Reviews RCD2236
Norwegian trio team up with veteran countryman to unleash an untamed energy. Snapping at the his year's epic Mythical River, this live session recorded in 2017, but newly released - sees Oslo jazzrock trio Elephant9 augmented by 77-year-old guitarist Terje Rypdal. A pioneering spirit in Norwegian music with countless solo and international collaborative releases to his name, Rypdal's sinuous tones dovetail perfectly with E9 keyboardist Ståle Storløkken, bassist Nikolai Hængsle and drummer Torstein Lofthus's brand of organic, improvisational expression. Like their previous work with Dungen guitarist Reine Fiske, the chemistry of an extra instrumentalist allows them to take chances when tackling both written and freewheeling passages. Typical is Fugl Fønix, against whose frantic pulsing the guitarist's notes seep beneath the fray with undulating, radiant shafts of light, spreading a harmonic balm over the turbulent surfaces about him. Elsewhere, amid driving, thrashy backbeats, and gaseous Mellotron drifts, Rypdal explores the terrain digging in with distorted, grit-filled runs whose snarling belligerence tips the already volatile atmosphere into some extreme rocking out.
PROG (UK)
For almost 20 years the Norwegian power trio Elephant9 (bassist Nikolai Hængsle, keyboardist Ståle Storløkken and drummer Torstein Lofthus) have blurred the line between jazz fusion and blistering hard rock. They've made seven studio albums to date and also released three live albums. This new double live slab was recorded two years before the Psychedelic Backfire concerts, at Oslo's Nasjonal Jazzscene club in January 2017. On it, the group are joined by legendary guitarist Terje Rypdal, who pioneered a uniquely Nordic take on jazz rock - Arctic, yet searing - on albums like Jan Garbarek's Afric Pepperbird and SART, as well as his own self-titled album, What Comes After, Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away and Odyssey. But in some ways Catching Fire is more of a melding of two bands than one man joining an existing unit as a guest; Storløkken has been working with Rypdal on the guitarist's own albums and live since before Elephant9 came to be. Almost all the material performed comes from the first two Elephant9 albums: "Dodovoodoo", "I Cover The Mountain Top", and "Skink" are from 2008's Dodovoodoo, and "John Tinnick" and "Fugl Fonix" are from 2010's Walk The Nile, while "Psychedelic Backfire" is from 2012's Atlantis. But the versions here are radically extended, with room for wild, nearly unhinged guitar and keyboard solos, occasionally filtered through psychedelic and even dubby effects. Fans of the heaviest 1970s fusion — Tony Williams Lifetime, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck — as well as jamming hard rock acts like Deep Purple and Mountain will find much to love here, and the louder you play it, the better it sounds.
The Wire (UK)
Health and safety alert: when first activating this firebrand release you may wish to stand several yards back from your speakers and remove all pets, relies of sensitive disposition and request neighbours take the cat for a walk over its 70-minute duration. There's no point playing this album unless your amp's set to 11. Storlokken and Elephant9 have subtleties but on this live recording and with the extra noise provocation of Rypdal, the quartet rip, roar and rock with splendid abandon. The opening 22 minutes of 'I Cover the Mountain starts in classic Storlokken style, all ominous keys and synth swirlings that presage the coming storm. In time Rypdal joins the mayhem, sitting atop mounting crescendos of feedback like some horseman of a rock apocalypse. But then suddenly we deep-dive into the funkier Dodovoodool all crunching analogue keys, like early Weather Report and Zawinul riffing again. Its all rattling good fun, with its echoes of electric Miles, or Pink Floyd live extravangas, but there's a deep musicality behind the big hair. It's also intriguing to compare this to Storlokken's recent work with Hedvig Mollestad in The Weejuns, a more-loose limbed, improvisatory project (which it would be intriguing to hear more of at the earliest opportunity).
Jazzwise (UK)
I 2017 fant Elephant9 og Rypdal veien til Nasjonal Jazzscene. Heldigvis var det en opptaker til stede, og opptaket derfra, nå tilgjengelig som «Catching Fire», er bevis på hvor bra denne konstellasjon kunne være. Fem av de seks låtene her er fra Elephant9s to første album, da opprinnelig trioversjoner, mens den siste, seige «Psychedelic Backfire», er fra samarbeidet med Fiske. Konserten starter med de to første låtene fra debutalbumet, men snur på rekkefølgen og strekker dem ut til over dobbel lengde sammenliknet med studio-innspillingene. Effekten på «I Cover the Mountain Top», som de åpner med, er særlig merkbar. I den stillfarne, men også uhyggelige åpningssekvensen skjærer Rypdals klare gitar som flimrende nordlys over utstrakte og skjelvende orgeltoner og klokkespill-liknende effekter, mens en svak puls fra bass og trommer så vidt høres i bakgrunnen. Etter vel ni minutter med spenningsskapende atmosfære hintes det til et tentativt orgelmotiv, før de finner låtens heftige, oppkvikkende groove — med påfølgende soli av Storløkken og med Rypdal i en vilter gitarstorm. Etter 22 minutter går de over i nesten like lange «Dodovoodoo», der inspirasjon fra 70-tallets psykedeliske spacerock bobler opp til overflaten. Ikke den mest originale malen Elephant9 jobber ut fra, men sammen med Rypdal får de mye ut av også dette. «Dodovoodoo» er funky og kommer med litt ekstra trøkk, som mye av dette åtti minutter lange livealbumet for øvrig.
Klassekampen (NO)
Una decina di minuti di riscaldamento e poi Cover The Mountain Top parte lanciando uno space fusion d'altri tempi, quando la prima Mahavishnu Orchestra metteva i puntini sulle "i" del jazz rock più creativo che si sia mai ascoltato sul pianeta terra. Registrato dal vivo nel 2017 con ospite il settantenne chitarrista Terje Rypdal (prima col Jan Garbarek Quartet, poi solista) nelle vesti di novello John McLaughlin, "Catching Fire" è una vera celebrazione della potenza e della fantasia live della band formata da Ståle Storløkken (mille tastiere), Nikolai Hængsle (basso) e Torstein Lofthus (batteria). I tre (in questa occasione quattro) attualizzano un metagenere ingiustamente ritenuto obsoleto e invence ancora capace di svelare segreti a ogni angolo proprio per la sua estrema elasticità: la stridente chitarra del finale di Cover The Mountain Top e di Skink, le tastiere in perenne fibrillazione di Dodovoodoo e il basso amfetaminico di Fugl Fonix, il marziale blues Psychedelic Backfire, il redivivo hard-prog di John Tinnick (questa diciamo pure che è una ver-sione apocrifa dell'immortale Highway Star dei Deep Purple). Chi ama il prog e la libertà non po-trà farne a meno. 8.2
Blow Up (IT)