Jøkleba Outland ECM ***1/2
Most tortuous acronym in a while, not that the band is new. The work of the long-running but very cult trio of Jø (Per Jørgensen) kle (Audun Kleive) ba (Jon Balke, piano), an electro-acoustic and free improv-friendly liquidy assemblage of occasionally unidentifiable but complementary textures. Trumpeter Per Jørgensen’s highly creative blend, sometimes feeding in his use of intermingled vocalisations, kalimba and flute sounds, fuse with the electronics-flavoured piano and drums of his trio partners in a long-running joint endeavour that has harvested four albums over a long period together: On and On (1991) self-titled Jøkleba (1993), Jokleba! Live! (1995), a long silence then broken in 2011 with the release of double album Jøkleba/Nu Jøk (Universal).
Outland appears on 27 October, the trio then surfacing at Scene Norway + in Bristol for a rare date next month. Jøkleba, an eco-friendly group, are eschewing plane travel to tour this autumn by train instead and while electricity (ideally renewably wind-powered presumably) itself powers the trio there is something ancient and blatantly pre-industrial about the sound, as if electronics have been reinvented by some pagan and mysterious life force.
A studio album recorded in Norway in May this year the sound is basically free improv with an impulse-driven character to it something stark and primeval (on ‘Brighton’ the abstract heavily modified vocal line almost animal-like) and mostly short pieces some with hints of literary titles (eg ‘Bell Jar’ [Sylvia Plath], ‘One Flew Over’ [Ken Kesey]) reliant on the ESP-like rapport between the three, Balke and Jørgensen excelling in the more musically intimate moments for much of its development. The drone-like tech-y backdrop to a piece such as ‘Blind Owl’ providing a tundra of the imagination.
An abiding characteristic of this group is the scaling up in what amounts to an orchestral vision riding into view from the seemingly skeletal materials and atmospheres, twisted sonic trajectories (the Norwegian word ‘Vridd’ used on three fragmentary pieces) pushing the concept of variations to the max or even ripping the notion up. The trumpet/keyboards dialogue on ‘The Nightwood’ reminded me in its opening part at least of Tomasz Stańko’s under-appreciated collaboration with Janusz Skowron on his 1997 album Tales for a Girl, 12 and Jørgensen has that Stańko-like sense of abstract destiny in his sound in his approach on ‘Horla’. Challenging and rewarding music. SG
Jon Balke, above left, Per Jørgensen, and Audun Kleive. Photo: FutureBuilt / jokleba.no