mon 09/12/2024

Album: Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal - Catching Fire | reviews, news & interviews

Album: Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal - Catching Fire

Album: Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal - Catching Fire

Thrilling union of prodigious Norwegians

Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal's 'Catching Fire.' Which of the cover's angular images represents Elephant9, and which represents Terje Rypdal?

Just before the five-minute point, a Mellotron’s distinctive string sound is heard. Three minutes earlier, a guitar evokes Robert Fripp’s characteristic shimmer. Uniting these might result in King Crimson but, instead, these are just two elements of “I Cover the Mountain Top,” the wild, 22-minute opening track of Catching Fire, a studio-quality live album recorded on 20 January 2017 at Oslo’s Nasjonal Jazzscene.

At the show, a union of prodigious Norwegians, Elephant9 were collaborating with guitarist Terje Rypdal. As it has been since Nikolai Hængsle (bass), Torstein Lofthus (drums) and Ståle Storløkken (keyboards) merged in 2006, Catching Fire presents a breathless, head-spinning synthesis of all aspects of the jazz-rock interface that was dubbed fusion: the punk-like, hammer-it-into-the-floor energy is theirs, but the musical positioning nods to Colosseum, Miles Davis, Weather Report, and, indeed, King Crimson. Odd touches of 1969 to 1971 Pink Floyd too. Although Rypdal has taken many turns since first appearing on vinyl in 1965, the closest Catching Fire comes to his back catalogue are the high-octane facets of the 1970 album he made – while concurrently playing with Jan Garbarek – as part of the trio Min Bul, were it shorn of its free jazz components.

Catching Fire’s six tracks are drawn from the first three of the four studio albums Elephant9 had issued up to point they played this show (“I Cover the Mountain Top” was on the first, 2008’s Dodovoodoo, as were “Dodovoodoo” and “Skink”). Intriguingly, the final two of these studio albums and the ensuing pair of Psychedelic Backfire live albums (recorded in January 2019) featured another guest guitarist, Dungen’s Reine Fiske. Material revisited on Catching Fire had also cropped up on the Psychedelic Backfire sets – the performance captured on this new album dates from between the studio and live collaborations with Fiske.

This invites a comparison between the two guitarists. Oddly, considering he is embedded in the jazz world, Rypdal is harder edged than Fiske. The latter is as intense a player, but more sinuous. Here, Rypdal is angular, attacking – so much so, the opening phrases of “Psychedelic Backfire” evoke King Crimson at their c. 1969/1970 heaviest. Which generates a question – despite being recorded in 2017, does the tempestuous, thrilling Catching Fire represent a path Terje Rypdal could have taken in 1970 or 1971?

@MrKieronTyler

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters