The second release in as many weeks for this fledgling label, a far more focused affair than the first, not just sketches of jazz genius, but more focused and fully realised ideas based on the producers, Enigmatical, philosophy, love and passion for the spiritual soul of jazz, from the era of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane. The Out Of The Blue Crew are obviously more than one, and its on this release we see more of the scope of this project, recorded in Gothenburg Sweden between 2005 and 2006.
Elevated to another plane by the presence of Misto Soon on vocals, his style seems to fit perfectly, not rap, not singing, not spoken, but somewhere amongst all three delivery styles, with a spiritual conscious lyrical style that sits perfectly with the undeniably spiritual properties of Enigmatical’ take on modern jazz production. This time Enigmatical doesn’ just rely on his sampling craft, showing his prowess with the assembly of sounds from session musicians. Joel Wastberg plays saxophone and piano; Thomas Jansson plays contrabass, theremin, melodica and bells; Daniel Nilsson plays electric keys, metallophone, effects and scratches; and Edwin Edvinsson plays electric bass and cymbals, while Enigmatical brings it all together, and Misto Soon rides the vibe.
There are times where this does remind me of previous work by The Cinematic Orchestra, but this stays true, not trying to veer into fully orchestrated interpretations of jazz standards, and the guest vocal input from Nadasdi and Rodan Kairos on “…Of Constellations†adds two extra vocal tones to an otherwise standard mellow jazz track.
The first release did not set the bar too high, this second release is a whole different beast, realising some of the ideas sketched out in the previous release, but building on these ideas to create a modern jazz classic. If you have any interest in jazz, watch this label.
Wayne Stronell
