ABSENCEN

This is a mellow, slow paced and relatively melodic avant-garde album by the German chamber orchestra called Kammerflimmer Kollektief. As a genre this is probably nu-jazz, though the music has some electronic & soundscape elements. I don't know how I ever found this band, but somehow this album stuck by me. To bad it has one of most unpleasant album covers ever and I don't see how the music is represented by it.

In the music of Kammerflimmer Kollektief the textures of the standing bass by Johannes Frisch are usually upfront. The light jazz drumming of Christopher Brunner is also recorded in great detail. Usually the band creates a soundscape layer with strings or with electronics and disturbs it with light free-jazz influenced wind instruments. The band also experiments a lot with using instruments in non-conventional ways, which creates many woody and metallic sounds that add an organic touch. Most songs represent single atmospheres that are developed shortly, without ever introducing new melodic themes within the composition.

Whilst this is a pleasant album, full of interesting warm & mellow free-jazz performances, it often fail to come to a certain point or idea. The albums as a whole does have enough variety and by combining these snippets the band could have easily created tracks that sound more finished. The production of the album is very good and music listeners that are exceptionally moved by rare sound pallets and textures are sure to find something of interest here. For fans of nu-jazz, avant-garde, chamber music and perhaps - in a minor way - post-rock and krautrock.