Label: Heartcore Records, 2019
Personnel - Kurt Rosenwinkel: guitar, voice, electronics; Tim Motzer: electro-acoustic guitar synth, electronics; Gintas Janusonis: drums, percussion, electronics.
The versatility of renowned guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel is on display in his most recent outing with the experimental post-jazz trio Bandit 65, whose impressionistic musical languages embrace jazz, rock, and ambient. The seven spontaneous tracks on Searching the Continuum were captured live during concerts in Europe (Stocholm, Madrid, Berlin, Vienna) and the US (Philadelphia and Los Angeles) and reveal to have a distilled, deeply personal quality to them. The album is a product of three years of intense live performance and comes full of aerospheric involvement.
Rosenwinkel and his adroit bandmates - fellow guitarist Tim Motzer, an expert in looping and textural soundscapes, and well-versed drummer Gintas Janusonis - follow the principle that the music creates itself, ensuring tight collective integrity in addition to moments of sheer individuality.
Vaporous soundscapes open up the first selection, “Inori”, whose incantatory pace relies on consonant guitars and noble percussion outfits. At some point, the trio embraces a pop/rock circularity that remains alive until the end. Rosenwinkel’s vocalizing accompanies his resolute sense of phrasing on the guitar, a procedure that gains further dimension on the fascinating “At The Gates”, a mesmeric combination of ambient/rock textures and jazz improv that lifts it up to a high peak.
The recording ends in a clear crescendo thanks to “In Time”, whose reverb-drenched chordal work echo in our ears with chill-out resolve before sinking pleasurably in our souls, and “Magical”, which, buoyed by sturdy bass lines and some guitar exoticism, evolves from silently static to a particular atmospheric mood that begs to be played loud.
The group’s taste in experimentalism is palpable on “Sagrada”, where a spacey church organ deflects dissonantly with occasional splatters of tension. Percussive and electronic noises play fundamental roles in the inception, while, later on, bluesy guitar licks morph into chromatic jazz moves toward the end.
On “Bloomer”, talkative percussive rattles and bass drum kicks prepare the territory for a broken beat-inspired flux that stabilizes along the way as it props up languid harmonies and a rock-tinged guitar improv. This number, holding a three time feel, quite differs from the 19-minute voyage “Interstellar Suite”, whose interesting collages within the deft sound design incorporate the earthy and the cosmic. It unfolds like a slow dancing in sustenance of drone intrigue, floating electro-acoustic guitar coils with synth-infused motivation, and circumspect drumming; all under an non-rigid structure.
The surface quality of the overlapping guitars teases out new dimensions, lending a fluctuant light air to the tracks. These are further deepened and expanded in scope according to the musicians’ intuitive playing.
Grade B+
Favorite Tracks:
05 - At the Gates ► 06 - In Time ► 07 - Magical