Thursday, May 7, 2015

Velkro, Don't Wait for the Revolution

Three talented players with diverse European backgrounds unite as the trio Velkro and the album Don't Wait for the Revolution (Clean Feed 313). The music is an original mix of avant propulsed jazz with some rock heft.

Bostian Simon is on tenor sax. He has inventive imagination that carries him forward throughout the set and never gets tiring. Stephan Meidell plays electric guitar, bass guitar, and peppers the mix with electronics. Luis Candeias gives us some very nicely horizontal time on drums, then comes back with nicely timeless vertical variations.

It's a trio that does not sound quite like any other. There are very electric moments along with a DIY creativity that gives us outside thrusts that are not typical, nor are they predictable.

Seven originals grace the album, with strong anchoring guitar and bass riffs at times, melodic originality and moments that break the pulse and go into various creative zones. Stephan's bass and guitar often serve as the fulcrum points in the music, giving structure to the fertile embellishments we hear nicely in Simon's soloing and Candeias's free variations. But then Stephan can invent some free lines worth hearing, too. And his electronics strongly color the end result.

In the end we get music that occupies a space of its own, not quite free avant jazz, not quite rock-jazz, not quite anything in a predictable way.

It is enjoyable, adventuresome fare from three players who do not follow any typical path but strike out on their own into interesting territory that straddles a number of styles and sounds completely contemporary. A very good listen!

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