Customer Reviews

Khmer

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Suffused with deep atmosphere, this is a brilliant and seamless mélange of musical vocabularies that broadly expand the jazz palette for an intensely expressive ride. This would likely qualify as an experimental effort if it weren't so mature and fully realized. There are other artists incorporating breakbeats, electronica, world, and ambient into a jazz context, but few creating such an atmospheric environment. And in the electronica genre only the best artists achieve the depth of expression almost effortlessly offered here. Superficially unlike most previous ECM label releases (the label that has so consistently offered uniquely magnificent music for so many years) this is really quintessential ECM stuff. There's a kind of somber introspection throughout the recording, only heightened by the roaring atonality of the screeching guitars and the pounding percussion and bass that drive much of the music forward. Atop this shadowy, ominous, occasionally menacing foundation Molvaer weaves in his trumpet lines, sometimes gentle and melodic, other times fractured, skewed, and electronically treated. The music builds up some tremendous momentum at times, shifting back and forth between this and softer, more contemplative passages. This is fertile ground, and Molvaer and his fellow musicians explore it with confidence and style.

Khmer is intelligent, accomplished, deeply atmospheric and emotional music that forges real and cogent expression from the burgeoning musical vocabularies available to sensitive and probing musicians.

I had never heard of Nils Molvaer. I had never heard of the record label. I heard a short excerpt of Khmer on a local radio station and I knew I had to buy this CD. This is an awesome fusion of improvisational jazz and electronic/ambient music. The songs have a strong electronic base and over which ride improvisational trumpets. Rather than sounding cheesy like many other "fusions", this CD creates a totally new sound...

 

Nils Petter Molvaer- Khmer

ECM have always had some sort of reputation based on great production, intelligent and introspective music, discerning covers and in many ways have been the trendsetters for much of what is now around. They tend to be the label that every one else worth their weight bases themselves on. And so this should be. I have been a collector for many years and I am happy to repeat what I have been saying for many many years, that this is the greatest label in our time. Consistency and loyalty is something that ECM has nurtured and I think this is a good thing. To a degree because so many of their musicians have not only recorded so many great albums but have also cross pollinated musically across such a wide spectrum of albums, this has in many ways contributed to that unique ECM sound. Now we have another ECM classic, this time by multi instrumentalist Nils Petter Molvaer. At time of review this had not been officially released but seek this out by all means. What you get is a cross over between world music, tribal,industrial beat techno, Nordic rock and some damn fine ambient moments. NPM is a fine trumpeter if ever there was one. Stylistically he sounds a bit like Don Cherry meets 70's Miles, especially on the title track. Check out Tion for some of the most intense playing heard for a long time. It all starts very slowly and then develops into some sort of roller coaster plethora of sound that builds up to something that is not exactly ECM, a sort of techno dance tune that will jump up and bite you on the bum interwoven with some of the cleverest Nordic guitar treatments and trumpet blowing I have heard for a long time. Move over Terje Rypdal, we have a new contender in Elvind Aarset, previously heard on Marilyn Mazur's excellent release on same label Small Labrynths. Lay down a THUNDEROUS drum beat over all this and you have a mother and a killer of a track.This absolutely kicks. Access continues the theme of Tion but concentrates more on the guitar work of Aarset. In fact this release is top heavy with guitarists. Second guitar is ex heavy metal player Morten Molster who I am advised used to be with the Norwegian band The September When, but these days is into improvisation and third guitarist is Roger Ludvigsen who is better known for his material with Mari Boine Persen, playing dulcimer and bowed acoustic guitar. Throw in sound treatments and samples ( notably from Lost In The Translation by Bill Laswell) and you have one very interesting album that will carry ECM further into legend status. This is my contender so far for album of the year.

There are I am told remixes by Herbalizer, Mental Overdrive and Rocker's Hi- Fi on the way for this. Should be interesting to say the least. Molvaer himself says of this:

"Most of the guys in the remix world have a brilliant feel for beats and putting together grooves. I like this feeling of just letting loose all the elements of the work and then being confronted with them again, reassembled from the point of view of somebody else's aesthetic consciousness."

 

Remember when--thanks mostly to Sting--the term "synchronicity" was all the rage? Well, a couple of days before Christmas I was in a used CD store and picked up a copy of Khmer. I knew nothing about it, but I usually find ECM recordings interesting and I thought the instrumentation listed on back (e.g., trumpet, guitar, bass, drums, percussion, samples, and even a guy credited for "sound treatment") sounded promising, so I took a chance and brought it home, where I promptly stuck it on a shelf to sit idly while I played mostly Christmas CDs for the next couple of days. On Christmas morning, one of the Christmas presents under our tree was a small but relatively heavy package marked for Dad that turned out to be The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions.

