MOSKUS - Mirakler

Sooner or later we should draw up a nice map of Hubro, a sort of Google Maps where you could trace the connections between the thousand bands that spring to life within the label's wonderful Norwegian catalogue. Anja Lauvdal (piano, organ), Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson (double bass) and Hans Hulbækmo (drums, vibraphone, percussion) launched the Moskus project at the start of the decade, as an offshoot of the much larger jazz orchestra Skadedyr. The three play like seasoned veterans, blending be-bop, avant-garde jazz and that naïve attitude that makes Hubro's records so special.

The Oslo label has taken Rune Grammofon's place in the collective imagination of the rock audience: an imprint inspired by the ECM formula, where the result is greater than the sum of its parts (jazz, avant-garde, folk, ambient, electronica, rock and so on). "Mirakler" is the fourth album by Moskus, released two years after its predecessor, "Ulv Ulv".

The tracklist features a dozen pieces that only once exceed the five-minute mark: from the jazz-in-silhouette of "Sang Til C", to the contagious cheerfulness of the sing-song "Irsk Setter", by way of the brief interludes "Bolero Blues" and "Haiku".

Hans Hulbækmo colors the mood of the melodies with the exotic timbres of his percussion, building sonic carpets for Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson's double bass and Anja Lauvdal's organs and synthesizers. The music's lightness recalls the irresistible work of fellow countrymen Building Instrument. What's striking is the band's ability to enchant with the simplicity of the seventy-eight seconds of "Min Venns Skaperverk", and then immediately after trap your neurons in a free-jazz dance that could go on for a whole hour, "Jailhouse Art Music".

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30/08/2018