Here we have the latest album from Carsten Sindvald, someone I first heard from when he was recording with the wonderful avant jazz musician Robin Taylor. Like Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman and others, he is professionally trained, graduating as a classical saxophone player from the soloist programme at The Royal Danish Academy of Music and he has performed as a solo saxophonist in various symphonic orchestras and is employed as saxophone assistant in the Odense Symphony Orchestra. Here he is working again with John Sund, and this time they decided to play everything themselves, using high quality samples using Native Instruments. All saxes and guitars including parts/melody-lines/solos were played by John and Carsten, while Carsten used EWI on “Sophia’s Dance” and the solo-piano piece, “Ayogo”. The Rhodes solos are “generated”/arranged by John, although Carsten had originally planned to play and record them himself, but he liked what John has achieved. The same goes for all bass and drums, although both had input into the arrangements. The only other performer is Anne Eisensee, who provides vocals on one track.
I must admit I had not picked up on any of that from listening, as I was sure this was a full band and contacted Carsten to get the details of who was involved, so was very surprised with his response. I have been fortunate enough to hear quite a few of Carsten’s albums in recent years, and I am sure this is the most enjoyable to date. It is a jazz/fusion album which is incredibly easy to listen to and admire, and one cannot hear that many of the instruments are not “real”, as the rhythm section plays an incredibly important role in this album, while the guitar and sax link together to create something which is vibrant and exciting. It is relaxing, yet never boring, with many layers and quite a lot going on with multi-tracks sax and guitar combining with the keyboards, bass and drums in a way which allows for just enough space so that the listener does not get smothered but instead allows for clear definition. I know this album has been out a few months now, yet I cannot find any reviews online, which is a real shame as music as interesting and enjoyable as this needs to be discovered. If you enjoy sax-led relaxing jazz, then there is a lot here to uncover.
Rating: 8/10
Links:
https://carstensindvald.com/