Manfred
Papst, NZZ am Sonntag, Schweiz, 28. März 2010
Frank
von Niederhäusern, Kulturtipp Nr. 7, Schweiz, März/April 2010
Twaalf delen, 68
minuten ****
Het Zwitserse Intakt Records is een van de schaarse labels die zich
koppig blijven wijden aan experimentele, al dan niet vrije jazz. Wie
zich eens flink de oren wil laten wassen kan terecht bij recente releases
zoals deze.
OM is een groep geformeerd rond saxofonist Urs Leimgruber, maar in feite
een collectief, dat door rock beïnvloede improvisaties speelt.
De band was oorspronkelijk actief van 1972 tot 1982, maar is onlangs
heropgericht, en nam deze set live op tijdens het festival van Willisau.
Het is een naamloos stuk in twaalf delen, 68 minuten lang, maar met
een duidelijk te volgen spanningsboog. Het begint geestig met door elkaar
praten, roepen en jodelen van de vier leden. Daarna produceren Leimgruber,
gitarist Christy Doran, bassist Bobby Burri en drummer Fredy Studer
abstracte geluiden, soms duister en dreigend, soms atmosferisch als
de vroege Pink Floyd, pointillistisch of met grote vegen. Geregeld borrelt
hier een smakelijke groove uit op.
Vooral op tenorsax benadrukt Leimgruber weer de link tussen free jazz
en rhythm & blues, met grommende of fluitende uitbarstingen. Burri’s
furieuze gestreken solo’s en Dorans ruige maar doordachte spel
vormen andere hoogtepunten.
Frank
van Herk, The Volkskrant, 8. April 2010, Amsterdam, NL
Das Drums-Guitar-Couple im
Hendrix Project bot Anlass für Erinnerungen an die alten Zeiten
von 1972-82, aber die legendären CH-Fusionisten OM sind längst
auch leibhaftig wieder da. Für ihr Comeback 2008 beim Jazzfestival
Willisau (Intakt CD 170) wählten Fredy Studer und Christy Doran,
wiedervereint mit dem Kontrabassisten Bobby Burri und Urs Leimgruber
an Soprano- & Tenorsaxophon, einen provokanten Einstieg, Dada a
capella, Schlagwörter als V-Effekt. Danach wird aber improvisiert
und gefetzt, dass einem der Lahmarsch auf Grundeis geht. Nicht retro
im üblichen Sinn, der Sound von damals ist konsequent weiter gedacht.
Der Umgang mit Rhythmik und Dynamik ist sehr flexibel und aufgeladen
mit aller Kakophonie und fickrig-flickrigem Nervenkitzel versierten
Freispiels. Um bei 'Part IV' dann umso rummsiger zu rocken, mit Schmiedehammerschlägen
von Studer und Brummbassvierteln, zu denen Leimgruber ins Feuer spuckt
und Doran die Saiten bekrabbelt wie ein spastischer Blueser, der nur
jede siebte Note trifft, aber auch nicht mehr braucht. Die Ikons sind
dabei nur Behelfsmarkierungen in einem durchgehenden Spielfluss. 'Part
V' ist ein verschnarchter Dreamscape, bei denen der eine Nasenhaare
zupft, Studer tickt und tockt, Leimgruber steuert Geflöte ohne
Flöte bei und dann doch sonores Tenorgesumme, Burri fingert Spieluhrpizzikatos,
während die Gitarre nun Engelstaub von Wolke 7 streut. Mit dumpfen
Pulsschlag und furiosem Gebrötze geht's weiter, Gitarrentöne
kaskadieren und kitzeln dann Studers Marschbeat mit immer abgedrehteren
und rasenderen Arpeggios. Das Soprano flatterzüngelt aufgeregt,
weil es immer noch zu dick für's Nadelöhr ist, die Gitarre
flirrt wie ein Hackbrett und spritzt unberechenbar um sich, während
Studer als Gerölllawine abgeht. Und dann ist da plötzlich
wieder ein 1-2-Rockgroove, den allerdings der Bass absägt. Mit
Besengeklopfe und -wischern geht's weiter durch einen neuen Engpass,
das Soprano führt den Gänsemarsch, die Gitarre streut Brösel
als Wegmarke, die Zeit hält still, um blaue Blümchen zu pflücken.
