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Out Of The Blue

by Raoul Bjorkenheim / eCsTaSy

supported by
Carsten Pieper
Carsten Pieper thumbnail
Carsten Pieper Reading these Hendrix-meets-Coltrane reviews, I couldn't resist this weeks Cuneiform Reecords special-offer. Again... ;-)

And yes, among many other things and the bands very own handwriting, at least in places above mentioned comparisons are valid. And while guitar and sax may take center stage, double bass and drums shine, too!

Cosmic music from the sweet sunny north... Favorite track: Uptown.
John Cratchley
John Cratchley thumbnail
John Cratchley This band has really hit its stride with their second album...much more balanced and integrated,I think; with the guitar and saxophone in cohesive opposition.
It's a treat...the playing is stellar and the arrangements are tight ('Quintrille')...yet it also exudes space and elastic time as well ('A Fly in the House')...pretty much has it all!
Bop Rock.
more...
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1.
2.
Quintrille 03:40
3.
4.
Uptown 04:44
5.
6.
OLJ 03:21
7.
8.
Zebra Dreams 10:08

about

"I...was stunned by his Hendrix meets late era Coltrane approach."
– Guitar Moderne

"Despite the boilingly hot drive...influenced by Cream, Lifetime, the Jimi Hendrix Experience (and perhaps more notionally the Pete Cosey/Reggie Lucas version of the Miles Davis group), there's a lyrical side to the guitarist’s playing as well...Excellent."
– Point Of Departure

"...out jazz with lots of sass and vigor...recalls the thornier side of the ECM Records catalog, especially the works of fellow Scandinavians Edward Vesala and Terje Rypdal. Björkenheim attacks the guitar the way the late great Sonny Sharrock did - like Coltrane and Ayler “attacked” their saxophones...yet blues is never very far away. There’s also the chunky focus of pre-Mahavishnu John McLaughlin...The way RB cross-pollinates between jazz and rock recalls fellow traveler Nels Cline, and the results are similar: Oblique swing, gnarly noise, predictably unpredictable, swell."
– Icon

Ecstasy is usually an all too fleeting experience offering the briefest glimpse at transcendence. But a heightened sense of consciousness and discovery manifests throughout Out of the Blue, the transporting second album by composer and guitar maestro Raoul Björkenheim and his extraordinary Finnish quartet Ecstasy.

Featuring the celebrated drummer Markku Ounaskari, the young and dauntingly prolific bassist Jori Huhtala and saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen, Ecstasy has forged more than a signature sound. Over the course of five years the musicians have honed a supremely interactive modus operandi marked by unstable textures, rapidly shifting meters, and emotionally charged melodic flights. Earthy, pristine and unmistakably Nordic, the music evokes the grandeur of Finnish landscapes and the hothouse intimacy of a tight-knit Helsinki scene where the musicians regularly convene to refine their volatile sound.

“I always felt there’s something special about having a band,” Björkenheim says. “An all-star session can be good too, but the thing I’m missing nowadays in jazz is really good bands playing together tightly, turning on a dime together, and especially improvising together.” True to Raoul's statement, this is a band effort, and like all great bands, the sum is greater than the parts. With 2 years additional experience together for this album, everything is upped from the last one: the compositions, the improvisations, the ensemble work and the solos!

credits

released October 16, 2015

Raoul Björkenheim: electric guitar
Pauli Lyytinen: bass, tenor and soprano saxophones, mey
Jori Huhtala: double bass
Markku Ounaskari: drums

Recorded 19-21 November 2014 at E-Studio, Helsinki.
Produced by Raoul Björkenheim.
Engineered by Jyri Riikonen.
Mastered by Petri Majuri.
Cover photo by Jorma Male.
Band photos by Rémi Angeli.

Music by Raoul Björkenheim except 6 by Jori Huhtala and 3, 5, 8 by eCsTaSy.

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Cuneiform Records Washington, D.C.

Cuneiform Records is an independent record label releasing adventurous, boundary-bursting music by artists from around the world.

Founded in 1984.
Based in Washington D.C.

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