The seventh album of the psychedelic-punk-jazz septet Kuhn Fu keeps with the spirit of the times. The title of the album, Katastrofik Kink Machine, was generated by AI. With all its liveliness and unpredictability, its music is unmistakably made by people but swings like the index for measuring the impact of disasters of the American fast food chain Waffle House (Green = full menu; Yellow = limited menu; Red restaurant closed). Translate to the free-spirited aesthetics of Kuhn Fu, the music jumps back and forth between green and red with enthusiasm and addictive playfulness, leaving out the tepid middle.
The Berlin-based Kuhn Fu is led by guitarist-composer-master of ceremonies Christian Achim Kühn and its current line-up features German reeds master Frank Gratkowski, American tenor sax hero John Dikeman, Argentinian baritone sax player Sofia Salvo, Israeli bass clarinetist Ziv Taubenfeld, Turkish-Dutch bassist Esat Ekincioglu and British drummer John Hadow. Kühn makes sure that this versatile band sticks to his vision of making joyful chaos despite the flirt with the themes of catastrophe. In the musical universe of Kuhn Fu, Zappa meets cabaret, surf sounds and metal riffs ride the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, while Shakespeare, Brecht and Monty Python are the godfathers.
Katastrofik Kink Machine was recorded in Berlin in January 2023. The first piece «Waffle House» delivers Kuhn Fu’s dramatic message loud and clear. It is jazz that rocks and rock that feels as free as a jazz improvisation, arranged in the form of a big band but has too many compositional ideas compressed into its 12 minutes, and is interrupted by eccentric, improvised solos that barely balance the volatile dynamics along the edge of the abyss. This kind of catastrophic quality keeps shining through the following pieces but is dressed in different moods, as in reserved «Low and Slow», where the rhythm section disrupts the singing of the lyrical theme by the horn section, or the dark and mournful «Grand False» and the gentle, elegiac «Enigma». «Die ID» takes a surreal rock ballad and matches it with a kind of Brötzmann-tinged sax solo, and this piece leads to the psychedelic ritual of «Kink». True to the unassuming spirit of Katastrofik Kink Machine, Kühn declares at the beginning of the last piece «Simple & Charming» that «at last, something simple and charming», a call that spirals Kuhn Fu to another surreal, tasty playing, when the Waffle House has the full menu.
Eyal Hareuveni
Christian Achim Kühn (guitar), Frank Gratkowski (alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute), John Dikeman (tenor saxophone), Sofia Salvo (baritone saxophone), Ziv Taubenfeld (bass clarinet), Esat Ekincioglu (bass), George Hadow (drums)
