UJAZZ 2018: jazz there is no jazz in Aarhus: Photo report, Video

The only classical jazz I heard was the break music with Dave Brubeck, who the soundtrack played at Atlas. It was the 10th time that the festival was settled (for enthusiasm for a jazz jazz lover like this blogger). It’s called Ujazz. It’s the world right outside or next to the jazzen that’s about. Jazz there is no jazz. All concerts were held in Aarhus at Atlas and Voxhall and in an outdoor scene between the two venues.

Ghost Flute and Dice: Repeat art. The prepared grand piano produced sounds, as it was not originally intended that it should. After a quarter of time, a shift takes place where Ghost Flute and Dice alias pianist Mikkel Almholt switches to a free game that is built up dystert. All the time the piano sounds are affected by effects. The concert is a long continuous process, changing between quite simple, almost sparse tones for dark-heavy bassoons that are distorted and twisted by coincidence guided by coincidences. The concert ends with a very weak sound of piano string vibration that continues indefinitely. It is a strong minimalist statement. It appears as a concentrated encapsulated moment.

Uruz II: A hoarse guitar, nourished by subsonic tiras of feedback-like sounds, is on stage with a drummer who eats complicated rhythms for night-time food. It’s Uruz II with Andreas Westmark on guitar and Thomas Eiler on drums. The two experienced gentlemen from the experimental music scene have joined the duo project, which is today’s first outdoor concert at Ujazz. A good start, where the sun is also looking and listening curiously.

Tarawangsawelas feat. Rahib Beaini: Two Indonesian musicians on traditional instruments created a minimalist and meditatively beautiful starting point for a good afternoon concert. They were with the Lebanese electronic musician Rahib Beaini. The Indonesians are based on the tarawangsa music genre, which is a minimalist musical form with only two instruments. Together with the Lebanese on stage, there is an expansion of the tightly controlled musical universe. He captures and complements Indonesian music. Soundscapes are added along with effects. It is a very beautiful and intense experience.

Donny McCaslin: I was thrilled with the album McCaslin made back in 2010 – it was a kind of Michael Brecker overload. Then he entered Bowie’s fold and contributed to the Black Star album. It has obviously made some profound traces of McCaslin, who plays a band with a rocky expression. It becomes very clear with the singer Jeff Taylor who is on stage the most of the concert.

They primarily play songs from the upcoming album. An older song is Small Plot of Country from the previous album and contains great Bowie inspiration. The energy is big and plays with a powerful expression. But then there is not much more to say. It’s not consistent with McCaslin’s well-polished saxophone game and the band’s rock expression. There are two worlds that do not meet.
Funfact: Donny McCaslin has been playing with Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard 9 years ago in a big band at the Jazz Baltica festival in Germany.

Polyzygotic: We all know the sound of the guitarist who fumbles with the guitar cable before joining the guitar. Now I’ve heard four people who did not have a guitar, but only the jack. They did not fumble, but worked deliberately with the sound of a searching jackstick who would like to go into a guitar. Shrinking the bath jack plug to fit into the socket. It did not happen. Polyzygotic is with Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard and Anders Vestergaard an exploratory band, in line with the other projects that Løkkegaard works with, where he uses instruments in new ways. I also managed to experience the quartet playing altsax, although only two of the members are saxophonists; Løkkegaard and Carolyn Goodwin. It was Anders Vestergaard (drummer) who opened the altsax, while Greta Eacott (percussionist) followed up. The concert began with the four musicians playing violin bowls – they stroke one bow to another. Clean drone.

Perhaps Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard is no longer an investigative music company. Now he has been working for so long with the “genre” that it is no longer a survey – but music is “Beyond music”.

Nils Økland: Living and organic he creates the sound of a wave. It is dark blue and the sea’s thunder is felt in the room. It is completely insane how Økland can transform popular music’s traditions into an entirely independent and contemporary music expression, where improvisation is a supporting part.

He has gathered a strong team of musicians, where Rolf Erik Nyström on various saxophones impresses with an original and multifaceted expression that constantly supports Økland’s music. Among other things. he plays several times without a saxophone nozzle and makes the saxophone sound like a whistle. He can both play the melody and tear off an avant-garde shame. Sigbjørn Apeland (harmonium), Mats Eilertsen (bass) and Håkon Stene (percussion and miscellaneous) are all inside the music of Økland – and give the music body and soul.

Atlas came to boil over Nils Økland Bands meditative and outgoing performance. Without a doubt, today’s strongest experience.

Lubomir Melnyk: A man and a piano. A classic jazz discipline. And of course also in classical music. This is where the German pianist with Ukrainian ancestors is placed in the middle of the middle. In a pompous way. He plays completely overloaded without breaks. The hands are running continuously back and forth over the piano.

He plays the number Butterfly there are for two pianos. It is solved with a pre-recorded track that he plays with. It is sweet and banal in its melodic simplicity. He calls his music for continuous music. Music that continues as in a loop, with minor changes along the way at a wild pace. As he takes a break from the continuous music and plays the ballad I Love You, I’m more in sync with Melnyk. The way he plays is definitely very difficult and requires many years of exercise – but it does not mean that it gets my music-loving piss in the boil.

The Bug vs. Earth: Few man, though a sound pressure. I would like once again to thank my caring sideman at the concert, who picked up ear plugs in the bar. The ears did not start to soften. It could not be done because the blood was already clenched by anxiety. The collaboration between drone metal and the noise guitarist Earth and the electronic musician The Bug became a bodybreaking game. It’s shown what they call doom out in town. I was fascinated by their apocalyptic post-all sorts of genres where The Bug’s dyyybe bass and Earth’s noise-soundscapes melted together. But also a hard game for a jazz blogger from the province.

Africaine 808: The Berliner duo came as a festive liberation on the gloomy scene in VoxHall. There were not many who stood still during the concert, which formed a long danceable mix of electronica and afro-influenced tones. These are the heavy club beats that form the basis of the duo. It’s a very bold venture, where they use the classic drummer Roland TR 808 to make the rhythms that are placed in and around. Maybe not wildly original. On the other hand, efficiently. It became a good party warming to the desert bomb phenomenon Bombino from Niger.

Bombino: It had been Sunday before the festival’s last name went on stage. I was about to be tired, but my music superintendent insisted and did not allow me to succumb to fatigue. The guitarist from Niger is not tired and plays his well-deserved desert blues, where he sings in his native tamasheq. It’s on the guitar that he impresses. There is a lot of blues in the virtuoso and light-flowing guitar game from the North African guitarist who comes from one of the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped countries. There is nothing bad about Bombino’s guitar game. He is in another world of artistic wealth when he stands with the guitar. A good end to a long day.

I just dropped a single concert at the Ujazz festival. It was The Felines who played when I had been hungry. Ujazz is an extreme game for a music lover. Being curious and open can be a good experience. It was especially for me when I heard the concerts with Ghost Flute and Dice, Tarawangsawela’s feat. Rahib Beaini and Nils Økland.

Below is a short video where you can get an impression of the day.