| Jazz |
What was initially a double EP ended up this October on two sides of a vinyl. As much as the two EPs immersed you in two totally different universes, separated on a material level, the long-playing vinyl version, with the titles of each EP on each side, offers you the complete musical journey.
The HiLife side includes 6 tracks filled with the vitality and the pleasure of playing while laughing that we find on different continents, such as in Africa. A very colorful music which demonstrates all the influence that the childhood years spent by the Danish pianist and composer Martin Lutz in eastern and southern Africa had on his musical sensitivity. The first title, “Opening Doors”, opens the door to this first side of the LP and the doors of each of the 6 titles which reflect, each in turn, a deep love for African sensations through instruments which invite each other to share the colors of this musical rainbow. The rhythm is danceable and we are carried away by the musical whirlwind, without really knowing if we should listen to this first track again or if we continue our musical journey by opening the door to the next track, “High Live, High Five”. Finally, it is with an equally danceable and cheerful rhythm that the journey continues, with saxophones lighting up the sky while a very present and imposing bass line takes you into a “Frish As A Fish” whose melodic line will obsess you, once you have listened to it. As if an African marabout had made you listen to the sound of magical gris-gris. A title that alone is worth the purchase of this superb vinyl! The three tracks that follow are as cheerful and colorful as the first three tracks, with a nice presence of the drums, a little more highlighted on “Tie Break”. On this first side of the vinyl, the three saxophones present in Martin Lutz’s sextet are like accomplices ready to do anything to entertain his audience and make them dance. An ‘A side’ that instills in you the joy of living and the pleasure of sharing this joy with everyone you meet, friends or strangers. 6 titles that are a wonderful remedy for the gloom that affects too many people on this earth too often and too quickly.
With the ‘B side’, LoLife, you immerse yourself in a world of infinite sweetness and tenderness. 5 tracks invite you to meditation, to calm, to reflection, to what is vital and essential in your existence. A journey which is not the opposite of the journey proposed on side A of this disc, but which completes it, sublimates it. Here, you will have left Africa and its swaying and dancing rhythms for a world without any tension, without pressure, without crises and without tears, except those of happiness that these 5 tracks make you touch. Tracks which are a hymn to love, happiness, tranquility and peace.
An album that is not only excellent (for its A side) but sublime and exceptional (for its B side). Essential, simply essential!
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor-in-chief / PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, October 28th 2023
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