A Finn, two Belgians and a French national. The Italian-sounding - something of a red herring in the artful naming - Orchestra Nazionale della Luna left us a little baffled both as to how exactly all roads lead to Rome given the lack of Italians. And as far as numbers go, where's everyone else? How many jazzers does it take to fit in a phone box I wondered. Four as it proves.
Reader, we tried to love Selene's View but fell at a few of the more unsurmountable hurdles that the obliqueness of the sounds threw up. Nevertheless the always listenable keyboardist Kari Ikonen isn't only the main attraction. That's because there's a sizzling rapport spread across the band which is powered by the pounding no nonsense beat of drummer Teun Verbruggen.
Prog really. Let's not beat around the bush. You wonder who the 4 are playing for. Progsters are often like nutty professor characters hunkered over some steaming substance in the lab and the detailed formula here is being frantically pored over like necessary foreplay before a particularly strenuous work-out Cernsters would tackle over a cup of tea before heading back to the Hadron Collider for more, erm, colliding. Moonjune label appreciators might dig all this, dear reader wotcha think? Gertcha. It's not as ballsy or - trigger alert if stunned by possible pejorative thinking - rockist. That's because the Leonardo Pavkovic approach or even quite the Giacomo Bruzzo taste issued down the years on the Italian's label RareNoise is another thing again.
Saxist/flautist Manuel Hermia and Ikonen have written the tunes - bassist Sébastien Boisseau completes the personnel. Stuffed with a jumble of arcane inspirations - Selene is a moon goddess gazing in on the earth. An Ikonen arrangement of Argie tango 'Silencio' is a strong suit.
A metrical spree-for-all
The idea that back stories of tunes are never that interesting unless the tunes themselves are really obviously the dog's bollox springs to mind. In other words never mind the prolix. 'Kompelo' is - deep breath - semi-dodecaphonic. Live it's surely more convincing and I'd go hear these guys live for sure. But a living room listen is just too small for everything crammed in here. Viewing the performance video of some of the tracks especially 'Data Lake' helps afterwards. And if the whole concept was simplified just a fraction and some of the labyrinthine sub-motifs in the tunes pruned back a bit it would work very agreeably. It's all crying out for more clarity.
Comments