Artist: Labyrinth (CRO)
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2008
Rating: 2.4/5
Labyrinth is a young Croatian jazz outfit that just dropped its self-titled debut. It took them a full two years to record this album, and given how long they sweated over their compositions, you’d expect something seriously special and outstanding. Sadly, what we get is merely lukewarm (good only in flashes), and you can’t help wondering what took them two years when they could’ve slapped together roughly the same thing in a month (or a week).
Labyrinth play jazz that sticks strictly to the rules of classic improvisational jazz. Here and there a moment of inspiration shines through all the clutter and you think there might be some hope after all, but before long they slip back into monotonous improvisations that go practically nowhere. I’ve heard countless bands that pulled off far more interesting improvisations. It feels like Labyrinth care more about playing technique than about that jazzy energy and those jazzy feels. I’ve seen reviews saying the music radiates youthful energy, but I wouldn’t agree. If anything, it sounds like I’m listening to old, burnt-out jazzers who’ve run out of inspiration but still cling to past glory, hoping it’ll strike them from somewhere. Maybe the muses will be kinder to Labyrinth in the future, because this time around the whole thing sounds pretty much sterile and lacking real inspiration.
It doesn’t bother me so much that Labyrinth play jazz built on a very old-school style. What bothers me more is that the music has no real charge to it, the way the best jazz players do. Everything is superbly played, and they’re all phenomenal musicians, but it seems like more and more bands of this kind keep popping up, playing in a “look what I can do” style while that soul and real feeling are missing.
These young Croatian jazzers show a lot of promise, but I hope that going forward they’ll show a bit more drive to find their own style. It really wouldn’t hurt them to put a bit more of their own voice into the music instead of recycling what’s been heard I don’t know how many times before. This is still a pretty young band, so we can expect (or at least I hope so) something better down the road. Until then, I’d recommend you listen to a Slovenian jazz band instead, like Miusow Quartet or Feedback. Apparently, when it comes to jazz, Slovenes are currently doing better than Croats, though I wouldn’t want to generalize about their whole jazz scene.
Lineup
Dalibor Matošević – Pipo – guitars
Luka Veselinović – bass
Marko Matošević – drums
Guests: Kristian Terzić – keyboards, Matija Dedić – piano, Saša Nestorović – saxophones
Production
Denis Budim, Labyrinth, Kristian Terzić
Tracklist
1. Badminton (7:14)
2. Complex (6:34)
3. Cigla (6:53)
4. 87 (6:25)
5. Alexandra (5:51)
6. U-Bot (6:13)
7. Gaebletz (6:15)