Dann wieder Gekrabbel, Spitfire und rasendes Cymbalgeflirr, das Tenorsax
übernimmt pumpend und mit aufsteigenden Tonleitern den jetzt wieder
gedämpfteren und entschleunigten Groove, Doran unkt Wahwahsounds,
schabt die Saiten. Letzte Atempause vor dem Sturm - der nicht folgt.
OM verharrt in einem Schwebezustand. Der Sturm wäre jetzt unser
Ding, unsere Konsequenz aus dieser kompromisslosen Musik.
Rigobert
Dittmann, Bad Alchemy Magazin 66, Deutschland, Frühling 2010
Das Quartett OM ist eine
Legende im europäischen Jazz. Damals, 1972-82, standen die vier
Schweizer für kraftvollen Jazzrock, ein wenig Ethno, Jimi Hendrix
und John Coltrane. 2008 hat die Band einen Relaunch versucht, und das
Ergebnis, der Livemitschnitt eines Konzerts beim Jazzfestival in Willisau,
ist bei Intakt erschienen. Für die Fans von anno dazumals mag es
eine Enttäuschung sein, dass OM nicht dort anknüpfen, wo sie
aufgehört haben. Vielmehr haben die vier die gemachten Erfahrungen
in Avantgarde und Freejazz in ihr Spiel eingebaut und sehr interessant
umgesetzt. Nach einem etwas dadaistischen Sprachwirrwarr gibt’s
auf der CD viel Gezirpe und Gezwitscher, allmählich entstehen dann
doch dynamischere Spielformen in der als zwölfteilige Suite angelegten
Aufnahme (Tracks 4 und 6). Insgesamt ein sehr gelungenes und sicher
auch überraschendes Comeback. (haun)
haun,
freiStil, Österreich, 31, 2010
Forbearers in the fringe
mergers of free jazz and rock in the early the Seventies, the Swiss
quartet OM blazed a trail in Europe for the better part of a decade
before disbanding in favor of solo careers. For those listeners who
weren’t around for that heady first go round this summer of 2008
reunion set recorded at the titular annual jazz event suggests that
while time may have passed, the foursome is still fearsome as a collective.
The potential foibles of undertaking such an unstable stylistic alloy
remain extant and evident in the risk-taking program the ensemble decides
upon.
Saxophonist Urs Leimgruber and guitarist Christy Doran have similarly
pan-glossal approaches to their instruments. Leimgruber plies soprano
and tenor from a post-Evan Parker perspective, moving comfortably from
minimalist to maximalist and bringing in a host of extended techniques
from slap-tonguing to circular breathing. Doran uses an array of devices
on his strings to create a rainbow of a/tonal effects. Coupled to a
conceptual creativity that rarely stays rooted in one spot for so long,
his heavily embroidered-playing can occasionally be a chore though there’s
no denying the craftsmanship behind in his creations. Bassist Bobby
Burri also uses electric and acoustic modification on his upright. Drummer
Fredy Studer sustains a dynamic range from whisper to roar behind his
kit and is particularly adept at a signature staccato cymbal pattern
that’s an aural approximation of humming bird wings, which he
employs whenever the tension requires ramping. A rock backbeat serves
as fallback at various points in the program, cueing plectral firepower
from Doran’s corner.
Comprised of a dozen parts, the performance segues between guiding themes
in a largely seamless fashion. The four accord the audience no quarter
from the start, opening with a madrigal-like exchange of Dadaist verse
and voice effects. At just over three-minutes it feels thrice as long
and gives way to a relay-structured free exchange that spans the next
several segments until the chugging, fractured groove of “Part
IV”. The set’s middle sections, Parts V-VII specifically,
are most satisfying to my ears, but then again they’re also arguably
the most accessible in terms of form. Leimgruber latches on a mournful
minor-key motive reminiscent of Fred Anderson’s cerulean style
of phrasing and the others shape atmospheric embellishments around him.
