«Koma West» may be the most adventurous chapter in the always surprising and challenging journey of Swedish, Berlin-based double bass player-composer-producer Petter Eldh’s ensemble Koma Saxo. This time the potent quintet goes orchestral and hosts fellow-Swedish vocalist Sofia Jernberg, German violinist Maria Reich, British cellist Lucy Railton and pianist Kit Downes and even Eldh’s mother who plays the accordion on one piece. Koma Saxo answers Eldh’s vision of groovy avant-garde jazz for the 21st century, involving chop & go post-production work with the raw and energetic live playing, and features German drummer Christian Lillinger on drums, plus Swedish saxophonists Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar and Finnish Mikko Innanen.
The album was recorded at Stockholm’s legendary Atlantis studio in April 2021 with additional recording by Eldh in his Berlin home (aka Koma Saxo Industries), and of Jernberg’s voice and Downes’ piano «somewhere in Europe». The short 14 pieces of «Koma West» last only 37 minutes but it is more than Koma Saxo augmented with vocals and strings. Eldh, who composed the music conceived it as a concept album rooted in the nature sceneries West Coast of Sweden, where Eldh grew up, with references to the local flower of Bohuslän and oysters.
As with all Koma Saxo releases, «Koma West» follows its own unpredictable paths, and this one sounds like anything previously appeared under the band’s name. The distinct pieces alternate freely between the chamber, peaceful folk melodies and hymns, joyful, hard-swinging songs, and fractured rhythmic patterns, all cut up and edited with great focus on detail and never fall into easy sentimentality. Jernberg uses her wordless vocals – except on the emotional «Närhet» by Swedish songwriter Fritz Sjöström, as an imaginative instrument and feels at home with Koma Saxo’s restless dynamics. The pieces flow naturally as a rich and colorful cinematic story and serve beautifully Eldh’s eccentric compositional ideas. But as Eldh says: Koma Saxo should and can become anything. Unfortunately, this uplifting journey passes too quickly as if the ride on a ghost train throughout the colorful Swedish coast was deliberately compressed into a vinyl-long capsule of time.
Eyal Hareuveni
Petter Eldh (b, sampler, p, perc), Sofia Jernberg (v), Christian Lillinger (dr), Otis Sandsjö (ts, acl), Jonas Kullhammar (ts, fl, slide s), Mikko Innanen (as, sopranino s), Lucy Railton (c), Maria Reich (vio), Kiki Eldh (acc), Kit Downes (p)
