February 7, 2025

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This jazz opera, which would become The Death of Kalypso, was already in Martin Küchen’s mind … Video, Photos

The album is so great that you will either love it or hate it. Real art should be uncompromising. It will not leave you indifferent. (Stef Gijssels, Free Jazz Collective)

After eleven albums with an ensemble of varying sizes, Martin Küchen’s Angles returns with The Death of Kalypso, his most ambitious project to date: a jazz opera for our times.

Joining forces with singer Elle-Kari and Angles pianist Alexander Zethson, who wrote the band’s string arrangements and notation, Küchen adds another volume to the band’s sizeable but coherent catalog, which blends infectious free jazz grooves with tumultuous emotional cadences that reflect both human and political concerns.

Musically, the project is rooted in Küchen’s impulse to work with Sander and a string quartet. As is often the case recently, the pandemic (which Küchen calls “…that period in which making music suddenly became an absurd, almost suspect idea and polarization seemed to reach an all-time high”), provided the creative trigger.

Starting with “Une certaine paix” as a working title, Küchen provided Zethson with home-recorded demos, containing layers of saxophones, rhythmic ideas, and in some cases the most basic string ideas, recorded on a Casio-synth. The bandleader also later sent both Zethson and Sander’s versions with vocals, to share his ideas about the relationship between melodies and lyrics.

The groundwork for the work was laid in 2021. With the exception of “A Campaign of Tragedy” (which was conceived about a decade ago), all the songs were created around the conception of the work as a whole.

This “jazz opera,” which would become The Death of Kalypso, was already in Küchen’s mind when he wrote these compositions. Occasionally, his personal life would also creep in: “Kalypso in Karlsbad, Haunted by Dreams” came to him in the hot summer of 2021, with the memory of his father’s recent death still on his mind.

The libretto was written from scratch in the summer of 2022, with a vague but strong idea about its content and direction. The ancient myth of Kalypso, expanded with some of Küchen’s typical concerns, merged with a family tragedy.

Zethson and Küchen worked on the opera, its instrumentation, arrangements and form. After just three days of rehearsals, the band (the eight-piece Angles, Elle-Kari Sander, and a string quartet) entered the studio with Niclas Lindström.

Küchen, Sander (who also did some vocal overdubs in his home studio) and Zethson were all present for the multiple mixing sessions, while Lindström had several ideas that found their way into the mixes, most notably on “Fetus of Dawn.”

The result is a staggering tour de force, which Küchen calls “an archaic pantheon reflecting a modern, self-indulgent humanity.” Angles’ work has always been steeped in outrage and pain (as well as some of the most vibrant themes and arrangements in modern jazz), yet it has rarely been so expansively crafted, spanning past and present, myth and allegory, metaphor and reality.

With Sander as the authoritative priestess, leading the 13-piece ensemble through the various guises, sizes and forms of the work, it becomes evident how intense the process of interpreting the melodies and lyrics must have been.

The libretto is intensely charged with ideas, referencing the mythological figure of the enchantress Calypso, as well as Odysseus and Hermes, while offering new variations on familiar tropes such as human hubris, religion, war, family, love, legends, fantasy and fate. Combining layers of time, from antiquity to modern prison camps, humanity’s eternal struggle with the Gods (and the attempt to become Gods) and the inevitable downfall, The Death of Kalypso is that rare exception that touches on a myriad of things without getting lost in them.

While previous Angles albums usually offered a few interpretations of older songs and new compositions, the music on The Death of Kalypso stands out for its opulence. The previous recurring references (Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, Carla Bley’s Jazz Composers Orchestra, and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra) may still apply, but there can be no mistaking the signature of Küchen, whose solo work often focuses on sparse intimacy and monochromatic textures, but infuses Angles’ music with those trademark turbulent themes, exuberant grooves, and lush melodies. Add to that the weight and elegance of Zethson’s iridescent string arrangements, and the sum is some extremely immersive music that feels both familiar and new at the same time.

