Khmer – Nils Petter Molvær (1997)
GENRES - Jazz, Nujazz, Electronic, World
Tracks
Khmer – 4:59
Tlon – 7:53
Access/Song of Sand I – 5:51
On Stream – 5:01
Platonic Years – 6:34
Phum – 3:39
Song of Sand II – 6:12
Exit – 2:43
Well Norway just seems to be a bubble of talent at the moment… Nils Petter (Review upcoming) as well as a talented bunch including the likes of Eivind Aarset (Whom I introduced many of you to via the March Birthday competition on the general board), Trumpeter Arve Hendriksen and band Wibutee. All of these mentioned have been pushing some interesting boundaries concerning jazz and electronics especially.
Nils Petter offered up one of my favourite albums from the 90’s with the outing ‘Khmer’. Released in 1998, the album is an exploratory experimental amalgamation of raw jazz and various electronic styles, including house, dub and ambient. Molvaer’s distinctive style is beautiful throughout and offers a very interesting contrast to the back beats. The final result is a tasty morsel that should be sampled by anyone with a passing interest in jazz, nujazz, electronica, and music in general.
The title track ‘Khmer’ offer quite a bit of variety, reaching through its jazzy focus, as well as its electronic base, to some interesting world music samples. The light plucking of a string instrument, as well as the electronics and electric guitar are used to ‘symbolise’ some foreign aspects. The overall feel of the song is seemingly of Asian origin. This is most likely homage to the origin of the word ‘Khmer’, which was a civilisation near Cambodia which was most prominent in the early part of last millennium. The song is built around an Asian mood without every directly referencing so with instruments. Molvaer’s performance is stellar, initially succumbing to the sombre tone of the early parts of the song before breaking out to add his own touch and flair. It never loses its sombre nature or tone of respect.
Throughout the album Movaer displays his ability to convey different emotions though his brass instrument of choice. ‘Tlon’, starts off as a down tempo trip hop piece with Molvaer’s quiet and macabre trumpeting overlaying. Its beauty is in its ability to convey sadness and yet a sense of melancholy in the listener. As the beats increase, much like that of a beating heart, Molvaer’s speed increases along with it to an all out attack. The electronic aspects become more prominent, and yet never detract from the power of Molvaer’s trumpeting, as he pulls out some lovely ‘latinesque’ moments. There is quite an fascinating interruption to both the electronics and trumpeting as Aarset (Who was one of the back up players for the album) has a raw yet satisfying solo. As the song reaches its end, it’s almost a fight between the two styles as to who ‘owns’ the piece. It’s a lovely way to end the song.
‘Access/Song of Sand I’ immediately sets a dark approach, as the song seems deeper in pitch compared to the first two songs. Individual instruments are easier to pick out, trumpeting, drumming, guitarists, other various wind instruments, and the song truly belongs to them. Some marvellous tonal work makes this a true highlight track, as well as Aarset’s interesting and raw work. Molvaer spends a large percentage of the time adding nice depth to the piece but never truly grabs hold of the song himself. The piece is exquisite, and definitely deserves a listen.
The next track, ‘On Stream’, offers a more down tempo ‘earthy’ feeling, most akin to the title track. Molvaer’s performance is especially worthy of attention, as his slow and unrefined performance makes the piece truly memorable. He takes centre stage and the song is only better for it. It’s a hard song to describe; everything simply fits in well to add to the overall nature of the song and earthy and worldly feel. The song only gets better as it goes along.
‘Platonic Years’ continues the tempo of the previous track with the instruments; however, the piece has a great input from the electronic side of things. This makes the piece feel more spacey rather than earthy. There are quite a few nice touches here and there, such as the electric guitar picking working in conjunction with the tribal drumming. The occasional sampling of a drop falling into a body of water, and other such samples all add a nice level of depth to the song overall. For the first time on the album Molvaer’s trumpets sound distorted from the electronics, which add an interesting and nice quality to them. The songs pace picks up in the second half, making the piece even more upbeat compared to previous ones. Overall it is quite a pleasant song, and the spacey feeling offers something different to that which has been displayed on the album already, a good change in direction.
‘Phum’ is a minimalist piece on the album, consisting mainly of Molvaer’s playing and some interesting background beats. The piece is once again used to showcase Molvaer, and offers up a clean performance, riddled with interruptions from background sounds and samples, including a foreboding repetitive pair of sticks being banged together, as well as some new string aspects. The nature of the song is quite different from much of the album, as it avoids bombarding you with obvious noises and samples. Quite the dark and almost ‘scary’ track, it is definitely worth checking out in the middle of the album.
‘Song of Sand II’ is a continuation of the first SOS, and it opens with a very interesting use of glitch and Molvaer’s trumpet, almost trying to exasperate the sound of his trumpet while barely blowing any air through it. The piece is quite reminiscent of the first, for obvious reasons, but it is still a quality track. It just depends on how much you want to listen to a similar song again. The backing instruments and electronics are particularly nice and evident after a few songs without that depth. Molvaer also gets a few interesting sounds out of his trumpet, ones I wouldn’t normally expect.
‘Exit’ does what the name suggests. A nice ending to the album, it is minimal and offers just the bare minimum of what made the album special. Not entirely bombarding on the senses, it is a nice down tempo exit after the highs already experienced.
As I already mentioned, this was one of my favourite albums of the 90’s. It offers an interesting blend of jazz and electronics and world music, and was certainly a unique experience when I first listened to it. It was one of the first nujazz experiments for me and it is probably still my favourite. The group of musicians is simply brimming with talent, and deserves ample recognition for their performances.
TOTAL SCORE
9.2/10
– On Stream
- Khmer
– Song of Sand I