Needless to say, the trumpet of Miles Davis was soon heard in the Nehring house--not exactly traditional Christmas music, but most enjoyable on a cold winter's day in Ohio. Later that evening, I was looking around for something to play, and I remembered that I had bought a few new CDs recently. I saw Khmer sitting there on the shelf and decided it might be worth a quick listen--surprise of surprises, it sounded like a '90s version of Bitches Brew. Synchronicity!

What we have here are two disks, a 42-minute main disk and a 19-minute "dance mix" disk with vigorously variant versions of four of the cuts from the main disk. All of the music features Molvaer's Miles-like trumpet weaving in and out of an electronic tapestry that is recorded with plenty of little phase flips that make the soundstage--even in antiquated two-channel playback (WARNING: possible sarcasm detected)--T-H-I-S B-I-G. The music is not as complex as that on Bitches Brew, but is much more danceable. Fun, fun stuff, and one of the best CDs I have found for playing in the car in a long, long, time. You start your journey playing the main disk, then you slap in the dance mix to really get your door panels flapping.

GENRE: jazz
STYLE: modern, Scandinavian, beat
SOUND: dark, slow, full, spooky trumpet, very ECM, wall of sound
INSTRUMENTS: trumpet, drum, bass, samples, sounds, spatial guitars
INSTRUMENTALISTS: Molvaer on trumpet, Eivind Aarset guitar
TECHNICAL SKILLS: ok
ORIGINALITY IN PERIOD OF MAKING: very original
COMPARE TO: Erik Truffaz, Bugge Wesseltoft, Eivind Aarset
BALLS: yes, but that's not what this album is about(; fith song is called platonic years)
STRIKING: wall of sound, atmosphere, tastefull sampling
WEAKNESSES: no
AND...: Molvaer records his trumpet with a lot of air being blown into the microphone. I don't know if that's the right technique acoording to the musical teachers, but on the album it sounds great. Beats and samples are contributing to the music, when done like this (in the European/Scandinavian way).

FJB/O!-music 2006

Jazz purists would be advised to stay away however those that enjoy the ambient funky textures of Bill Laswell and the trip hop beats of Thievery Corporation would find this Scandanavian release an enjoyable treat. Expressive trumpet tones play alongside back beats of all shapes and sizes. Organic drums and sprinkles of guitar drones accompany Nils as he takes you on a ephemeral journey of beautiful textures and sounds. Great music for reading, kicking back late at night or listening to headphones on. The track "On Stream" makes me stop and think everytime I listen to it as Nils' moody, melancolic, trumpet playing speaks with such emotion. A treat indeed.

1. Song Of Sand (Single Edit) 3:55
2. Platonic Years (DJ Fjørd Mix By The Herbaliser) 5:17
3. Tløn (Dance Mix By Mental Overdrive) 6:22
4. Song Of Sand II (Coastal Warning Mix By Rockers Hi-Fi) 4:17

My first CD from Nils, will check out more.

There are sections of Khmer where his playing reminds me of Don Cherry from his Codona or Multikulti eras. I love Cherry, but there's only so much available of that sound, so to hear it in this Cd was delightful. If that sounds intriguing to you, I'd say check this Nils CD out.

But Cherry is not the only sound here. Much is B+ Laswell-ish and that's fine in my book.

There is a spot or two with a sort of Death Metal-ish growling which I could definitely do without. There lies the 4-star rating rather than 5-star.

ps - The ECM sound that I'm familiar with is smoother than Khmer, think snowy Winter. This is more assertive, different from the ECM pack.

I was very excited to own this album knowing that this was a jazztronica album from one of the ECM masters. After struggling to listen to this album several times I have to say Molvaer would do better to stick to the more straight ahead, or perhaps find another producer for such outings.
The electronic textures and ambience are fine, and the playing is nothing less than you would expect. Really it's just the beats that make this album unlistenable to me. Extremely cheesy and extremely cliche. My friend commented to me that it reminds him of a 90's movie soundtrack. I think that's about right.
Molvaer is a great player, but he's a bit out of touch with some of the genres he was hoping to capture on this record.
For jazztronica I would go with Dave Douglas' "Freak In" or the aforementioned E.S.T.

Nils Petter is just a remarkable multi-enstrumentalist. Plays trumpet, guitar, bass, percussion. Samplers and other electronic stuffs are used just in balance, not the way of techno or hiphop but gives a powerful background to new-age style melidic structure. And I heard that this is the first electronic album which released by ECM..