Absencen
Label: Staubgold
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: Absencen
Like a pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd arranged by Roland Kirk and Bernard Herrmann, German ensemble Kammerflimmer Kollektief is something rare in today’s indie label-dominated market: a forward-thinking group that is classically trained yet totally renegade. Blending resonant jazz drumming, live strings, piano, horns and Tinkertoy found-sounds in songs that are gorgeously serene one moment and eerily aggressive the next, Absencen (like KK’s four previous albums) hovers like a swarm of bees frozen in space. This Euro classical/electronic drone discipline escapes the average American rock musician’s mind, and that’s a shame, as Absencen is mind expansion of the first order. “Lichterloh” is a prime European jazz construct, complete with spewing brass and maddening typewriter percussion. “Hausen” is a country jazz spiral of clarinet, brushed drums and yawning steel guitar, while “Shibboleth” betters Radiohead’s Messiaen-inspired collages with battling horns and splashes of tortured roadkill imagery. Ummagumma II, anyone?
This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2005.