Møster! — States Of Mind
The album comes in either the form of double CD or a double vinyl release- I’m reviewing the CD version of the album. The two discs come in a six-panel glossy mini gatefold- this takes in a series of cityscape photos, and black text on pink backgrounds. The album features in all ten tracks- with five on each of the cd’s- and the layout of the album sees two epic twenty plus minute tracks opening up each disc, then a selection of shorter one to six-minute tracks taking up the remainder of each disc.
The band brings together Kjetil Møster- saxophone, clarinet, electronics, percussion & drums. Hans Magnus Ryan- guitar & electronics. Jørgen Træen- modular Synthesizer & Lap Steel guitar. Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen- electric bass & electronics. And Kenneth Kapstad- drums.
It’s certainly a daring album full of musical ideas, that mostly the band managed to express in a fluid, coherent, and balanced manner. The album opens with the wonderful named & rather fittingly entitled "Brainwave Entrainment"- this moves from drowsy & brooding space jazz drifts, through to darting & wiring electro-acoustic texturing. Onto to grooving blends of chugging surf guitars, noir-ish sax work, and all manner of almost cartoon like crash sounds. Before paring back into woozy & melancholic ambient jazz.
As you move through the first disc the band literally darts all over the place- we go from the sparking & volatile funk-rock meets queasy horn sway, meat synth buzz & hazy guitar harmonics of “Unhorsed By Chivalry”. Onto the twanging blues rock, meets hazy bass-fed groove, and wailing emotive sax work of “Mystere”- that sounds like the lost soundtrack to some psychedelic spy movie scene.
The second disc opens with the track “Life Wobble”- which sees us move from an urgent blend of blipping ’n’ plopping electronics & live upfront drums, that’s edged with wishful sax wailing & moody guitar work. Through to angular & eerier journey into sour electro- acoustic-tinged ambient jazz. Onto a bounding & building crescendo that comes off as part hazed noise rock jam, part scrubbing avant jazz wonder, and part jerking ethic work-out. Later on the second disc, we get the brooding & moodily choppy “Sounds Like A Planet”- with its blend of low-key throbbing bass-line & slurred sheets of guitar texture, which adds on in its final moments' ethnic industrial percussion.
As an album States Of Minds very much captors the daring spirit & flare of classic genre-blenders like John Zorn, Frank Zappa, Mr. Bungle, etc. But does so in a playful-yet-precise & organized Scandinavian manner- all making for a most worthy album full of surprising & creative shifts.