Another album to rank as one of the best new artist UK-jazz releases this year. The others we reckon up there as must-hear are the Jakub Klimiuk Quintet's (Un)balanced, Oreglo's Not Real People and Karim Saber's Transmission.
Eight tracks - really only 7 substantial ones as you can dispense with the brief intro to the vamp heavy 'Roll it in Glitter' - guests joining newcomer alto saxist/flautist Kasper Rietkerk and his band the KRSIX (a sax, trombone, piano, guitar, bass, drums outfit) plus less than essential strings are new generation UK jazz sax star Emma Rawicz, accordionist Anatole Muster, pianist Cubby Howard and ethereal, poetic, singer Immy Churchill.
Adventurous and probing, more minor key than major, with a melancholic bittersweet flavour to a lot of the modally driven tunes, The Island lands in a progressive chamber jazz kind of space and the writing is appealing given the twists and turns of the thematic shifts. Howard feature 'Happened in Eridge' has a real poignancy to it and this is also where trombonist Max McLeish comes into his own. Toby Yapp's double bass playing reminiscent sylistically of the Misha Mullov-Abbado approach on 'Until the End' is particularly incisive and pushes the material on. Rietkerk provides the tunes and arrangements throughout and does intimacy well. His flute contribution crops up on 'Ship of Fools.'
Hailing from the Netherlands UK-based Rietkerk studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Timbrally when he solos he shows plenty of character in his sound. Check out the saxist's earlier work in the Netherlands in a hip hop-influenced band called Das Sound Kollektif.
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