K. Freund - Window Left Open (Soda Gong) [Nu-Jazz]

*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's September 9th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***

Hailing from Akron, Ohio, Keith Freund is a multi-instrumentalist and producer who’s been hanging around the quieter end of the musical spectrum for a couple of decades now. He mostly seems happy spending time alone in his home studio, honing his politely quirky fusion of machine and acoustic sounds, but he’s also twenty-five percent of TSMM hall of famers Lemon Quartet - who I’m happy to report have a new album in the pipeline.

Window Left Open stutters into life, courtesy of chopped, looped and erratically triggered machine sounds, although Freund manages to somehow imbue these jagged noises with a warmth of sorts, but just to be safe soon slides in some even warmer tones and mangled piano, followed by a gentle sax line, tickled cymbals and string picking/pecking (delete as applicable) before the track disintegrates to allow through the catchily entitled “Therm 7”, which manages to successfully combine an unfortunate vintage radio tuning episode with some free jazz drums and piano. “Over Sidewalk Bryum” then goes with the hiccuping nu-jazz flow, an insistent piano loop and reversed sounds bringing out the best in Freund’s palliative sax inclinations.

And so the album continues along its idiosyncratic, oddly synergistic, man and machine path; the gently provocative glitchiness, twisted shards of discarded acoustic recordings, reality-questioning loops, hissing, fizzing, bleeping and blooping, continually tempered by Freund’s soothing sax lines that put a reassuring arm around any easily distressed listeners. It’s a post-glitch nu-jazz mosaic of Gaudiesque proportions that faintly niggles, but ultimately comforts.

If unusual jazz fusions are your thing, then I can't help thinking you'd probably also like Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice's Phantasy & Reality album on the every interesting Moon Glyph label.

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