The next section builds on this prevailing mood, Leimgruber growing
agitated against an undulating accompaniment hinging on Burri’s
corpulent bass ostinato. The delicate soprano and guitar dialogue at
the center of “Part VII” offers yet another permutation
on the ensemble’s inclusive playbook.
As is usually the case, the free improv and rock elements aren’t
the most complementary bedfellows, but it’s that tension that
feeds the performance’s unpredictability. Rather than shy from
those moments of collision and potential implosion, the quartet embraces
them. While not all of what transpires sticks as memorable, the shared
courage present in throwing it all at the audience to begin with elicits
easy admiration.
Derek
Taylor, MASTER
OF A SMALL HOUSE, USA, APRIL 13, 2010
Pirmin
Bossart, Jazz 'n' More, Schweiz, Mai/Juni 2010
Artikel
von Pirmin Bossart, Jazz 'n' More, Schweiz, Mai/Juni 2010
Artikel
von Thorsten Meyer, Jazzpodium, Deutschland, Mai 2010
Thorsten
Meyer, Jazzpodium, Deutschland, Mai 2010
Christoph
Fellmann, Tagesanzeiger, Schweiz, 5. Mai 2010
Rolf
Thomas, Jazzthetik, Deutschland, Mai-Juni 2010
Florian
Bissig, Schaffhauser Nachrichten, Schweiz, 7. Mai 2010
Schrankenlos
in Form
Luzerns «Supergroup» ist wieder erwacht. Sporadisch erhebt
sie sich aus dem Schatten der Mainstreamorgien und elitären Kunstdiskurse
und schlägt zu. Weder hier noch dort zugehörig, dafür
voll da, wenn die Stunde schlägt, sind OM in ihrer neuen Inkarnation
mehr denn je für ein nahrhaftes Musikerlebnis gut.
Luzerner Urgestein
Am Sonntag gastierten die vier Luzerner Urgesteine Urs Leimgruber (s),
Christy Doran (g), Bobby Burri (b) und Fredy Studer (dr, perc) als OM
im KKL Luzern. Nur bei der Zugabe wurden Motive und Patterns geprobt.
Der Rest war frei gespielt. 400 Zuschauer waren begeistert.
Natürlich fusionieren OM im Kern weiter an den Schnittstellen von
Jazz, Rock und Sound und treiben Versatzstücke ihrer damaligen
Sprache in den Strudeln ihres aktuellen Idioms. Dennoch ist das so neu
verwoben und mit zeitgenössischen Infusionen durchwirkt, dass die
Musik jederzeit auf der Höhe der Zeit ist. Abgeschmackte Reunion?
Dafür sind andere zuständig.
Fiebrige Kurven
Spielfreudig, konzentriert, fantasievoll, vielseitig und fern von akustischer
Selbstbefriedigung entfalteten OM die Schichtungen und Richtungen ihrer
Soundvorstellungen in klar umrissenen Prozessen und guten Bögen.
Ob treibende Vorwärtsenergie, oszillierende Geräuschzonen,
subtilste Verwebungen, fiebrige Kurven oder melodische Verzahnungen
über technoiden Grooves: OM gaben sich schrankenlos, aber behielten
Form.
Die vier Musiker liessen sich hineinwerfen in eine gemeinsame Geschichte
und eine gewachsene Vertrautheit. Zusammen mit der kohärenten Entwicklung,
die jeder Musiker seit dem Ende der ersten OMPhase persönlich durchlaufen
hat, ergab das ein musikalisches Potenzial, das die vier Old Boys der
Improvisation in beneidenswerter Hochform expandieren und explodieren
liessen.
