Recording of the Week, Blind Spot, 'Frontmirror'

Left to right: Noël Lardon, Philipp Wisser, Joan Chávez

Frontmirror is the debut album by Blind Spot, a German power trio led by electric guitarist and composer Philipp Wisser. Having released his debut quintet album Just a Glimpse only last year also with JazzSick Records, the Düsseldorf-hailing guitarist is still relatively early in his recording career, not long since having completed his studies in composition and audio engineering between Germany and the United States – included a spell at the venerable Berklee College of Music, Wisser’s music covering not only small jazz combos but also big bands and symphony orchestras.

But Frontmirror seems to be decidedly not another solo project of Wisser – you’ll only find the band’s name on the cover, and indeed Wisser emphasises the band’s spontaneous nature and chemistry as key components in their approach; “as soon as we pick up our instruments, a small spark ignites”. 2021’s Just a Glimpse saw Wisser leading an entirely different band, and his partners in crime for Blind Spot are bassist Joan Chávez and drummer Noël Lardon. Originally from Colombia, Chávez now resides in Cologne, long since having ingratiated himself with the local jazz scene with regular session and sideman work, while follow Düsseldorf resident Lardon’s past musical endeavours have included drumming for psychedelic band Love Machine.

But you won’t just be getting straight jazz guitar on Frontmirror; Wisser and co. embrace sounds from ambient, blues rock and even heavy psychedelic sounds throughout, and the trio’s debut is all the stronger for it. While Wisser can certainly pull off the more straight-ahead style of bebop jazz guitar – and does so plentifully on Frontmirror – he’s also a rare case of a jazz axeman who isn’t afraid to add a bit of edge into his playing style; keep an ear out towards the end of ‘Without a Choice’ when the band catapults from the already fairly bluesy raucous to even wilder fuzzed-out guitar leads with an almost Hendrix-ian tinge. Meanwhile the 12-minute piece in the middle of the album ‘Bubblegum & Not Today’ is similarly eclectic as its extended structure leaves plenty of room for acoustic blues-meets-jazz and ambient sounds.

Left to right: Joan Chávez, Philipp Wisser, Noël Lardon

Elsewhere Blind Spot’s sound palette is stretched even further from what you’d expect from your typical jazz trio; the Chávez-penned ‘Techos Inclinados’ (’Sloping Ceilings’) and ‘Frontmirror Rethought’ feature steady beats that almost sound like they could’ve been sampled off an old soul single in a breakbeat style, while the title track and its ‘Afterthought’ reprise employ some ice-cold ambient textures and electronic layering.

There’s certainly a blues rock through-line in the music Wisser, Chávez and Lardon are playing on this debut recording, between tumbling backbeats and the odd acoustic cowboy chord overdubbed on top of the trio’s live performances. As a guitarist and composer Wisser aptly demonstrates his familiarity with the fretboard, particularly on the aforementioned opener ‘Been Thinking of You’, a fluid piece with a story-like progression, Wisser perhaps tapping into his inner Julian Lage. It’s these more straightforwardly arranged tunes where we also hear the band’s intricacies best, given a little more room to breathe. Blind Spot are as tight as anything, with smooth interplay befitting even the most well-practised of trios, navigating both the formless ambient passages and gritty psych-rock with ease. If you’re missing some eclectic guitar-driven jazz in your life, Blind Spot has you more than covered.