Be it from expected suspects like Kamasi Washington, as a stunning surprise from Sean Ono Lennon, with the Psychedelic touch of Ivan The Tolerable or as one of many ingredients in wild melting pot albums like the latest release of Zeuhl Metal sensation Papangu… I would definitely count this year as a good one in regards of Jazz Fusion. And that’s of course only a small peek into my personal narrow horizon. One thing is for sure though: You shouldn’t even have this conversation without looking into the music mines of Norway, which are always ready to unearth an exciting new gem glinting in the lights of Prog, Krautrock and Jazz!
The rough diamond under the polariscope today is called The Verge. Let me begin this review with a couple of paragraphs exclusively dedicated to my first impression of the first thirteen seconds of this young band’s debut album:
“Nessesse” begins without any warm-up but with a fast drum solo which immediately catapulted me back into the year 1971. Ok, my existence wasn’t even planned then, so let me correct myself: It brought me back to that formative moment - whenever decades later that was - when I listened for the first time to the madness that is “Vital Transformation” from Mahavishnu Orchestra’s still spectacular debut Inner Mounting Flame. Especially once you realize that the solo actually is just the basic beat of the song that stays on this level of business throughout the whole track, it really feels like an homage to the Jazz Rock legends. But I’m getting ahead of myself - that’s already second fourteen and beyond. So back to the start!
Very much in line with the Mahavishnu association, the drum intro also time-tunneled me back to 2018 and yet another debut release, Kanaan’s Windborne, on which a certain Ingvald Andre Vassbø very much cultivated this same restlessly swirling style, before the band also expanded into many other directions and he himself soon became a more and more prolific figure in the Norwegian scene, even including touring with Motorpsycho.
Besides that gig Kanaan still had time to temporarily expand and transform into the quintet Full Earth and release the masterpiece Cloud Sculptors, which I still consider my number one AOTY contender of 2024 so far. On October 11th Kanaan will also bring us an amazing Psych Rock/Neo-Folk collaboration with Ævestaden. And I could list even more stuff. So how - when? - does Vassbø also play on this thing right here? How is that even possible?
The suprisingly easy answer to this question is that The Verge has already been recorded in 2021 and it just took some time for Is It Jazz? records to finally share it with the world. The band played its first shows in 2019 after having been founded by members of the same Jazz school. It consists of Emil Storløkken Åse on guitar, Aksel Rønning on saxophone and flute, Alf Høines on electric bass and finally Ingvald on drums.
With that background knowledge we can go beyond second fourteen at last and discover that the whole opening track, even though it has a much gnarlier bass tone, actually exudes not so much Mahavishnu, but actually very strong Kamasi Washington vibes, with a relaxed soulful Spiritual Jazz atmosphere levitating above the wild rhythm and the saxophone getting more and more dramatic, screeching and raw. It’s an excellent opener establishing the quality standard of this album without giving away its variety yet.
In the following tracks we get a fast Heavy Jazz “Hyperreality” in the style of maniacs like Albatre, a smoothly slithering, but very dangerous “Snake” reminscent both of King Crimson and Seven Impale, and we experience the “Gratitude” of graceful elegance emerging from an almost dissonant backdrop carried by the most breathtaking drum performance of the album.
On “Postludium” The Verge slow down at least the guitar to an Earth-style Doom pace, a safe anchor in the storm of a long bad-ass Free Jazz build-up. And the result would fit neatly into a Jim Jarmusch movie soundtrack. “The Blast Supper” is another rather short banger giving us a hint of how it could have sounded if Jimi Hendrix had been given the time to dip his fingers into Jazz Fusion. The final “Patterns for Meditation” begin with an epic Yob vibe and turn out to be a nine minute jam between Stoner and Psychedelic Rock with heavy brass licks. A mix quite close to what happens whenever the Danes Mythic Sunship team up with a saxophone player. So naturally also fans of Causa Sui and of course Kanaan and the playful jazzier side of Motorpsycho should count themselves among the target audience.
I wish I could continue this quick pass-through a little longer. The lack of more (than forty minutes) actually is the only thing bothering me a bit about this album.
As I could hopefully convey The Verge are bringing something new to the table with each composition without breaking out of their overall aesthetics. So they are clearly not one of those insane Avantgarde bands, who combine all the most bizarre and unexpected extremes from all over the place with each other (which of course I often love, too!), but rather concentrate on putting their talents into a varied, but coherent whole, which mainly wins you with its perfect balance of sheer quality and unburdened nonchalance.
If there’s such a thing like a New Wave of Scandinavian Heavy Jazz Fusion - The Verge’s debut album rides it with a perfect score.
