The Free Jazz Collective
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By Fotis Nikolakopoulos Apart from the strange, incomprehensible title, this vinyl is an aggressive affair that covers a lot of ground between jazz, fusion and free rock. Defkaz records, operated from Thessaloniki Greece, is presenting a pan-European eclectic mix of improvisers. Giovanni Di Domenico is on Fender Rhodes, Goncalo Almeida on bass, Balasz Pandi on drums and Giotis Damianidis on electric guitar. On a first level they clearly rock like the old-fashioned way!
Defkaz has hit a goldmine with this LP which was recorded in October 2017 in Brussels. All musicians are on top form. Playing aggressively, full of energy and pathos, the group presents a holistic vision of modern music. Di Domenico leaves his instrument of choice, the piano, to create proggish atmospheres with the Fender Rhodes but never stops being the natural force he is on the keyboard. The –could be but is not- backbone of drums and bass by Pandi and Almeida dissolve the traditional roles of their respected instruments, by playing as equals and share something that I could call a broken common language with the effects used on the electric guitar by Damianidis.
His playing balances in-between free rock gestures and the ambience created by the feedback of amplification. The two sides of the vinyl consist of two tracks each, but it would be no lie that you can listen to them like on long improvisation. In our modern society of the spectacle it is always something to be mentioned, that Pray For Your Prey is a recording that doesn’t need time to absorb you. Of course it wasn’t built to serve the capitalist motto of time is money, but, certainly, it captures you, the listener, from the first moment you start to pay attention.
The four of them played live and seem in sync from the very first second. On the label’s site there’s a mention that it, also, could be labeled as a noise recording, but that is something I cannot agree with. Pray For Your Prey can be, and is, noisey, but it lacks the chaotic randomness that a good noise recording engulfs. On the contrary, the four musicians seem to know exactly the way they want to follow, even if they are not sure about the exact path. This path is revealed to them every second of the way. There are certain moments of the recording that total control seems to be lost. Those are the best ones, I believe in a great listen that surely demands the attention of anyone not interested in labeling the music.
Here: https://defkaz.com/pray-for-your-prey/
@koultouranafigo
Tue Aug 22 04:00:00 GMT 2023