Ouroboros is a delightfully manic, extragalactic sonic circus that in the course of almost fifty minutes generates all sorts of moods and unexpected twists. This is not an album that can be experienced as background music. In order to experience it properly, one must listen with full attention. Music for adventurous minds.
[Release page] No rules, no restraints, only raw, wild, boundless flow towards the exotically unknown. That is the modus operandi Ouroboros presents. It’s easy to put this album under the jazz label because of the improvisational spirit it so wonderfully reflects, and while ambient jazz or jazz-rock can be suitable labels as well, the bottom line is that this music is indefinable. Post-Miles music? Sure, that description fits too, together with a dozen more, but when someone asks me what this album sounds like, I always give the same answer—it sounds like Naked Truth.
Ouroboros features Graham Haynes on cornet and fx; Lorenzo Feliciati on electric bass, electric guitars and keyboards; Roy Powell on Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3, prepared piano and iPad; and Pat Mastelotto on acoustic and electronic drums and percussion. Each one of these four highly skilled, talented and well known musicians, brought years of experience and a wide range of influences into the studio. The outcome is hectic and bizarre, but also dreamy and spatial. Lush cornet layers hover above frenzied flows of acoustic and electronic drumming, Hammond and Fender Rhodes shadows lurk in the background and at times burst into the forefront, prepared piano sparkles and occasionally a guitar roars while most of the time deep heavy basslines push forward from below. All is seasoned with electronic treatments that enhance the intensity with which the music moves, and the colors with which it radiant. The icing on the cake is the mixing job that was done by the one and only Bill Laswell.
Ouroboros is a delightfully manic, extragalactic sonic circus that in the course of almost fifty minutes generates all sorts of moods and unexpected twists. This is not an album that can be experienced as background music. In order to experience it properly, one must listen with full attention. Music for adventurous minds.
Ouroboros is available on RareNoiseRecords. [Release page]
