Mythical River (Rune Grammofon)
Elephant9
Released April 19, 2024
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2024
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About:
Their previous album Arrival of The New Elders presented a more varied and reflective trio, still as groovy as ever, but more structured and less jam oriented, earning them a 9/10 review in Uncut and a spot in their albums of the year list, noting their telepathic communion and concluding with “this is an Elephant9 you´ll never forget”. Reviews in Jazzwise, Shindig, Prog, Electronic Sound, The Quietus and several others followed in the same fashion. We´re delighted to confirm that Mythical River is moulded much in the same way and a natural follow-up, with six stellar new compositions by keyboard maestro Ståle Storløkken, bookended by two cosmic snippets. From the hypnotic and magical to the razor sharp and polyrhythmic, this is yet another very strong group effort from a trio on top of their game. Comparisons have been made with bands dating as far back as the sixties, but with Arrival of The New Elders and Mythical River Elephant9 appear as a thoroughly contemporary, timeless and even futuristic sounding band.
Track Listing:
1. Solitude in Limbo No. 2 (Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen / Mattias Glavå / Torstein Lofthus / Ståle Storløkken) 01:41
2. Mythical River (Ståle Storløkken) 08:07
3. Party Among the Stars (Ståle Storløkken) 06:17
4. Chamber of Silence (Ståle Storløkken) 02:49
5. Heading for Desolate Wastelands (Ståle Storløkken) 05:57
6. Star Cluster Detective (Ståle Storløkken) 04:48
7. Cavern of the Red Lion (Ståle Storløkken) 05:09
8. Solitude in Limbo No. 1 (Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen / Mattias Glavå / Torstein Lofthus / Ståle Storløkken) 01:41
Personnel:
Ståle Storløkken: Hammond L100, Fender Rhodes, Minimoog, ARP Pro Soloist, grand piano, harpsipiano, celeste, mellotron, continuum
Nikolai Hængsle: electric bass
Torstein Lofthus: drums and percussion
Recorded october 2023, at Kungsten Studios, by Mattias Glavå
Mixed by Mattias Glavå
Mastered by Jørgen Træen
Produced by Elephant9 and Mattias Glavå
Sleeve by Kim Hiorthøy
Review:
Psychedelic jazz trio Elephant9 shifted focus on 2021’s Arrival of the New Elders. Leaving the hoary rockist fusion jam space, they opted for a more through-composed, experimental strategy, using space, subtler textures, and harmonic group interplay. Mythical River extends that notion. Elephant9 walk a porous line between organ trio jazz, avant, and progressive rock, especially the influence of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. While keyboardist Ståle Storløkken employs an array of pianos and synths, his primary instrument here is the Hammond L-100, the same instrument prejudicially preferred by Keith Emerson. Storløkken’s bandmates, bassist Nikolai Hængsle and drummer Torstein Loftus, aren’t strangers to prog, and they respond to his approach with focus and aplomb.
Things open in nearly ambient terrain with the brief, Cluster-esque atmospherics of “Solitude in Limbo #2.” The title track offers processional bass and drum pulses that underscore Storløkken’s minor-key rock vamp that oddly recalls Argent’s in “Hold Your Head Up.” As drums begin to move off-center, the Hammond, buoyed by Mellotron, traces the melody across the mode as Hængsle adds a droning bass throb. Synths enter halfway, just before piano and harp-piano crisscross the rhythm section in an intricate breakdown. “Party Among the Stars” commences with a King Crimson-esque intro (think “Pictures of a City” and “21st Century Schizoid Man”) as guitar-like keys meet an aggressive, distorted bassline and double-timed, mantra-like drums. Storløkken plays the Hammond like a guitar, layering riffs, accents, sound effects, and wafting, noisy chords over it all. After the bridge, the track breaks out into an all-improv jam. The interior drift of “Chamber of Silence” employs a Fender Rhodes played solo. Its three circular phrases are built out eventually by a lyric bassline and crystalline production. “Heading for Desolate Wastelands” is a noirish modal tune governed by a simple bass-and-drum vamp. Storløkken speaks minimally through the organ before claiming the proceeding by layering assorted keyboards, adding angles, shading, and harmonic asides. If Bohren & Der Club of Gore were an organ trio, they’d probably sound something like this. That said, Elephant9 open the tune up to improvisation; it changes shape, wedding pyrotechnics to harmonics and polyrhythms. “Star Cluster Detective” is fusion; it joins lessons learned from Bitches Brew and Sweetnighter to post-punk and Krautrock. Despite its continuous, evolving rhythmic pulse, “Cavern of the Red Lion” begins in abstraction before the band locks in around the noisy Hammond, an overloaded Mellotron, and Minimoog. While Lofthus plays a circular, rim-shot-laden cut-time rhythm, it’s appended by an insistent, rumbling bass riff. Storløkken solos to the edges, taking the track far from its origins, into outer-sonic space and back. Eventually, the rhythm section joins him in the stratosphere and gently whispers it out. The lush, ambient outro “Solitude in Limbo #1” closes the set. Mythical River’s potency and imagination are magnified, because at only 36 minutes, the trio arrive fully formed to explore through-composed music, without watering it down with speculative jamming.
Thom Jurek (AllMusic)
