Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Humcrush with Sidsel Endresen: Ha!

Humcrush with Sidsel Endresen: Ha!

By John Kelman
June 30, 2012
View read count

That so many artists can place themselves in a position of ultimate risk on a concert stage, attempting to create something from nothing, speaks of a certain intrepid spirit. That some of those same artists not only succeed at pulling form from the ether, but actually do so night after night, with a distinct and recognizable voice, speaks of something even more special. Not every night is equally successful, however, and between cell phones and YouTube, artists have lost control over deciding what is worthy of permanent documentation. Of course, what constitutes worthy by the artists and their fans may be two very different things; but at the end of the day, artists always deserve the right to determine how their music gets out into the world.

Humcrush—the now seven year-old collaboration of keyboardist St?le Storl?kken (

Supersilent

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Supersilent,

Elephant9

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Elephant9) and percussionist

Thomas Strønen

drums
b.1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Thomas Str?nen (

Food

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1998

" data-original-title="" title="">Food, Meadow) has been collaborating with singer

Sidsel Endresen

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Sidsel Endresen for a couple years now, delivering a particularly strong set at the 2011 Oslo Jazz Festival. But it was their 2010 show at Switzerland's WIllisau Jazz Festival that provided the perfect grist for Ha!, where a largely continuous performance has been broken out, in post-production, into nine discrete pieces—each with their own shape but collectively creating a narrative different than what went down, yet standing as a better permanent document of this fearless improvising trio.

Endresen's unique form of improvising—based on small vocal cells honed to perfection and subsumed into a larger vernacular that combines melody, distinctly unvocal-like extended techniques and a spoken language that would likely blow up Babel Fish, yet functions with its own logic and cadence—has been advancing in leaps and bounds recently, both alone and in duo with enemy-of-orthodoxy guitarist Stian Westerhus and symphonic solo saxophonist

Hakon Kornstad

saxophone
b.1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Hakon Kornstad. But with Humcrush, she gets the chance to explore music of a more decidedly rhythmic nature, though the pulses Str?nen and Storl?kken create are as likely to be staggered and jittery as they are settled in any kind of continuous groove.

Between Storl?kken's remarkable control—his tones as spontaneous as the notes played—and Str?nen's frightening ability to sample his own kit, reprocess it and feed it back into the mix at the speed of light, Endresen is working in a significantly different context, one as rooted in Oliver Messiaen and Gy?rgy Ligeti as anything else. What's most impressive about these nine constructed tracks, ranging from just under two minutes to a gradually unfolding nine, is how these three players respond to each other with nanosecond precision, whether it's Endresen reacting to a single drum hit that Str?nen samples and returns as a rapidly increasing echo, or the singer's oblique melody driving Storl?kken's haunting dissonance which, in turn, inspires Endresen to follow as if it were planned all along.

While not exactly for the faint-at-heart, Ha! remains an absolutely inspired and inspiring set for those capable of leaving convention behind, forgetting about what Humcrush isn't, and celebrating what it is: improvised music with a paradoxical combination of reckless abandon and an unmistakable and underlying sense of purpose.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Ha! 1; Ha! 2; Ha! 3; Ha! 4; Ha! 5; Ha! 6; Ha! 7; Ha! 8; Ha! 9.

Personnel

Humcrush

band / ensemble / orchestra

St?le Storl?kken: keyboards; Thomas Str?nen: drums, electronics; Sidsel Endresen: voice.

Album information

Title: Ha! | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Rune Grammofon

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Moraga
< Previous

Red Bank Jazz Orchestra: Strike Up T...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.