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From Christianity to paganism - the Jethro Tull revival continues. Just as it seemed that Tull were fizzling out amid a welter of live albums, orchestral albums and anniversary reissues, not to mention lan Anderson solo albums (confusingly using the same musicians) that picked at the bones of Tull's past, the band have been reborn as a viable contemporary outfit.
Their 2022 album The Zealot Gene, themed around verses from the Bible, restored Jethro Tull to the UK Top 10 album chart for the first time since Thick As A Brick back in '72. Now, just over a year later, Tull are back with RökFlöte which has forsaken the Bible in favour of the paganism of Norse mythology, a more popular rock'n'roll inspiration that has given rise to a whole musical genre.
But anyone expecting a death metal album from Jethro Tull is going to be disappointed. Ian Anderson is more interested in the characters and the cruelty that proliferate amid the myths and sagas of the Norse lands than in the comic-book manifestations that the subtlety-free death metal bands suck up so eagerly.
What's surprising is that Anderson can kick up more menace with his flute than any number of hoarse roaring voices and thrashing guitars. Rökflöte opens – and closes –with some metal-sounding flute feedback that makes for a chilling atmosphere. On the opening Voluspo, that's followed by a ponderous theme to underscore the portentous implications of the prophecy that lies at the heart of Norse mythology.
Anderson introduces the family of Nordic gods-including the one-eyed Odin and his son Thor whose murderous exploits make up the various sagas-with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of themes and melodies that are every bit as descriptive as his lyrics. And his flute playing has reached a maturity that enables him to capture the complexity he uncovers in Thor's character, on Hammer On Hammer, while also making a lyrical allusion to Putin. Likewise the howl he produces on his flute at the beginning of Wolf Unchained is more effective than the real thing, hinting at the carnal power that makes the image of the wolf so disturbing,
The music lightens up when Anderson moves on to the sagas themselves, but the intricacies remain. As do the idiosyncratic allusions - such as the Mae West flotation jackets worn by the pilots who protected Britain during World War Two that crop up in Guardian's Watch, a song about those who protect the gods.
Daniel Biro (born 1963 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a London-based keyboard composer, keyboard player, improvisor, and producer. Stylistically, Biro's music is a combination of his early influences (70s jazz-rock, Berlin-style cosmic synths, ECM label-style jazz, Motown soul and West-coast rock) with more experimental ambient electronic minimalism. As an improvisor, Biro specializes in exploring the sonic depths of the Rhodes piano and vintage analog synthesizers, with which he performs regularly.
Once recorded, I slightly edit some of the too obvious ‘warts’ and give the ensemble a decent mix. No other instrument layers are added, even though that would sometimes enhance the music, and every idea is kept in the chronological order in which it appeared during the improvisation.
My aim is to play. Not press ‘Play’. To play my keyboards in real time without any constraints. To allow myself to find, as opposed to look for, musical ‘objects’ and explore them for a while until the next idea comes along. An instant composition creating itself.
I have no pre-conceived idea of which musical genre to inhabit. Categories are irrelevant. Things can go from very melodic tunes to experimental atonality, from groove-based jazziness to ambient soundscapes. All the music that is inside me is given an equal opportunity to emerge.
My keyboards are an eclectic mix of vintage and new. Each instrument has its strengths and character (which sometimes includes not working properly…). The unpredictability of tweaking synths in real time is part of the fun. For these recordings I don’t use any computer-based instruments or plug-ins. No mouse-clicking. Pedal loopers are used to ‘freeze’ some ideas into spur-of-moment backdrops on which I can build.
Improvising is a fine balance between being in control and giving up that control. Being a composer and being an interpreter. Trying and not trying. Thinking and not thinking. Obviously this can be risky as one can get stuck in a place where nothing very interesting is happening. Or have playing mistakes ruin a good bit (that’s where the editing comes in…). But using mistakes as sparks for new ideas is inherent in the quick-thinking improvisational process. It’s a dangerous path. But that’s the challenge: to jump off the cliff and hope you’ll levitate.
credits
All music written, recorded and produced by Daniel Biro
Recorded live for Soundcellar livestream concert on May 6th 2021 at the DB Studio, London.
I’ve been wanting to make an album like this for some time. The sound searches for pure drones, introspective textures, absent from time and space, recall when I was looking for these sounds with my first synthesizer (Korg M1), around 1993. The biggest evolution has certainly been the experience during many productions, this is the 48th, but over the years I have also enriched my instrumentation, and since 2014 I have started assembling my modular synthesizer. These sounds come above all from this instrument, research but also spontaneity, a free flow of introspective energy, textures that try to make me enter a cathartic, meditative mood, at times light, suspended, floating, at other times, abysmal, material, dark and restless.
Some tracks of the album make a clear reference to some psycho-active substances, more romantically called entheogens. It is a story almost as old as man, to the point that some cultures have developed behind some of these substances, even becoming sacred for some cults, transforming the perception of reality and hypothesizing structures or entity of other dimensions. The deception of the senses has always been one of my favourite themes, an impudent art that seeks by all means to make people understand that man interfaces with the world only and thanks to his sense organs, but what if these organs were altered, like a radio picking up other frequencies?
credits
Our thanks to Raffaele Pezzella for the complimentary copy of this release.
REVIEWS
Avant Music News
avantmusicnews.com/2023/04/16/amn-reviews-jarguna-explorations-of-the-unconscious-2023-reverse-alignment/
Marco Billi, aka jarguna, born in Florence (1973), is a constant traveller. He visited Nepal, China, India, Indonesia, and in 2001, took a trip of research along the Amazon. He meets the local people and engages in a study of their music-symbolic rituals and shamanic medicine, studies the characteristics and performs direct and indirect experiences through rituals and meditations. Going through all these experiences, he understands how the simplest sounds as well as complex music structures, may play a beneficial and therapeutic role. Agreements and frequencies, may intervene by acting on the entire body, involving mind and body, and also acting on the subtler planes. The relationship between music and the environment remains focused in the soul of jarguna.
Published by Reverse Alignment
Music by jarguna
Mastering by Raffaele Pezzella
Cover Design by jarguna
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