Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Avantgarde, Electronic | Heft: eclipsed Nr. 160 / 5-2014, Jahrgang 2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 9/10 | Label: Leaf | Autor: eclipsed
Polar Bear is an experimental jazz band from London around drummer Seb Rochford, who also caused a sensation with the punk jazz formation Acoustic Ladyland. Polar Bear's new album is a journey through the depths of free jazz and ambient soundscapes, odd rhythms and gripping grooves. The album is simple and complex at the same time. Sometimes it is not clear what is in the foreground: the melodic bows, the spontaneous improvisations or the permanent disruptive manoeuvres with which the alleged intentions of the group are always directed onto a different path. Although the sound of two saxophones, bass, drums and electronics is from the same mould, the music is full of surprises in the details, some pleasing, others painful to foolhardy. With the virulent emotionality on "In Each And Every One", Polar Bear set new standards in a jazz scene that has far too little resonance in Germany in relation to its creative output.
