Bureau Berlin| High-Time Seizure
Sounds et al (CD/DL)
Modern music these days can practically come from anywhere, and not just the music capitals that New York, Los Angeles, London and say Berlin have become. That is particularly the case with musicians that want to experiment, combine and come up with something new and fresh.
It is often the case when the music comes from places like Nizhny Novogorod, Russia, that the musicians do not feel that they need to stick to any ‘tried and true’ recipes and feel free to drop in, and at any moment, some musical element that supposedly shouldn’t be there, but somehow seems to fit perfectly into what the musicians are attempting to present. You can certainly say that about the music of Bureau Berlin and their latest album High-Time Seizure. And no, they are not from Berlin, but exactly the place previously mentioned, Nizhny Novogorod.
For the trio of Sergey Misyurev – double alto sax, flutes, percussions, Konstantin Korolev – electric bass, hulusi, Anastasia Golubeva – electronics, percussions, flutes, kalimba, you can freely use that standard expression ‘everything but a kitchen sink’, although by their sound, the kitchen sink might be in there somewhere too.
Misyurev and his reeds lead these basically free jazz improvisations going every which way, but somehow make their sound feel completely in place, as if they were meant to be there. To be able to achieve that, the musicians not only have to have a complete command of their instruments, or ‘things’, but to have a wide-ranging musical sense and knowledge of various musical forms, and Bureau Berlin pass that test with flying colours.
You can press play or drop your needle, if you are vinyl fan, anywhere on High-Time Seizure, and keep going back and forth and you will get the same rush and urgency, as well as excellence of playing you would expect from anybody that is inspired by the great jazz improvisation legends like Cecil Taylor or Marion Brown.
Bureau Berlin start, keep on going and finish with full-on intensity that can keep your head spinning long after this album is over, but at no point do you feel that you need to get out of the musical whirlwind they have created. Watch out if you want to get in, you might not wish to get out.
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