Pirmin Bossart, Neue Luzerner Zeitung, Schweiz, Mai 2010
pd/nis,
Anzeiger Luzern, Schweiz, 7. Mai 2010
The Swiss improvised
music scene is often unfairly overlooked. Whilst the efforts of other
musicians from western European countries—principally perhaps
Germany and Holland—have long since staked a claim to international
attention, the same isn't true of Switzerland, at least until now. This
isn't to suggest that the music on OM's Willisau has any kind of nationalistic
aspirations, but there is something singularly compelling about it.
Recorded live for Swiss Radio DRS, at the festival that gives the disc
its title, this is a program that covers aspects of the free as well
as dealing in mutant funk and a strain of musical Dadaism.
For all the ground covered here it's not difficult to see how the program
might have been spontaneously conceived as a single entity. The discontinuities
between one part and the next—exemplified most graphically by
the break between "Part I" and "Part II"—somehow
cohere into a unified whole, the substance of which is set by the musical
personalities of the players involved. Because of this, the fractious
nature of Urs Leimgruber's tenor sax on "Part IV" is not so
much accompanied as it is complemented by Christy Doran's guitar shredding,
within that feel of mutant funk. This is one of those touches that ensure
a sense of fun; something not readily apparent in a lot of the music
with which this program might cohabit, and an integral part of the proceedings.
The stealth and small sounds of "Part V" are in marked contrast
with this, but that point about the ground covered comes into its own.
The established mood carries over into "Part VI," but the
music is marked not only by restraint, but by an obviously shared sense
of dynamics. Coherence isn't sacrificed on "Part IX" either,
where the devices that both Doran and bassist Bobby Burri are credited
with come into play. Indeed, the augmentation of the basic reeds-guitar-bass-drums
quartet that OM represents also amounts to a willful subversion of anything
that lineup might imply. As a result, time is not so much suspended
as dispensed with, acknowledging a denial of the potency of the fleeting
moment.
There can be resolution, however. On "Part XI" the passing
moments drip with the potency of group interplay—all refined,
even while that funk reemerges, with the music's flow, such as it is;
a mere fancy, before the delights of abstraction prove all too seductive
in the closing "Part XII."
Nic Jones, www.allaboutjazz.com,
USA, May 22, 2010
OM déversa
sa bouillonnante improvisation free rock entre 1972 et 1982. En attestent
quelques vieux vinyls Japo dont ECM publia, il y a quelques mois, une
compilation (OM – A Retrospective). Le 28 août
2008, Urs Leimgruber (saxophones), Christy Doran (guitare), Bobby Burri
(contrebasse) et Fredy Studer (batterie) se retrouvaient dans le cadre
du Jazzfestival Willisau.
De cette improvisation indexée en douze parties, on retiendra
les fulgurances (Part VI & X) ; transes portées avec autorité
et où se déchaînent les violences d’un saxophone
et d’une guitare tribales. On retiendra aussi ces moments d’attente
inquiète avant implosion, ce saxophone aux décrochages
salivaires vérolés, cette folie d’un métallique
foudroyant. Peut-être pourra-t-on regretter ces crescendos obligés,
ces tentations de faire couple mais, jamais, on ne les surprendra à
douter ou à cadenasser une action. Ici, ils passent d’un
fiel à l’autre, les mains, toujours sales, d’un cambouis
épais et résistant. OM est de retour et en bon
archéologue de la chose sonique, fouille et arpente inlassablement,
chaos, stridences et périls passant à sa portée.
Pour la tendresse, on repassera…
Luc Bouquet, Le son du grisli, France, May 2010
Swiss saxophonist
Urs Leimgruber has a watchmaker's sense of time. His works create the
sense of listening to a watch's inner workings up close, with his collaborators
coming in on cue with the surety of little weights and wheels. Four
new releases—two quartets, a trio and a solo—offer an opportunity
to catch the master, born in 1952, at a point where he is at the top
of his game but still evolving, rife with fresh ideas.
...
Willisau is a reunion concert of the great '70s band OM, with
Christy Doran (guitar), Bobby Burri (bass) and Fredy Studer (drums).
