Redeye worldwide The Death of Kalypso [VINYL]

Growing from Angles 6 in 2007, to Angles 9 in 2012, and culminating in a 12-piece ensemble in 2022, the Swedish, groove-based free-jazz ensemble is now an octet, simply called Angles. They stir excitement with their new, incredibly ambitious and unique double-LP. The work - which could be considered a contemporary jazz-opera - mixes irresistible and urgent tunes with scintillating instrumental and improvisational sections. A genre-bending, over an hour long piece in twelve parts, it's one of the most exhilarating albums to emerge from the thrilling Swedish scene for experimental music. The vocalist star is Elle-Kari Sander (from the Tiny and The Other Woman), and an eminent string quartet lift the opus to hitherto unseen heights. The music is composed by multi-reedist Martin Kuchen, strings and wind-arrangements by Alex Zethson, and production by Sander, Zethson and Kuchen. It was recorded at the legendary studio Atlantis in Stockholm, Sweden. An extensive drone piece from the recording was released in the fall of 2023, and during the end of the year and spring of 2024 a total of four singles will be dropped before the full album releases. The music is strong, cohesive and simple, performed by sophisticated players who can make any table turn. Everything is there: pathos, playfulness, energy and a certain kind of bliss, strong and emotional, that hits the audience every time. The libretto is about a hybrian world of gods that meets an equally hybrian humanity. About how the different characters, as in a shadow play, invisibly change places and shapes and then switch between worlds. Perhaps, this sonic epos could be described in terms of a meeting between Pulp Fiction and Henry Purcell, or a meeting of Carla Bley and Beth Gibbons.