Kodian Plus — Disengage
Disengage is the first sonic statement from five-piece Kodian Plus, which brings together some of the great names in the British and European improvisation scene. The four-track album is a decidedly varied and rewarding affair- which moves between textured minimalism, manic free jazz workouts, and building/ expanding jam-outs.
The release appears on A New Wave Of Jazz as a CD. And surprisingly it steps away from the label's normal sparse grey box and white text format, for a rather grimly arty mini gatefold, featuring atmospheric pictures of churned up & shadow bound earth. The CD is limited to just three hundred copies, and these can be purchased directly from here.
Kodian Plus brings together Charlotte Keeffe: trumpet, flugelhorn,. Andrew Lisle: drums. Dirk Serries: electric guitar. Martina Verhoeven: piano, and Colin Webster: alto saxophone. The album was performed, recorded, mixed and mastered in just one day in March of 2022 at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio, Anderlecht, Belgium.
The release opens with the wonderfully entitled “Latching Effect”, and this is the longest track here at just over the twelve-minute mark. It opens with around two minutes of moodily jittering 'n' twitching static grain(I‘m guessing this is either created by guitar picks/ and or sax fiddle) which slowly but surely start to weave together manic circling, compressed flits, and subtle forks. As the tracks move on jarring key darts are added, along with more snaking ‘n’ twittering honks, and this sort of roaming tone swell. Slow but surely the growing weave of tones & textures grow- creating this great feel of atmosphere, unbalance, and a sort of violent if slightly playful vibe. By the seventh minute, we’ve gone into a wonderful manic freefall of layers of key dart ‘n’ bound, crashing snaking percussion, guitar scrub, and reeling horn piping. In its last few minutes, we move into a glumly descending mix of piercing & billow sustained horn work, high note key tinkle, and cymbal heavy percussive workouts.
As we move through the album, we come to just over eleven minutes of “The Five-headed Anomaly”. This opens with a tight sonic noose of crashing ‘n’ rolling percussion. Fairly soon the horns appear all fired-up and angular- and you think we going to drop into straight-out free jazz- then all of a sudden the scratching and fiddling guitar is added, as well as the darting/ shifting Piano tones. At points we get moments that almost start towards a strut or a groove, at others it’s manic honk ‘n’ twitch. With the percussive circling drop in & out- when it’s there it feels tense & on the edge, but when it’s gone it feels more playful in its intent.
The album plays out with “Kinds Of Things”. This clocks in at around the nine-minute mark- it opens with a blend of stretched honk & static grain drag- which is surrounded by high baying tone pulls. As we move on roll/crash/then stop percussion tones appear- along with more piping to wondering horn work, key cascades and drifting guitar strums/hacks.
I do hope that Disengage was not just a one-off album/ collaboration- as these five play together with such flare, spirit and invention. If you enjoy unpredictable and eventful improv/ free jazz- you’ll be wanting to grab a copy of this.