It begins with overlaid vocal incantations by the bandmembers, including
each other's names. Even this simple effort foreshadows the temporal
inventiveness at hand. Channeling heavy rock and free jazz, its dynamics
are also impressive, quieting down for periods and then reawakening
into bouts of funk. Far from the orgy of a band such as Last Exit, everything
is calibrated here, Studer's spot-on percussive punctuation particularly
noteworthy.
...
Leimgruber thinks through music, as most improvisers do, but there is
a philosophical dimension at work, wherein he reflects on the value
of time—which implies not least of all the time spent listening
to music. Music of Leimgruber's rigor shows us how, rather than waste
it, time grows out of this listening.
Gordon Marshall, www.allaboutjazz.com,
USA, June 12, 2010
Martin
Schuster, Concerto, Österreich, Juni/Juli 2010
CST,
Le Mag de Courrier, Suisse, 1er Mai 2010
Jason
Bivins, Signal to Noise, USA/Canada, Summer 2010
HAUN,
Freistil, Österreich, Juni/Juli 2010
Mit diesem Konzert vom August
2008 kam die Schweizer Improv-Free-Rock-Legende wieder zurück auf
die Agenda. Eindrucksvoll performt das Quartett hier die Dialektik zwischen
Groove und Gerüst, zerlegen und zerfließen lassen und Fundament
und gasförmig, eindrücklich werden die verschiedensten Aggregats-
und Bewusstseinszustände demonstriert. Die wiedergeborenen OM zeigen
sich erneut als Meisterkollektiv des Klangreichtums und der Möglichkeiten,
geräuschhafte Improvisation als Bandgefüge vorzuführen,
am meisten aber überzeugen sie, wenn sie im psychedelischen Free-Rock-Rausch
zusammenfinden. OM sind heute Vorbild für viele frei improvisierenden
Youngster, und eine Live-Vorführung und Archivierung ihrer Energie
ist essentiell, sie sind Übersetzer der potenziellen Energien der
unendlichen Klangräume - ganz ge- und entspannt im Hier und Jetzt.
by
HONKER, www.terz.org, Deutschland, Juli 2010
Acknowledged as one of the
most accomplished architects of unique reed timbre treatments within
improvised music Luzern, Switzerland-based saxophonist Urs Leimgruber’s
playing is outstanding in both solo and group situations.
Someone who rarely limits himself when seeking musical partners in ensemble
situations, Leimgruber’s strategies are particularly notable on
these CD. A nod to the saxophonist’s past, Willisau, recorded
in 2008 at the Jazz festival in the Swiss city of the same name, is
a reunion gig by the original members of OM, the electrified-Free Jazz
quartet which existed from 1972-1982. Recorded four months earlier in
Leipzig at another festival, the other CD matches Leimgruber’s
skills with those of three younger German players.
Aurona Arona is actually a live follow-up to a fine earlier CD with
the same personnel from 2006. Moving force behind Ember and other differently
constituted improvised ensembles is keyboardist/percussionist Oliver
Schwerdt, who has also recorded with German drummer Günter “Baby”
Sommer. However during the two years that separate the Ember discs,
Alexander Schubert, who still plays percussion and electronics, has
morphed from being a guitarist to a violinist. Furthermore drummer Christian
Lillinger has moved to Berlin and now works as part of the Hyperactive
Kid trio as well as the bands of clarinetist Rolf Kühn and trombonist
Gerhard Gschlöbl.
Varied experiences such as these are noticeable in Lillinger’s
playing on the Ember CD. With the pieces evolving quickly and cerebrally,
the drummer must be instantaneously prepared to patch together an accompaniment
encompassing variegated patterns and resonations culled from bass drum
bumps, snare drums rattles and rim shot strokes on one hand, as well
as cymbal shrieks and clatters and vibraphone or marimba-like pings
with the other.
