Weejuns Weejuns (Rune Grammofon)
Hedvig Mollestad
Released September 1, 2023
Jazzwise Top 10 Albums of the Year 2023
YouTube:
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About:
After seven albums spearheading Hedvig Mollestad Trio (still very much active!) and three solo albums, the guitarist is here introducing a brand new, exciting trio while breaking some new ground in the process. Ståle Storløkken (keys) is known from Supersilent and Elephant9, while Ole Mofjell (drums) is part of a young generation making waves on the European improscenes. Weejuns is a solid step into shimmering, hardcore improvisation and breathtaking instrumental interplay, echoing Bitches Brew-era Miles, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Supersilent, Henry Cow, Soft Machine and 73-74 period King Crimson. Thus it makes perfect sense that this exhilarating new trio’s debut is a double live album, with four tracks recorded at the new Munch Museum in Oslo, and one track each from Blå in Oslo and Spor5 in Stavanger.
Prepare to be dazzled!
Track Listing:
1. Go at Your Peril 11:47
2. Come Monday 6:41
3. Hug That Tree! 17:41
4. I’ll Give You Twentyone 21:49
5. Stay at Your Peril 12:58
6. Pity the City 8:44
Personnel:
Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen: guitar
Ole Mofjell: drums
Ståle Storløkken: Hammond organ, synth, continuum
All music by Mollestad, Mofjell and Storløkken
Recorded at Blå, Oslo (track 1) and Spor 5, Stavanger (track 2) by Espen Høydalsvik and Munch Museum, Oslo, by Johnny Skalleberg
Mixed by Daniel Wold
Mastered by Helge Sten
Produced by Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen and Rune Kristoffersen
Sleeve design by Kim Hiorthøy
Review:
Mollestad has always had to barrel hoop her energies to bring form to her eruptive powers. Her trio is hyper-rehearsed to the last demi-semi-quaver, while her ensemble albums, _Tempest ReVisited_, _Ekhidna_ and _Maternity Beat_ feature fiercely structured through-written sections. But with Weejuns, the corsets are off. This live double album captures the trio improvising extensively, with written-in hooks and riffs keeping the three oriented. But otherwise, the trio race and rail against each other, urging yet often contemplative. _Red_-era Crimson, _Live-Evil_ Miles, Terje Rypdal’s live projects, and pre-Jack Bruce Lifetime are all signposts. Yet this trio has its own voice, based on long association, notably between the guitarist and Storløkken’s sea-swell organ and synth work.
The album’s emotional heart is the 21-minute ‘I’ll Give You 21’. Like _Maternity Beat_’s ‘On the Horizon Part 1’, its inspiration is the eerie terror of Scott Walker’s ‘Farmer in the City’. Initially all bowed guitar and whale song atmospherics, it coalesces into a riff that’s massive even by Mollestad’s Jovian standards. But the Weejuns aren’t all snarl and roar; ‘Come Monday’ with its rolling toms and Storløkken’s restive soundscapes nestles against positively naïve guitar chords, while the closing ‘Pity the City’, with the clue in its title, is an evocation replete with an elegiac Mollestad solo and densely sparked patternings from Storløkken.
Andy Robson (Jazzwise)
