Year: 2006
Record Label: Linn Records
Style: Contemporary Jazz
Musicians: Haftor Medboe (electric and acoustic guitar), Signy Jakobsdottir (percussion), Chris Greive (trombone), Susan McKenzie (soprano sax and melodica)
Review: Diversity and innovation in music often comes when tender characters are cooking and swinging. Guitarist Haftor Medboe from Norway, mixes up different cultures, bringing into his new release the sundry voices of Scottish saxophonist Susan Mckenzie, Australian trombonist Chris Greive and Icelandic percussionist Signy Jakobsdottir. To this line up he has also added the famous Edinburgh String Quartet and Kenny MacDonald’s electronic knowledge.
In Perpetuity is the second album of the Medboe quartet. Recorded in Scotland (precisely in Edinburgh in 2004), this album fetches a jazzy, electro-funky rhythm coupled with an embroiled string section. Each voice is wonderfully heard and the arrangements are out-inspired.
Haftor Medboe’s release conveys stunning moments of classical and jazz hitched onto Metheny , Frisell and Reich-like influences. Furthermore, the album is sonically produced, outlandish and finicky.
Medboe is without a doubt a gifted guitarist able to paint soundscapes with his many different palettes. His cohort’s input is worth listening to. Susan Mckenzie’s soprano sound’s easy and lurid in whatever water she is testing, as on “Little Auk”, “Charivari” and “Teetotum”s introduction. Chris Greive’s languid trombone is accurate and poignant as on “Little Auk” and “Spor”. His horn is always marshalling with high skill punctuations. On "Little Auk", Medboe showcases the lofty, well-demeanoured strings, all at the hands of a grounded Signy Jakobsdottir’s percussion. Guitar and percussion endorsements are impressive on “Charivari”.
“Tetetotum” comes together in a dialogue, out of which kicks off a rising up upon the string background, providing intensification to this theme. In Perpetuity allows every section to burnish, both in the troupe’s work and being self-assured by Haftor Medboe’s proficient arranging abilities, and for solos, which take on the guitar. The Edinburgh String Quartet and Kenny MacDonald’s endowments are awesome from “Little Auk” to “Maikro”.
A dazzling venture into contemporary jazz!
Tracks: Little Auk, Spor, Charivari, In Perpetuity, Hop Skip, Teetotum, Maikro
Record Label Website: http://www.linnrecords.com
Reviewed by:
Dr. Ana Isabel Ordonez
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