- Moritz and his trio—now including Laurel Halo and Heinrich Köbberling—continue a journey into unclassifiable, electroacoustic territory.
- Over the last decade or so, Basic Channel legend Moritz von Oswald has dedicated his creative energy to the most consciously difficult music of his career. Sure, everyone respects the records von Oswald has made alongside a dazzling cast of characters that includes Sasu Ripatti, the late, great Tony Allen and Max Louderbauer. But I'd wager that even most Chain Reaction superfans would be hard-pressed to name a favourite Moritz von Oswald Trio track. That's by design. "I was trying to create a mood on this album of something that I hadn't felt before," is how von Oswald described the project's direction back in 2012. "It wouldn't be an obvious emotion such as dancing, or sadness, or having tears in my eyes." To go for a previously defined sound or emotional response would be too simple.
For the first trio album in six years (and first on the BMG-affiliated Modern Recordings label), von Oswald brings in two new players: Laurel Halo and the seasoned German session jazz drummer Heinrich Köbberling. They change the lurching and murky formula of the Moritz von Oswald Trio in subtle yet significant ways. For starters, in hiring a jazz drummer as opposed to Vladislav Delay or the Afrobeat legend Tony Allen, von Oswald finally approaches the idea of making music that is clearly, directly jazz-rooted. "What I wanted to do with this project was not really to give it a club feeling, I wanted to propose something like, I wouldn't say jazz, I don’t like saying it, but I would say with 'jazz forthcoming,' so the recordings are a jam," he said in that 2012 interview. While Dissent: Chapter 1 - 10 wouldn't go down so well at Blue Note, tracks like "Chapter 8" have a discernible jazz swing.
This has plenty to do with Laurel Halo, who spends at least half the record exploring jazz voicings for piano, often acting as a melodic North Star that was totally absent in the rippling experimental dub sound of records like Fetch. But this move towards melody and traditionalism itself doesn't make for the most exciting tracks—this is an experimental record culled from fully improvised sessions, so it follows that some zones feel more inspired than others. To these ears, some of the most inspired of Dissent's "Chapters" are more densely referential than previous MVOT music.
The lurching "Chapter 1" mixes the air raid synths of the original (and far superior) version of Alice Coltrane's Turiya Sings with the mysterious Rhodes exploration of records like Miles Davis's Get Up With It. On "Chapter 4," Köbberling goes for a samba-inspired shuffle while Moritz and Laurel kick up a heavy, ominous vibe. Meanwhile, "Chapter 6" integrates Halo's jazzy chords and Köbberling's deft snare rolls into a style that makes loose gestures towards Detroit house.
But it's within the final few tracks when von Oswald, Köbberling and Halo seem to gel as a unit, flowing into an ecstatic groupthink. "Chapter 9" revolves around a trio of optimistic chords, with Köbberling and von Oswald in fine form—a dub bassline underpins von Oswald's bizarre synth leads and Halo's tasteful piano soloing. The following track, "Chapter 10," explores similar dub jazz improv territory with greater emphasis on percussive delays and hanging, hypnotic chords. There are more readily identifiable moods, melodies and emotions on Dissent: Chapter 1 - 10 than previous MVOT records, in slight opposition to von Oswald's desire for mysterious and obscure sounds. However, even if this conversation between master musicians is less cloaked than previous versions of the trio, the approach remains the same—to use electroacoustic improv as a tool for hurtling into previously unexplored musical territory. Godspeed to Moritz and his trio.
Tracklist01. Preface
02. Chapter 1
03. Chapter 2
04. Chapter 3
05. Chapter 4
06. Chapter 5
07. Chapter 6
08. Chapter 7
09. Chapter 8
10. Chapter 9
11. Chapter 10
12. Epilogue