7K Oaks - Entelechy (Die Schachtel, 2011) ****

By Stef

Three years ago, the German-Italian band 7K Oaks released its debut album, "7,000 Oaks", that won general acclaim, including mine. The band is Alfred 23 Harth on bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, pocket trumpet, electronics, Luca Venitucci on keyboards, Fabrizio Spera on drums, percussion, and Massimo Pupillo on bass. Now, three years later, they release their second album, recorded live in Hasselt, Belgium in 2008.

The album is even more ferocious than the first one, starting with a groundswell of unleashed energy, power and anger and violence, but then one that treats the listener with respect and unlimited variations of instruments from sax to trumpet, from piano to organ, with sound density that can diminish, yet never loses intensity. The band mixes jazz with the raw anger of rock music and the distorted noise of electronics and avant-garde, either consecutively, but preferably all together.

The second track is quieter yet full of implicit tension, with lots of unreleased energy being built up under the surface of floating, scratching, wailing and distressed tones, setting the scene for the hypnotic rhythm underpinning the third track, even more accentuated by Venitucci's ever ascending chords, opening a magnificent avenue for Harth's distorted trumpet howls, that keep moving relentlessly towards the expected eruption, yet in contrast it evolves into a quiet and pleasing sax solo, humming the tune from "At Last I Am Free", the CHIC hit, also known to more educated audiences from Robert Wyatt, then shifting the melody into a full blast emotionally expressive post-bop mode, and then - no holds barred - propulsing it right out of the stratosphere ... but coming back to earth, gently.

Impressive!


So, you may ask : what is "entelechy", and for your education, you find some answers here at the source of all information. It means in a way using energy to become what you are ... "It is the entelechy of an acorn to be an oak tree".
      

© stef