Arrival of the New Elders

Each tune is an immersive room of its own, misty tendrils curling round the listener. The ritualistic title track alone demands obsessive listens, offering padding, stealthy bass, guitar suggesting... — Jazzwise, March 2021 More…

Release Date: 26th Feb 2021
Catalogue No: RLP3218
Label: Rune Grammofon

Jazzwise

Editor's Choice

March 2021
Presto Recording of the Week

26th February 2021

1. Arrival of the New Elders

2. Rite of Accession

3. Sojourn

4. Tales of Secrets

5. Throughout the Worlds

6. Chasing the Hidden

7. Chemical Boogie

8. Solar Song

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Recording of the Week, Elephant9 - Arrival of the New Elders

26th February 2021

Jazz-rock trio Elephant9's Arrival of the New Elders is a carefully composed hard-rocking romp, offering a healthy blend of the rawness of rock, the improvisatory chops of jazz and the spacey, outer-space sounds of psychedelia.

After a solid run of five studio albums and 2019's two double live albums, Psychedelic Backfire I and II, Elephant9 had taken their groovy mix of high energy rock and power jazz as far as they could. In this respect Arrival Of The New Elders comes as a welcome and most timely addition to their recorded output. More varied, mature and reflective, they are as groovy as ever, but more structured and less jam oriented, with the longest tracks clocking in around the seven minute mark.

Having built a solid live reputation even before their brilliant 2008 debut Dodovoodoo, the trio boasts what is probably the strongest rhythm section in Norway, complemented with keyboard magician extraordinaire, the one and only Ståle Storløkken. And boy, does he excel himself on this album, notably with more focus on the Rhodes than before. That said, this is nothing if not another strong group effort from what has been a very tight unit straight from the outset.

Seven brand new compositions from Storløkken and one from Hængsle make way for what we consider to be their finest and most cohesive album to date.

Arrival Of The New Elders was recorded by trusted stalwart Christian Engfelt, with early Dungen producer Mattias Glavå handling the mixing duties.

Reviews

March 2021

Each tune is an immersive room of its own, misty tendrils curling round the listener. The ritualistic title track alone demands obsessive listens, offering padding, stealthy bass, guitar suggesting a folky Jonny Greenwood, and, from Storløkken’s Rhodes, the shivery atmosphere of The Doors’ ‘Riders on the Storm’

26th February 2021

More than an extended psychedelic jam session, Arrival of the New Elders is a carefully composed hard-rocking romp, offering a healthy blend of the rawness of rock, the improvisatory chops of jazz and the spacey, outer-space sounds of psychedelia.

10th March 2021

This is a more succinct iteration of Elephant9’s sound, yet all the more enjoyable for the contrast it offers to their earlier work. The same architect’s fingerprints are still unmistakably present on this release; only this time around, the Escher-esque baroque constructions of old have been replaced by a series of more expansive dwellings.

Arrival of the New Elders

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