A totally fresh sound from Denmark.
CONSTANT ROTATION
We liked an initial track from Udsyn earlier in the year. And the full album Indsigt/Udsigt (''Insight'' / ''View'') has been on constant rotation hereabouts over the last few days far more so than the dozen plus albums we received in our in-box since the weekend.
From Copenhagen the sound - I would say - is a kind of jazztronica more than jazz-rock fusion although these distinctions are kissing cousins maybe a few generations removed. We tend to use that latter term for a 1970s/80s kind of thing and bands that have some sort of relationship with the heritage of Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra or Weather Report since.
So labelling this as jazz-rock in that above sense doesn't work. It's tuneful but not at all ''pop-jazz'' - working definition the sort of thing a Jamie Cullum or Jacob Collier might deliver. And it's not clubby Afro-rooted jazztronica in the Blue Lab Beats guise either. Just shows how big that sub-genre is.
You can't really cut a rug to this unless you are a particularly advanced disco Dave/Diana and like to dabble in interpretative dance down the shebeen of a weekend. These Danes are not even minimalist in a Terry Riley sense, definitely not. Or anything approaching what GoGoPenguin do although the chord change guide rails are fairly limited but the sound is loose enough for jazz heads not to feel too lost. There's a bit of prog guitar that pokes through but this isn't as complex or stubborn as prog jazz can be. Pining for the fjords? Steady on. There's more.
Anthemic solution
What Udsyn do is instead quite anthemic. And the arc of a tune like 'Kinoautomat' has plenty of drama to it. In other words this instrumental band can tell a story, aren't oblique and aren't trying to impress us by making up band titles that riff on, oh, let's pick a world famous intellectual Dane - Søren Kierkegaard. (Ah you know the kind of thing - a suite inspired by Either/Or might go a bit Pete Tong and become a bit of a Neither/Bore.)
Udsyn don't do dull nu-jazz at all mercifully. So much nu jazz when it doesn't work is just hazy keyboard vamps and a big over reliance in the Fender Rhodes department or worse a victim of having spent a little too much time in front of a mirror at the expense of proper woodshedding.
Band members are Viktor Ravn on guitar; pianist Ole Røndal Kjeldsen appealingly vulnerable sounding in a good open freely expressive way on 'Det Varer Ikke Ved' that has an Americana electro twang to it. It's the best tune of all. Danish language titles are a barrier to us monoglots and I dread to think what Danes would make of us mangling some of the titles here. But it is what it is!
Completing the gathering it's Johan Kjær Houver on double bass and Marco Ceglarek on drums plus Morten Heide on synthesizer. They play as a band (check out a video of the band on YouTube above a few years ago) - hogging the soloing isn't really what these talented players are all about.
For more compelling Danish electro sounds the upcoming Superkilen from Svaneborg Kardyb that Manchester label Gondwana ae putting out this autumn is totally beezer.
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