Description

With Sumo (ACT 9472-2), Oddjobs ACT debut, they take the next logical step onto the international stage. On that account the five have expanded their sound-search – Rare-Groove and Psychedelic fans will get their money’s worth.

After a breath of the Caribbean in the first piece (“Kingston”), the band gets directly to the point with “The Big Hit”. Riding over a bouncy, elastic rhythm, trumpet, piano, and percussion fan out over the theme. The five remain true to this schema: invariably they stay within the framework of a basic (often “black”) motif – sometimes initiated by the rumbling Hammond organ (“Painkiller”), sometimes by the struck bass (“The Day TV Stood Still”), or from special guest Stoffe Wallman’s OSCar Synthesizer.

Whether it’s a fragmented miniature or a long, sweeping piece, there is a continually evolving music filled with exciting interplay and a love for the finer details. “Of course we rehearsed,” say Johansson and Kajfeš, “but in the end we work very spontaneously. A lot of it first developed in the studio.”

That extends right up to the unusual instruments, such as glockenspiel and wine glasses (on the impressionistic “Småland”, named after the hometown of Swedish glass blowing), and the sound-patina with which Karlsson’s keyboard instruments have coated several of the tracks.

Line Up:

Goran Kajfes – trumpet, cornet, glockenspiel
Per “Ruskträsk” Johansson – saxophones, flutes, clarinet
Daniel Karlsson – piano, organs, vibraphone
Peter Forss – bass, moog
Janne Robertson – drums, percussion, zither

Further Musicians:

Special Guest: Stoffe Wallman – synthesizer (tracks 3 and 12)
Recorded and mixed by Janne Hansson at Atlantis, December 12-14 and 17-19, 2007 except tracks 1, 4, 8, 10 by Pontus Olsson at Almost Heaven Studio, February 10, 2008
Mastered by Hakan Akesson
Produced by Oddjob
Executive Producer: Siegfried Loch