| It was a special configuration of the Swedish band Angles that leader Martin Kuchen brought to the Ljubljana Jazz Festival in its 2011 edition. To the instrumental formation of the sextet was added a second saxophonist, Eirik Hegdal (baritone and sopranino), and a pianist, Alexander Zethson. The other participants are the same who recorded “Every Woman is a Tree”, with the exception of Magnus Broo, replaced by Goran Kajfes: Mats Aleklint, Mattias Stahl, Johan Berthling and Kjell Nordeson. If in that previous album the six musicians seemed an entire big band, the eight playing in “By Way of Deception” go even beyond that format to give an orchestral impact to the music. “Impact”, here, has a double sense: the pieces are either massive, particularly when the blowing section of four create a wall of sound, or full of details and dynamics – the presence of two harmonic instruments, the vibraphone and the piano, contributing decisively to that objective. The deception alluded by the title is the one every European (and everybody else in the world) is feeling now, in relation to how things are going, economically, socially, politically and more… So, don’t expect joyous music; only great music. |