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  | MAGNUS MURPHY JOELSON & OJKOS ~ NOE GOY PA M(ETAMORFOSIS)
SMEIK 215 (Barcode: 612608050532) ~ NORWAY ~ Big Band Jazz
Recorded: 2021 Released: 2024
This is an album by Norwegian Jazz trombonist / composer Magnus Murphy JoelsonFind albums by this artist, recorded with the Oslo based Big Band OJKOSFind albums by this artist, a sixteen-piece ensemble. The album presents eleven tracks, which include three stand-alone pieces and two lengthy suites, one two-part and another six-part. All the music was composed by Joelson.
The music is melody based, but quite complex and intricate, requiring attentive listening and patience. The Big Band is often playing many parallel parts, which makes things even more difficult to grasp and the frequent rhythm changes add additional spicing. In short this is definitely challenging music, but at the same time fascinating and highly rewarding.
In many respects this music reflects the modern European approach to Big Band music, which is drastically different from the American Big Band tradition. The music is based on creating an orchestral sound build on many diverse themes played in parallel and instruments plying individually, rather than the expected unified, clearly ordered, often unisono effect. The result, although obviously more complex and multi-layered, is infinitely more sophisticated, interesting and stimulating.
The vibrant young Norwegian Jazz scene is depicted here in its full glory and it is only natural for me to keep a close eye on what is happening there, which helps me to discover frequently pleasant surprises, like this one.
Overall, this is a highly unusual, striking Jazz Big Band album, which keeps the listener on edge for the entire duration. It is warmly recommended to Big Band music lovers, who are looking for some more challenging music in that genre. Although the music is not close to the Nordic sound, one expects to hear from Norwegian musicians, this makes things even more exciting. This is truly brilliant stuff!
| | Updated: 13/04/2024Posted: 13/04/2024 | CD 1 Digipak Recommend To A Friend |
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