Location: Cerkno / Gabrijel / Slovenia
Date: Saturday, 29.02.2020
Another concert as part of this year’s already 25th anniversary edition of the Keltika festival, where else but at the Gabrijel bar in Cerkno. Another stop featuring two jazz acts: Vienna’s modern jazz minimalists filed under the banner of post-jazz rhetoric, Sketchbook Quartet, and Berlin’s jazz-rock fusionists Gorilla Mask. It promised to be a cracker. On the Gabrijel stage we once again came face to face with electric guitar and electric bass.
Given the rapidly growing popularity of the coronavirus at the time, visitors were required to pass through testing at the bar entrance before being allowed inside. The Austrian pear schnapps — dispensed with proper Austrian orderliness — was admittedly on the sweet side, but visitors still managed to shore up their immune systems that evening with this alcoholic beverage of dubious quality. Among those arriving at Gabrijel was also the “Slovenian pride and joy” of Europe’s first five coronavirus victims, who on 26.02.20120 had been unable to attend a concert by The Aristocrasts in the Venetian town of Montebelluno — cancelled, naturally, due to the spread of the virus.
Andi Tausch (guitar), Leonhard Skorupa (saxophone, clarinet, sampling), Daniel Moser (bass clarinet), and Konstantin Kräutler (drums), united as Sketchbook Quartet, are a wonderfully warm and appealing musical blend, driven by a format of lucidly playful cabaret-jazz wit. Thematic conciseness is tangible and clear, and there is a definite sense of order in this Austrian band — order must be maintained when we are talking about our northern neighbours. No free-jazz excesses, no avant-garde oddball escapades. Everything is in its place, and above all there is the extraordinary harmony and cohesion of this wonderfully cheeky quartet. The band has two albums out — »Ottos Mops« and »When Was the Last Time Vol I.« (a third is in the works, and they also previewed new material). They develop a signature vibe that draws you in and keeps concrete motifs coming. The guys pass them back and forth between the winds and the electric guitar, or simply shift into full-on entertainment mode by first carving out space within a recurring motif, then trading shorter solo runs — particularly between saxophone and guitar — without this ever overpowering the element of compact formatting that the quartet diligently maintains in its compositions. The bass clarinet proved once again to be a remarkably interesting instrument: on one hand creating a wonderfully entertaining and distinctive harmonic contrast with the saxophone, while on the other neatly filling out the sonic picture. The electric guitar entries give the band a reach that could pull in directions not only of jazz-rock fusion but even into the heart of progressive rock. A stunning performance. In every sense. A band well worth all the attention. A band that can be interesting both for less demanding listeners and for those seeking musical novelty.
Then the gorilla spoke up, too…. Next up on stage were the three musicians known as Gorilla Mask. Literally. It is not far off to say: crank up the sound and electrify it, especially concretize the fifths on electric bass, or simply wind the bass line up to devastatingly clattering frequencies, lock in a jazz carousel of improvisation on baritone and alto saxophone, and you arrive at some intersection of John Coltrane with Cream, rock’n’roll fury, or punk energy — a place where even Motörhead fans would feel right at home. The band is led by saxophonist Peter Van Huffel, a Canadian who lives in Berlin. His companions are electric bassist Roland Fidezius and drummer Rudi Fischerlehner. The band was showcasing their latest, fourth album »Brain Drain«, released last November. In fact, they performed almost the entire album live. With an encore to boot. The setlist ran through Caught in a Helicopter Blade, Forgive me, Mother, AVALANCHE!!!, Brain Drain, Drum Song, Barracuda, Rampage, and in the encore, Hoster. The band spun out a brilliant sonic thicket, frequently deploying additional effects, but above all the show was built on a ferocious rhythmic drive that kept pouring fuel on the fire and held the audience firmly on edge. The interplay within this charismatic trio is brilliant. There is enormous room for improvised passages to slot in — the bass and saxophone make space for the drums, and then the very next moment the saxophone bursts free again. Despite the fact that the trio must stay locked in at all times, Gorilla Mask keep teasing the listener with the shock element of »expect the unexpected«. The band deftly rolls between calm, almost subtle passages, then suddenly erupts into a sonically wild gallop, vast and entirely their own, unfurling voluminous expanses of jazz-rock fusion. The lead role naturally belongs to the horns — particularly the incisive motif runs commanded by the baritone saxophone. Yet the band also carries a clearly developed note of free-spirited challenge through free-wheeling experimental kinetics that reaches into the territory of free-jazz excess. Fragmentation, in other words. But in the very next instant it swings back up to the level of tangibly structured forms. Modern jazz-rock fusion executed with exceptional, engaged sensuality, glowing with the phenomenal chemistry of mutual awareness between the three. A performance full of seething passions, brilliant atmospheric turns, and a pleasing sense of spontaneity. A band with a character entirely their own, and a band that delivers an outstanding energetic experience on stage. In short, if you like raw rock energy cunningly seasoned with jazz weirdness that doesn’t shy away from the occasional flirtation with the avant-garde — Gorilla Mask, with their organic, homegrown originality, delivered a superb concert at the Gabrijel bar. An excellent »warm-up« for the upcoming Jazz Cerkno festival.
The evening wasn’t over yet. The three musicians radiated an extraordinarily upbeat mood. After the concert all three descended on the bar, mingling with the audience and getting their ears around the punchy rhythms and melodies provided by the indestructible »DJ Skin«, who after the show delivered a proper little education in the music of The Aristocrats at Gabrijel — and the evening quickly tipped over into a boisterous after-show party that didn’t wind down until the early hours!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
