LOPLOP (CD by Gotta Let It Out Records) "Loplop is a collaboration of Jon Lipscomb (guitar), Dan Peter Sundland (bass) and Ole Mofjell (drums). Mofjell is a Norwegian drummer we know from Emmeluth’s Amoeba and The Big Yes. Lipscomb is an American guitarist based in Malmö, Sweden operating in the fields of improvisation, noise and experimental rock. Norwegian performer Dan Peter Sundland we met on the album by Allemano’s Ohrensmaus Trio. Considering their backgrounds this could be an interesting release, and listening to their debut album it was immediately evident that we are dealing here with a very explosive trio, that is on a very exciting and original mission. In five tracks they concentrated all their energy and ideas. In this exhausting tour de force they are in a constant and tireless interaction they never take a break. A high energy unit of a very original free rock extravaganza. That is surely due to guitarist Lipscomb who performs with a rock attitude and has a vicious style. In the opening of ‘The Mephi‘, he demonstrates very far out playing, blending noise and blues and reminding me of Chadbourne’s improv madness. Bass player Sundland has a very idiosyncratic and personal style that was already evident on his collaboration with Allemano. Mofjell has ideas and alternatives for every mad situation they are engaged in. All three are very capable and moveable players, who can easily switch, accelerate and whatever is needed to channel their creative eruptions. They interact with great mutual understanding and eagerness what makes their hectic and eccentric manoeuvres very solid and focused. In contrast with their intense and noisy improvisations there also moments where their playing is more subdued and intimate like in the first part of ‘Modgud’. They keep things rough and unpolished what make their improvisations rooted and down to earth. This is a stimulating and convincing debut and for sure one of my highlights for this year." (Vital Weekly)

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LOPLOP (CD by Gotta Let It Out Records) "Loplop is a collaboration of Jon Lipscomb (guitar), Dan Peter Sundland (bass) and Ole Mofjell (drums). Mofjell is a Norwegian drummer we know from Emmeluth’s Amoeba and The Big Yes. Lipscomb is an American guitarist based in Malmö, Sweden operating in the fields of improvisation, noise and experimental rock. Norwegian performer Dan Peter Sundland we met on the album by Allemano’s Ohrensmaus Trio. Considering their backgrounds this could be an interesting release, and listening to their debut album it was immediately evident that we are dealing here with a very explosive trio, that is on a very exciting and original mission. In five tracks they concentrated all their energy and ideas. In this exhausting tour de force they are in a constant and tireless interaction they never take a break. A high energy unit of a very original free rock extravaganza. That is surely due to guitarist Lipscomb who performs with a rock attitude and has a vicious style. In the opening of ‘The Mephi‘, he demonstrates very far out playing, blending noise and blues and reminding me of Chadbourne’s improv madness. Bass player Sundland has a very idiosyncratic and personal style that was already evident on his collaboration with Allemano. Mofjell has ideas and alternatives for every mad situation they are engaged in. All three are very capable and moveable players, who can easily switch, accelerate and whatever is needed to channel their creative eruptions. They interact with great mutual understanding and eagerness what makes their hectic and eccentric manoeuvres very solid and focused. In contrast with their intense and noisy improvisations there also moments where their playing is more subdued and intimate like in the first part of ‘Modgud’. They keep things rough and unpolished what make their improvisations rooted and down to earth. This is a stimulating and convincing debut and for sure one of my highlights for this year." (Vital Weekly)

"Free improvising guitarist Jon Lipscomb comes from Baltimoreis but now resides in Malmö, Sweden, and collaborates with local musicians like sax hero Martin Küchen, pianist Tilda Björnberg (with whom he self-released the duo album An Arrangement in a System to Pointing, 2022), trombonist Ola Rubin, double bass player Johannes Nästesjö and drummers Anders Uddeskog (Lipscomb, Rubin and Uddeskog released their first album as ThebSwedish Fix in 2017) Fredrik Håkansson. Conscious Without Function is Lipscomb’s debut solo album, recorded by himself at Moriska Paviljongen in Malmö, and was also mixed and mastered by himself.

In his solo work, unlike his free jazz meets free improvisation bands, Lipscomb pushes the electric guitar to its utmost limits and produces a series of nervous and urgent, dissonant tones that flirt with post-rock and noise. The electric guitar becomes in his hands an unpredictable, sonic entity with uncompromising power and tangible energy, almost with life and reason of its own, and the six pieces presented here are based on fragmented, free-associative ideas that exhaust the electric guitar’s infinite resonant qualities. Lipscomb uses effects like distortion or feedback but in a reserved manner, sporadically strumming the guitar strings in familiar but still ‘out’ manners (check the Hendrixian «Phatic Culture»), and more often sounds as if struggling furiously with the guitar. Sudden eruptions of raw, abstract, or punishing noise are key elements in his sonic vocabulary and only the last piece «Desacralization» suggests some twisted lyrical and spacious landscapes.

It may take some repeated listening to decipher Lipscomb’s guitar freak-outs but Conscious Without Function certainly delivers a wild ride."

Eyal Hareuveni

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