Timbre exploration from the other musicians is in the forefront from
all sides as well. For starters there are Leimgruber’s emotional
bleats, multiphonic tongue fluttering, circular breathing and nearly
soundless reed expansions. Schubert not only adds skittering fiddle
spiccato, but also electronic shimmy and/or granular whooshes to every
one of the five tracks. These meandering voltage clangs exist as blurry
undercurrents to all the improvisations as well as providing commentary
on Schwerdt’s playing. Additionally and on his own, Schwerdt’s
distinctive playing ranges from calming, low-frequency patterning to
kinetic and metronomic keyboard runs plus electrified harpsichord-like
tone fanning and electric organ-like reverberations. Often hard objects
are pressed against the piano’s inner strings producing stretches,
stops and slides.
For instance, pulsating dual keyboard chording characterizes “Etherlorbien”.
Yet these tones appear at the same time as the internal strings clatter
percussively. Those unexpected rebounds are the result of hard balls
being mashed against or soft mallets striking the wound strings. Simultaneously
Lillinger contributes distanced drum beats and cymbal shakes, while
Leimgruber’s narrowed trills make up a broken-octave interface
that may include additional abrasive scrapes along the outside of his
horn. When the piano line downshift to mock-serious processional chording,
cymbal squeezes signal the tune’s finale.
Elsewhere, contrapuntal timbral slurs and splatters are inflated. But
the ensemble cooperates so well that the result is as much a product
of Schubert’s patched shimmies and Lillinger’s percussive
prestidigitation as Leimgruber’s tongue-and-air strategies. The
pianist fans his keys and plucks internal strings, the drummer exposes
ratamacues and rumbles and the saxophonist’s parts range from
strident vibrations and peeping split tones to double-tongued polyphony.
During the course of “Begen Bginn Fllt” for instance, voltage
pitch changes and granular whooshes from Schubert, high-frequency piano
syncopation, the drummer’s nerve beats and rim shots, plus bird-twittering
from the reedist produce an unmatched textural improvisation. By the
final variant, inchoate nonsense syllables mouthed by one or more of
the players are added to further thicken the improvisational interface.
Mouth and tongue vocal improvisations are present as well during the
exposition for the 12-part suite that make up OM’s reunion concert
and CD. Vying with Bronx cheers, onomatopoeia and whistles is rapid
verbalization in English and German which eventually foreshadows similar
noisy discourses from the quartet’s instruments. Harsh vamping
squeaks characterize the saxophonist’s playing here; rattles,
splats and shudders make up drummer and percussionist Fredy Studer’s
contributions; bassist Bobby Burri outputs a speedy sul tasto bass line;
and guitarist Christy Doran produces ringing, choked string licks.
Initially organized before the excesses of Jazz-Rock Fusion hardened
into clichés, the OM quartet continues overall to emphasize good
taste and compositional construction. Albeit this is done in an atmosphere
where Studer, now part of Koch-Schütz-Studer’s Hard Core
Chamber Music and Doran, whose most recent band with the percussionist
involves Jimi Hendrix tunes, are allowed some pseudo rock-star posturing.
At times the guitarist leans into the whammy bar to create distorted
flanges and reverb, while the drummer specializes in tough frails, hard
cymbal resonation and rolls, strokes and drags. Unexpectedly in one
instance Leimgruber adds to the fray, using flutter-tonguing and flattement
for tenor saxophone licks that could come from a 21st Century King Curtis.
Fortunately most of the time, Leimgruber continues to work out parts
that are either flat-line legato or incorporate an atonal vocabulary
of dog-whistle squeals and bear-like growls. Meanwhile, almost oblivious
to the sonic shenanigans of the others, Burri maintain a steady rhythmic
pace with his sluicing bass line. He carries this regularizing into
his solo work, which granted, is spiced with a few sul ponticello runs.
Proving that he too isn’t limited by Fusion strictures, at one
juncture Studer bounces out a Latinesque beat, which is swiftly met
by expressive pitch variations, flutter tonguing and side-slipping reed
bites from Leimgruber, which is a rugged contrast to his usual and more
cerebral solo work. Further differentiating his solos from those of
most reedists who play in this style however, Leimgruber adds elements
of commitment and menace. Ferocious agitato bleats and sound barrier-breaking
squeals posit that these forays into the so-called mainstream aren’t
that different from his usual styling.