From the commanding grandeur of the opener “Messieurs-dames,” the crushing emotionality of “Fetus of Dawn,” and the exuberant, almost abrasive feast of “Cutting the Woods” to the breathtaking theatricality of “Kalypso in Karlsbad, Haunted by Dreams” and the many moments that will have you picking out motifs, details, strings, and other instruments; There’s a fitting duality running through this vital magnum opus, fusing the grand gestures of the Gods with the limitations of humanity. Soaring above it all, yet at its center, is Elle-Kari Sander, a mesmerizing presence with the gravitas and commanding flexibility that a band like Angles demands. Ambitious plans require disproportionate skill, and that’s exactly what you get.

We will never learn. Words that remain relevant. Since the album’s completion, another war, another atrocious tragedy, has begun in the Middle East. It would be reductive to say that The Death Of Kalypso is (only) about war, but even with allegorical and personal layers present, it is difficult to avoid the message/warning that this jazz work contains. At the same time, it might provide comfort, just as previous works in world literature and music have provided us not only with a mirror, but a key to that most precious trait: compassion.

Angles are Magnus Broo on trumpet, Mats Äleklint on trombone, Johan Berthling on double bass, Konrad Agnas on drums, Mattias Ståhl on vibraphone and glockenspiel, Alex Zethson on piano, synth and Hammond organ, Fredrik Ljungkvist on baritone saxophone and clarinet and Martin Küchen himself on tenor and soprano saxophone. The string quartet consists of Anna Lindal on violin and octave violin, Eva Lindal on violin and viola, My Hellgren on cello and Brusk Zanganeh on violin. Add the speaking voice of Raed Yassin on one track.

But this is not your average Angles album. It is a kind of jazz opera, an incredibly ambitious and genre-breaking masterpiece that defies categorization. This is of course the result of Küchen’s wonderful musical vision, but also the powerful vocal performance of Elle-Kari Sander, the only voice – surprisingly – singing for this work, which can equally be called a jazz musical or a rock opera, because many of the rhythmic and compositional elements find their tradition in other genres as well. It is not free jazz – although some moments are – but the music will require the open ears of avant-garde jazz fans to fully appreciate its quality.

In the opera libretto, which is essential to fully understand the meanings, the attack on the criminals of power and stupidity that many humans love is perfectly balanced by a deep sense of compassion for the fate of that same humanity. As in other Angles albums, the music borrows traditional and folk sounds, with the attitude of a marching band, of sharing the feelings of the community of the moment, like a funeral or a celebration. The overwhelming movements of the compositions, their infectious sound, their deep resonance with the pains and the plight of humanity, are what makes the music so compelling, accessible and enjoyable, despite the sad tones. It is exuberant and intimate at the same time.

The album is organized in five acts, like the structure of a real drama, with subthemes, sometimes with parts of real jazz without voice, alternated by a string quartet, or music with voice, often in a more ballad version or with harmonies influenced by rock, a true masterpiece of craftsmanship. Incredibly balanced, every detail has been carefully prepared and orchestrated, from its structure to the wonderful lyrics, the dark and contagious music, the precise arrangements and the incredible musical ability of this band, whose performance is winning.

It is not background music, there is no concession or caress, it is rather a punch in the stomach, but if you have the patience and the willingness to listen and understand the lyrics it will not leave you indifferent.

I am only at the first listening of this double vinyl, but I have known and appreciated Martin Kuchen and the Angles for many years, since at the Saalfelden festival they left me speechless with a vibrant and rich in ideas set. Sensations confirmed in one of the rare appearances in our country, at the festival in Monticelli Brusati meritoriously proposed by Gabriele Mitelli. Unfortunately it is rare to listen to them in Italy, the summer festivals are committed to not disturbing the spectators, and the music of the Angles is contraindicated, it could wake them up and, God forbid, make them think.