JACOB YOUNG / DAVID ROTENBERG / SIDIKI CAMARA - They Say Humans Exist
Oslo Session Recordings: OSR
Jacob Young: electric guitar, guitarlele, electronics, acoustic guitar, spoken word; David Rotenberg: bass clarinet, Bb clarinet, seljefloyte, block flute; Sidiki Camara: n’goni, balafon, calabas, tama, percussion, cymbal, vocal.
Recorded June 17th and 18th 2019 by Oystein Sevag at Blueberry Fields Studio
While this is released on Young’s own label, this multinational set could easily grace any of the major labels in the world of jazz. Not only do the musicians bring their own sense of music from Mali, Norway and the USA but they also create sounds that borrow from and swap these traditions. So, the title track works from a riff on n‘goni, whose harp-like tones resonate in a patchwork of rhythms, with gentle washes of electronics. This tune segues into ‘Kaou Barikada’ (thank you my people)’ in which Rothenberg’s flute work manages to convey both a sense of West African music and Scandinavian folk tunes – a sense that is further enhanced when he switches to clarinet. Both tunes have a hypnotic simplicity that is captivating. When Young’s guitar open’s ‘Tactile Memory’ (the next track) he begins in a blues tempo but quickly moves into a rhythm that picks up on the previous tunes. Throughout the set, the subtle complexities of Malian music with their elegantly shifting rhythms underpin the trio’s music making. Young’s whispered, spoken words to the opening track, ‘Supernatural roadtrip’ (‘Is it enough to watch a flower grow?’) and closing track ‘Blood Horizon’ (‘Is there enough love?’) hint at concerns beyond the making of music. And the ways in which Young mixes electronics into the tunes, echoes the environmental concerns that Rothenberg brings to his recordings – with sounds that are both eerily reminiscent of nature but also tense and foreboding. The pieces which have the strongest element of electronica also build from Rothenberg’s clarinet into short filmic scores. So, it is no surprise to find a title like ‘Soundtrack Lost’ on this set, nor ‘Out of a dream’ or ‘Supernatural roadtrip’. These take us into a dream-scape where unspecified dangers lurk. But then, the Malian-inflected tunes have a positivity that belies this, so the set brings a seesaw of emotions – perhaps suggesting that the current position of humans on the earth is teetering between something positive that can be nurtured and grown, and something negative that need to beware of.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Oslo Session Recordings: OSR
Jacob Young: electric guitar, guitarlele, electronics, acoustic guitar, spoken word; David Rotenberg: bass clarinet, Bb clarinet, seljefloyte, block flute; Sidiki Camara: n’goni, balafon, calabas, tama, percussion, cymbal, vocal.
Recorded June 17th and 18th 2019 by Oystein Sevag at Blueberry Fields Studio
While this is released on Young’s own label, this multinational set could easily grace any of the major labels in the world of jazz. Not only do the musicians bring their own sense of music from Mali, Norway and the USA but they also create sounds that borrow from and swap these traditions. So, the title track works from a riff on n‘goni, whose harp-like tones resonate in a patchwork of rhythms, with gentle washes of electronics. This tune segues into ‘Kaou Barikada’ (thank you my people)’ in which Rothenberg’s flute work manages to convey both a sense of West African music and Scandinavian folk tunes – a sense that is further enhanced when he switches to clarinet. Both tunes have a hypnotic simplicity that is captivating. When Young’s guitar open’s ‘Tactile Memory’ (the next track) he begins in a blues tempo but quickly moves into a rhythm that picks up on the previous tunes. Throughout the set, the subtle complexities of Malian music with their elegantly shifting rhythms underpin the trio’s music making. Young’s whispered, spoken words to the opening track, ‘Supernatural roadtrip’ (‘Is it enough to watch a flower grow?’) and closing track ‘Blood Horizon’ (‘Is there enough love?’) hint at concerns beyond the making of music. And the ways in which Young mixes electronics into the tunes, echoes the environmental concerns that Rothenberg brings to his recordings – with sounds that are both eerily reminiscent of nature but also tense and foreboding. The pieces which have the strongest element of electronica also build from Rothenberg’s clarinet into short filmic scores. So, it is no surprise to find a title like ‘Soundtrack Lost’ on this set, nor ‘Out of a dream’ or ‘Supernatural roadtrip’. These take us into a dream-scape where unspecified dangers lurk. But then, the Malian-inflected tunes have a positivity that belies this, so the set brings a seesaw of emotions – perhaps suggesting that the current position of humans on the earth is teetering between something positive that can be nurtured and grown, and something negative that need to beware of.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