Multiphonic extensions from all concerned occur once the suite moves
into its final phrases. Fittingly as well, Leimgruber’s harsh
obbligatos are matched with spiky guitar reverb and amp distortion from
Doran plus brutal stokes and backbeat pounding from Studer. With the
reedist’s continuous peeps add to the shimmering lines created
by the others, “Willisau” concludes with a satisfying polytonal
thump.
Proving his versatility once again, Leimgruber fully expresses two sides
of his personality as a saxophonist on these notable sessions. Hopefully
they will lead those unexposed to his multi-talents – perhaps
OM’s Fusion-oriented fans – to seek out other and different
instances of Leimgruber’s extensive work.
Ken Waxman, www.jazzword.com, July 23, 2010
Portrait
über Christy Doran, Thomas Hein, Concerto, Österreich, August
/ September 2010
El cuarteto suizo OM, en
activo entre 1972 y 1982, retomó su actividad en el año
2008 con un concierto en el mítico festival suizo de Willisau.
Al contrario de otras reuniones, dicho reencuentro tuvo poco de nostálgico.
Más bien sirvió para demostrar que esos más de
25 años simplemente habían sido una pausa en su carrera.En
el CD el concierto aparece dividido en doce partes más por cuestiones
de edición, que por otros motivos. Esos 68 minutos son una pieza
sólida de principio a fin, en la que el cuarteto muestra su fusión
de elementos del jazz, la libre improvisación, el rock e incluso
levemente alguna aproximación a algo parecido a la world music.
Retorno sin concesiones, Willisau sirve para que el cuarteto retome
su propuesta y la ponga al día logrando que suene absolutamente
actual. El resultado es uno de los CD candidatos a la categoría
de reencuentro del año.
Pachi Tapiz,
bun.tomajazz.com, Spain, 1 de septiembre de 2010
Il festival jazz di Willisau
di fine agosto 2008 è stata l'occasione per la riunificazione
del gruppo Om che negli anni settanta aveva evidenziato al mondo intero
la fertile attività di alcuni gruppi radicali nella patria del
cioccolato e del formaggio coi buchi.
La radio svizzera non si è lasciata sfuggire una ghiotta occasione
come questa e il tutto è stato fedelmente registrato per essere
poi pubblicato dalla Intakt Records. Sul palco il quartetto sembra essere
ancora più radicale e intransigente, mollando in buona parte
l'aspetto ipnotico che aveva caratterizzato la loro musica negli anni
settanta, per far emergere in maniera netta la deriva free e il concetto
di improvvisazione collettiva e totale.
La divisione in dodici episodi appare funzionale a dare un senso d'ordine
al procedere della musica ma in realtà quella che ascoltiamo
è una lunga suite dedicata per l'appunto a Willisau. L'interplay
fra i quattro musicisti è di primissimo livello e il grugnire
dei sax di Urs Leimgruber si sposa alla perfezione con i suoni ruvidi
e cartavetrati che emergono come per magia dalla chitarra elettrica
di Christy Doran e dal basso spiritato di Bobby Burry, spesso stimolato
con l'archetto. Ad amalgamare il tutto pensa come al solito la batteria
molto percussiva ed espressiva di Fredy Studer.
Non mancano momenti quasi funky (per esempio nelle "Part IV"
e "Part XI") ma complessivamente il procedere è piuttosto
astratto e informale, dilatato e grumoso come un bel quadro di Jackson
Pollock: e allora lasciamo sgocciolare i loro suoni e godiamoci il risultato.Valutazione:
3.5 stelle
Maurizio Comandini,
All about Jazz Italia, Italy, 29-05-2010
Bjarne
Soltoft, Jazznytt,
Norway, Nr. 4 / 2010
Guido Festinese, Il giornale della musica, Italia, Ott 2010
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