàm Mészáros, bassist Ernö Hock, and drummer Andràs Halmos—deals in spiky tones and mystery-laced minimalism, working an artfully edgy angle with pile driver rhythms and shredding abandon one minute, and letting atmosphere trump firm direction the next. Møster matches their level of intensity and inconstancy, delivering deep melodic tones, squawking and rioting his way through much of this music, or leaving sonic voids for others to fill. All four men prove to be kindred spirits, eager to assault, assuage, and assault again.
"Dear Johann," opening on a sax-and-drums encounter that leads to a firmly grounded groove-jam; "Bhajan," moving from the ominous to the intense; and "Hassassin," raucous and violently raw, point to pleasure through excess and aggression. The other three numbers on the program, however, point to a more nuanced path through the unknown. "Morze (for Ágoston Bèla)" and "One" both begin as explorations of dark ambiance, settling later into slow and weighty grooves. "KJÜ," which finds Mészáros hinting at danger through cold alien language while Møster paints with his clarinet, is something with no precedent here.
The key to this collaboration, much of the work that both parties do on their own, and much of what comes out on the RareNoise imprint is open-mindedness. Willingness to try something different in music doesn't always lead to concrete failure or success, but it almost always leads to adventure, and sometimes, that's all that's needed.

Dan Bilansky

Worlds collide when the raucous Budapest-based power trio ‘JÜ’ (consisting of fire-breathing guitarist Àdàm Mészáros, fuzz-bassist Ernö Hock and the remarkably flexible drummer Andràs Halmos) joins Bergen-based saxophonist Kjetil Møster for this subversive meeting of the minds on RareNoise Records. A powerful manifesto for ecstatic, exploratory, envelope-pushing music mixed by Bill Laswell and mastered by Michael Fossenkemper. JÜ Meets Møster bridges the gap between free jazz and hellacious, distortion-laced, guitar-driven hardcore rock.
The album opens on an explosive note with a turbulent tenor sax-drums breakdown between Møster and Halmos on “Dear Johann” which takes on the feel of latter day John Coltrane or free jazz icon Albert Ayler jamming with the Allman Brothers Band on “Whipping Post” or vintage King Crimson on “21st Century Schizoid Man.”
“Bhajan” opens on a darker, more mysterious vibe before building to a potent crescendo, with Møster wailing on baritone sax, which is steeped in the tradition of Jimi Hendrix’s bold jazz-rock anthem “Third Stone From the Sun.” Møster stretches freely with baritone sax on the moody and spacious “Morze” while “Hassassin,” full of slamming unisons and fierce overblowing by Møster, is an intense showcase for drummer Halmos. Mészáros adds another frantic six-string onslaught at the tag of this intense offering. The four intrepid musicians explore collectively on the more atmospheric “KJÜ” and they close out the collection with the expansive, 15-minute “One,” which makes dramatic use of echo to create an otherworldly texture before building to a powerhouse conclusion of thunderous proportions.
“This collaboration came about because I got to know Andras after he attended the very first concert of my own band called Møster! at Kongsberg Jazz Festival in Norway,” explains the esteemed saxophonist. “One of my own goals with my own group is to show that different genres are not necessarily as far away from each other as one might think today. Up until the mid-80’s, musicians and artists from completely different musical directions were collaborating and drawing inspirations from one another. I dream of the times when Velvet Underground would go to Sun Ra concerts and use the inspiration in their own music. Or to hear the mythical collaboration between Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix. (My theory is that the music industry needed the segregation of musical genres to increase their sales, making people incapable of using their musical taste and to think for themselves, since the record labels already told them what the music was and who should buy what genres.) So I guess Andras heard some reflections of his own thoughts in my music and invited me to play with some Hungarian soulmates called JÜ. In describing his process of collaboration with JÜ on this RareNoise debut, Møster offers, “What surprised me was that they use some of the same compositional approaches to improvisation as I do. So the compositions are just skeletons, and we put meat on them as we improvise. And some of them, like KJÜ, is all free improvised, but as we go we talk about sound textures, instrumentation, temperature, forms and shapes. It might sound academic or intellectual, but it’s done very intuitively”.
Regarding his own influences that came to bear on this rare encounter with JÜ, Møster explains, “For me, Coltrane has without a doubt been the strongest influence on my life as a musician. I’ve had many incredibly strong, overwhelming, physical experiences listening to him. And his approach to music has learned me a lot. And seeing how he influenced Albert Ayler, John Gilmore, Roscoe Mitchell, Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter, to name a few, has expanded that influence, since they also influenced me a lot.
As for the open-mindedness that he exhibits as a musician on this project and others, Møster says, “I do play very many different kinds of music and with many different bands. This past summer I played with Röyksopp and Robyn, an amazing Norwegian rapper named Lars Vaular and my long time electro-rock band Datarock.I find the same kind of open-mindedness in the members of JÜ. They all play and like very different kinds of music. So we can play on very different references, talking musically together in different languages, or mixing languages, so to speak.
Halmos started playing music relative late, at age 17, but soon found himself in a band that played complex compositions with odd meters. “Over the last 20 years or so I’ve played in many bands in many styles but I’ve always stayed in the underground circuit as a musician,” he explains. “In the last 11 years I’ve made my living as a concert promoter for bigger venues and festivals, bringing acts that never played in Hungary before. As an organizer, I’ve had a chance to spend time with many of my musical heroes like drummers Joey Baron, Kenny Wollesen, Billy Martin and learned a lot from them. I also had chance to study and play with drummer Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker as a member of a workshop big band at the Mediawave festival. The two of them introduced me to Gnawan music and encouraged me to study it. In fact some of the first things we ever played together in JÜ were based on those trance-like Gnawan patterns. Guitarist Mészáros was initially inspired by the Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin records his father turned him on to. “From age 10 we always had a guitar at home,” he recalls. “I played but never got too serious about it until high school when I actually forced myself to listen to and learn jazz because I felt like this was what I had to do to get a degree in music and to be a high level player. And, of course, players like John Scofield, John McLaughlin and Bill Frisell just blew my mind.” By 2005, Mészáros grew tired of formal music studies and began playing in pop-rock bands, traveling across Europe and earning money along the way. By 2007, he started to get involved in experimental and improvisational music, which led to his encounter with Hock and Halmos. Bassist Hock began playing at age 15. “My main influences were hardcore and metal back then which changed almost immediately when I was introduced to the double bass at age 21,” he recalls. “First it got me into Hungarian folk music, then later jazz, and that was followed by a variety of genres (classical music, hip-hop and electronic music, music from Morocco and other parts of Africa, Avant – Garde and free music.)”

Hubtone

Ya saben dónde encontrarlo. Han ocurrido milagros para que eso llegue a tus manos, imagino que no lo vas a dejar escapar.