Since
they formed back in 1996, Norwegian all-female quartet
Spunk have become one of the most respected improvising
acts around, performing in theatres, art galleries, jazz
clubs and techno clubs. Combining a wide range of influences,
going from classical to jazz and electronica to country,
Spunk’s music is utterly unique and challenging. Barely
a couple of months after releasing Filtered
Through Friends, a collection of remixes of tracks
from the band’s first album, Norwegian imprint Rune Grammofon
now releases Spunk’s most anticipated second opus.
All four members of Spunk are involved in a variety
of extremely diverse projects, but their work as part
of this formation provides by far their most uncompromising
contribution to music. Their approach to composition
is at once colourful and lively. Their first album,
Det Eneste Jeg Vet Er At Det Ikke Er En Støvsuger,
translating roughly by The Only Thing I Know Is That
It Isn’t A Vacuum Cleaner, released in 1999, was taking
integration between musical instruments and voices to
new heights, creating intense and inspired moments of
absolute minimalist lunacy. With this second album,
Spunk continue to explore the possibilities of improvised
music. Den Øverste Toppen På En Blåmalt
Flaggstang (The Very Top Of A Blue-Painted Flagpole)
is playful, atmospheric, organic and exciting. Resulting
of stimulating work sessions, the twelve tracks once
again show Spunk under extraordinarily creative lights.
Very disconcerting for the non-initiated, the compositions,
in turn smooth and contemplative or abrasive and assertive,
challenge the mind on unfamiliar grounds to reveal their
intense beauty and extreme emotional nature. Melodies
are not obvious and straightforward, but Kristin Andersen
(trumpet), Hild Sofie Tafjord (French horn), Maja
Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje (vocals, electronics) and
Lene Grenager (cello), all classically trained, know
how to optimise their substance to balance the lack
of usual structure of the tracks. Spunk disconcert even
more when they get on almost traditionalist grounds,
as on Sing A-Long. Here, the quartet weaves
a beautiful little jazz number more in line with the
rest of their contemporaries. But it is when their music
is at its most experimental that Spunk present their
most challenging work.
“Free collective improvising is”, as label founder Rune
Kristoffersen puts it in the press release, “one of the
most demanding ways of making music”. Spunk have, in their
eight years working together, mastered the genre like
no others, avoiding self-indulgence or over-abstraction.
Instead, they have developed a common language allowing
them to communicate and establish pure cohesive lines,
producing in the process some of the most important improvised
work of the last decade.
5/5 |
