Linus + Økland/Van Heertum/Zach

Striking a balance between folksy and forward thinking, Belgians string strummer Ruben Machtelinckx and reeds player Thomas Jillings augment their Linus duo with musicians following either strand. Norwegian Hardanger fiddle player Nils Økland augments the duo’s rustic side while Belgian brass player Niels Van Heertum’s expression are more citified. Stradling the divide is Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach.

What that often means is that drum rumbles provide the ballast upon which Arcadian-cosmopolitan inferences play out. Crucially no player is tied to one role. A track like “ostinato” for instance has the guitarist moving from moderated scene-setting to jagged guitar twangs. With Machtelinckx preserving the theme, Zach’s passive pings and pops turns to miliary style ruffs, while Økland’s sweeps cut horizontally across the performance for further elaborations. The scenario is played out with variations during all the mostly improvised tracks. Jillings sometimes substitutes synthesizer whooshes for other ostinatos, while the title track’s exposition is quickly roughened from Machtelinckx’s simple strums to concentrated arco swerves with taunt strings projecting a new melody on top of the existing one.

Percussion thumps, finger-style guitar picking and whistling reed interjections appear and disappear during the program. However its “Conway”, the longest track, which best defines the program. Vocalized euphonium blasts brush against whistling reed expression as double-stopping fiddle shakes push aside sympathetic brass effects to vibrate a transformed narrative accompanied and interrupted by dot-dash electronic oscillations.

Expanding its personnel for additional sound textures Linus affirms that these disparate inferences can be scrunched into a satisfying whole without weakening any of the tranches.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. playful 2. ostinato  3. light as never 4. affirms nothing 5. conway 6. first notes 7. Echo

Personnel: Niels Van Heertum (euphonium, trumpet); Thomas Jillings (tenor saxophone, alto clarinet, synthesizer); Nils Økland (hardanger fiddle);  Ruben Machtelinckx (guitar, baritone guitar, banjo); Ingar Zach (percussion)