The chameleonic configuration of Angles is here an octet, in a powerfully building and passionate set of three recordings performed by Martin Kuchen (alto sax), Magnus Broo & Goran Kajfes (trumpets), Mats Aleklint (trombone), Mattias Stahl (vibraphone), Alexander Zethson (piano & synth), Konrad Agnas (drums) and Johan Berthling (double bass); exemplary.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2022 Country: Portugal Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded at BAS, Bandhagen, in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 22nd, 2021, by Martin Jonsson and Mats Aleklint.
"A band of many configurations, from trio to tentet, this time Martin Kuchen's Angles work with a 8-piece format the formulas you already know of pathos, playfulness, energy and bliss, but in renovated ways because the project is never fulfilled, never completed, as any investigative process should be.
The music inside A Muted Reality comes from the heritage of Charles Mingus and Carla Bley, drinks from the ensemble ideas of Chris McGregor for his Brotherhood of Breath, and incorporates melodical aspects of the Swedish and Balcanic folk musics and rhythmical foundations in West Africa. The results are astonishing, going from the very simple to the grandiose, the detailed, sound centered, to the theatrical, the strictly organized to free-blowing improvisations, all of this with a big band sense of musicality, as if there's many more participants in action.
"An emotional roller coaster", wrote critic Guy Peters about this exhilarating proposal now one more time renewed. To Kuchen, geometry is infinite, open to unsuspected angles and material possibilities."-Clean Feed