I love Jazz for the freedom it can provide its practitioners. If you play Jazz, you’re given an automatically issued license to do whatever you want to (or can) do, experiment with time, tonalities, timbre, concepts, techniques, or any combination you want of those things. This, of course, is a double-edged blade, on the one hand, you are given this vast ocean of freedom to explore, but on the other, it’s very tricky to stay on the natural side of things, the spontaneous side of experimentation, of exploring the possibilities from the direction of serving the music and furthering its musical boundaries.
Frowein Pedersen is a Danish-German Duo, acting from Zurich. And they are total consummate professionals, as spontaneous as they come. Phillip Frowein is a masterful producer and DJ, taking care of sampling and looping on this project, his partner, Aske Lyck Pedersen is a pianist and a drummer. They are joined by Adungo on the bass and the guitars, to give us one of the most profound Jazz releases of 2022, Neighbours. Experimental, yet entirely approachable. Dense with textures and timbres, buzzing with ethnic tinges in instrumentation and percussion, yet entirely relaxed and natural, playful and witty, yet mature and interesting. Let’s delve deeper.
The album kicks off with the steady groove of J. Park Theatre. A street-conscious bass and drums riff drives this piece with immense charisma. A tinny guitar plays a vividly fitting lead line, packed with attitude. Contagious, I didn’t want this riff to stop, but all that comes afterward is just as good. Until We Meet sits on the opposite end of the spectrum. Wide, airy, and rhythmically chilled, with an upright bass that’s tastefully compressed, sounding massive. The keyboard sounds are delightful and haunting alongside the bass and the Broadway Jazz-influenced line provided by a trumpet. Lycks Piano features little to no piano. What it does feature is a foreboding atmosphere built around a mysterious bass part, with nuanced percussion, full of clicks and urban samples, with a hint of Handpan thrown in for good measure. Entirely captivating. Visiones is a short one that features an earth-shaking sub bass, should be experienced with quality headphones. The rest of the piece is airy and trebly, with what sounds like distorted brushed cymbals. Cima Citta comes next. An Acid-Jazz-influenced piece. The keyboards sound hermitical and air-conditioned with the dense, deep, bass part. An unexpected addition is an ethnic flute playing a charming riff. The next 3 cuts are experimental interludes, running around 1 minute each, and each containing a distinct idea to discover.
The second half of the album starts with the brilliant No. 15. Trip-hop and lounge music meet jazzy experimentation. The horn section provides a third of the trick, the unique and light piano timbres provide another third, and the tight rhythm section in the second half provides the third part. The stunning piano solo carries the song on its back and elevates it to dazzling heights. 2nd Floor Epiphany is a crazy cut-off this record. Based in its entirety on a rhythmically twisted bass part in 12/8. The accents are entirely lost on that bass riff, sounding like it will cyclically revolve around an axis to oblivion, it’s further augmented with a shuffling drum part that similarly throws you off. It made me feel delightfully lost until I managed to count alongside it, and that was a true epiphany. Lindia is relatively approachable, in rhythms and harmonies. Not that this detracts anything from it, but this simplicity is nonetheless made up for by dense experimentation with instruments, ethnic timbres, and smart sampling. Wind Of A Planet is basically a drum solo. Half of that is based on an ethnic percussion part, and the other half is the Aske Lycks Pederson’s wonderful drum performance, truly delicate and delicious. The closing title track is an airy and open piece, with tonally ambiguous music, feeling lost and forever hovering mid-air, it’s a pleasant experience and a fitting closer to an otherwise hectic collection of musical pieces.
This album can perhaps be described as Bonobo’s early work on creative steroids. Taking the ethnic timbres of those releases and putting them on steroids, then adding various colors of Jazz on top, to reach soaring creative highs. Perhaps it’s better not to compare Frowein Pedersen’s work with anybody else because the comparison will eventually fall flat, Frowein Pedersen has a uniquely distinctive sound that’s mature, intelligent, and hugely compelling, and this release of theirs is an absolute delight.