"Starlite Motel consists of some players you’ve probably seen mentioned on this website before: bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, drummer Gard Nilssen, Kristoffer Berre Alberts on both alto and tenor saxophones, and Jamie Saft on a multitude of instruments: Hammond organ, Whitehall organ, Moog, and lap steel guitar. This fascinating configuration makes for an equally fascinating listen, one that toes the line between improvisational jazz and psychedelic rock with dexterous abandon." —Derek Stone, Free Jazz Blog
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It’s not the first time we find Scandinavian and American musicians playing together – some of the bands founded by Ken Vandermark have this characteristic –, but Starlite Motel comes with a different focus than the ones trying to reconnect the techniques and aesthetics of improvisation developed in Europe with its jazz roots in the United States. In “Awosting Falls”, non-idiomatic and idiomatic improv meets with… psychedelic rock. Those procedures and styles are very well known by the mastermind of this new enterprise: Gard Nilssen, the Norwegian drummer of the rock-oriented, electric bands Puma and Bushman’s Revenge, but also of hardcore post- free jazz groups like Acoustic Unity and Cortex. His Nordic companions are also familiar with it, namely saxophonist Kristoffer Berre Alberts, who brought jazz to noise domains with partners like Lasse Marhaug and Maja Ratkje, and bassist Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten (now living in Texas, by the way), a member of the free jazz / free rock band The Thing and leader of the metal / hip-hop / jazz combo The Young Mothers. The American in the quartet is Jamie Saft, one of the most permanent of John Zorn’s collaborators, part of Electric Masada and also the author of “Trouble: The Jamie Saft Trio Plays Bob Dylan” and leader of a band including the jazz mainstream bassist Steve Swallow, The New Standard. The music is puzzling and sensuous, cosmic and groovy at the same time. Now you can dream with a beat.
Recorded by Jamie Saft at Potterville International Sound, NY, December 2014 | Mixed and mastered by Jørgen Træen, November 2015
Produced by Gard Nilssen and Kristoffer Berre Alberts | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul
Design by Travassos | Photos by Jamie Saft
Thanks: Jamie, Ingebrigt and Kristoffer for being great musicians and human beings, the Saft family for great hospitality, Jørgen Træen, Pedro Costa, Phil Nestor, Kathrine Lygren Toppe, friends and family.
When two longtime improv jazz collaborators meet these powerful peers from another city, the result is alchemical magic. Bandcamp Album of the Day Feb 23, 2017
Trumpeter Russ Johnson & some of Chicago's top improvisers slink from contemplative to funky, difficult to swingin'. Bandcamp New & Notable May 6, 2014
