Making waves around the We Jazz offices and Digelius record store in Helsinki ever since the release of the album opener ‘Unity In Diversity’ back in February, the Swedish quartet behind Goran Kajfeš Tropiques excel in their own idiosyncratic form of hypno-jazz which might summon equally the cascading spiritual glissandos of Alice Coltrane, the saxophone squalls of Pharoah Sanders, the shifting phrases and repetitions of the minimalist composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley, the new age ambiance of Laraaji and the frayed Teutonic borders of everything that falls under the auspices of kosmische. For their latest outpouring on Tell Us the quartet of Goran Kajfeš on trumpet and synthesizer, Alexander Zethson on piano, organ and synths, Johan Berthling on the acoustic bass and Johan Holmegard on drums are joined by the frequent Fire! collaborators Josefin Runsteen on violin and Leo Svensson Sander on cello.
The first tempered tones of Tell Us are given over to the elegant strains of Runsteen and Sander, whose bowed strings cut across one another slantwise and with curlicued ends, providing a little bit of torque and tension like the solemn shifting of household furniture, before wafting up into the aether as layered synthesizers and organ keys come in. As the strings and Holmegard’s brushed percussion take on watery tones, Berthling’s bass begins to rumble away in the background, like a boulder being shunted slowly from a tomb. Holmegard’s tumbling drum patterns encourage the ensemble to slip into a sumptuous groove, with the trumpet of Kajfeš rising last to make an appearance over the ebullient wash of synthesizers, playing an ascending sequence which is somewhat redolent of the fiery yearning of Donald Ayler and the world fusion of Don Cherry, with echoes of Miles Davis and John McLaughlin on Sketches of Spain, Bitches Brew and Mahavishnu as strings and brass elaborate their deft interplay. While drum rolls serve to cap Holmegard’s encompassing patter and the strings of Runsteen and Sander also take on a percussive character, Zethson’s keys strike a woozy note through pitch bending and rubato, as Goran Kajfeš Tropiques straddle the surf in a silvery swoon.
‘Magmatique’ opens with a slowly emphasised chord progression on the piano and a sinuous synth line, which are sent reeling by the swirls of Kajfeš’ trumpet and a few well-appointed jabs from Berthling’s bass. Background keys and tenuous shades of percussion give a slightly plosive, bubbling quality to the affair. It’s moody and languorous, with the trumpet remaining fairly muted as bowed cello and violin pull across the piece in short curtailed drags.
Then an organ melody and the affricative sound of Holmegard’s drums commence a deep groove. Strings smear like spectres over the groove, which comes predominantly from the keys and from Holmegard’s padded drum set, with overdubbed synthesizers chiming with the shimmer and plunk of water droplets but with the shape and sonority of a ladder, a swirling and limpid means of ascent. The trumpet picks up the ghostly refrain and gains body, as ‘Magmatique’ gives the impression of a spa, lagoon or water rapids hoisted up to an astral plane, a game of snakes and ladders and dissolving exteriors, the bleeding together of boundless infinity pools.
Finally the combination of synthesizers and trumpet on ‘Prije i posle’ – which translates as ‘before and after’ or ‘now and then’ – plays like a whorl of woodwinds, gently hypnotic, momentarily taking on the character of shakuhachi and shō before Holmegard’s racing percussion once more propels the groove. Burnished on the edges by synthesizers and violin, the bass and cello eventually arrive to form a brusque and slightly dolorous counterpoint. As the synths echo the pizzicato playing of the strings, the groove vortices, and in the final moments of Tell Us the bandleader Goran Kajfeš on trumpet blows out a resonant hymnal, pastoral and Arcadian before joining in with the Neptunal swirl.
