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Krononaut are a posse of time-expanding shapeshifters who, in the space of two sessions recorded early last year in London, have managed to produce ten cuts of arresting, deeply immersive instrumental music.
Tak:til, Glitterbeat’s experimental arm, now fifteen releases strong in a little over three years, has again found a record that echoes many key aspects of its emerging sound-world.
The core of the album is provided by Leo Abrahams, whose startling guitar lit up Small Craft On A Milk Sea, some of Brian Eno’s best work of the last couple of decades, and who plays and produces here, and Martin France, the extraordinary drummer whose wide list of achievements and collaborators includes Evan Parker, Nils Petter Molvær and, more tangentially, Elvis Costello. Experimental music contains multitudes, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the two men came at it from, if not opposing sides, then from two radically different backgrounds: Leo, who started off studying classic composition and who, in his own words, ‘can’t play jazz’, and Martin, whose playing rests precisely on what he refers to a ‘jazz sensibility’, on everything about interacting within and shaping the music implied by that term.
Also on that first session was Shahzad Ismaily (Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, Marc Ribot), who was looking for some playing time while in London. Like many great multi-instrumentalists (on this album he plays bass), he was keen to find a frame for the ‘attitude’ they should seek in the session; Leo obliged by playing some Madoh, shamanic funeral music from Tajikistan, whose unique rhythms ended up informing both the guitar and drums on this record.
A second session was inevitable, this time joined by bassist Tim Harries (June Tabor, Byrne & Eno), American saxophonist Matana Roberts (best known for her acclaimed Coin Coin album series) and Swedish trumpet maestro Arve Henriksen. Save for Henriksen’s gorgeously melodic, flute-like lines, Krononaut was improvised live with no overdubs. What this all produces is a subtle and intricate record that expands with each listen.
Tracklist
- Jena
- Mob Kindu
- Leaving Alhambra
- Location 14
- Power Law
- Cold Blood
- Vision Of The Cross
- Wealth Of Nations
- Examen
- Convocation