SURPRISE

SPALTKLANG were a four piece band out of Switzerland led by the very talented Markus Stauss, the composer and sax player. This is his band and they've released five studio albums since 2002 with "In Between" from 2013 being the last time we've heard from them. The first four albums featured the same lineup but on that last one they changed considerably with the viola and bass players leaving. Markus didn't replace the viola, but instead brought in a trumpet player. And the bass player was replaced by a double bass player. The results of the last album left a lot of fans disappointed.

The attraction of the music on those first four records is the melody and beauty contrasted with powerful avant stylings of the first order. The drummer adds keyboards to great affect. The soprano sax and viola tend to solo while the dynamite rhythm section just kills on here. So you can imagine how their sound changed on that final release "In Between". They touch on avant/jazz, even free jazz on this 2004 release but rarely, and that is contrasted with those adult contemporary jazz moments and chamber music passages. They do lose me at times with those last two sub genres I just mentioned, but this is one impressive album. Eight tracks worth about 54 minutes.

That opener got my attention with the viola playing over that rhythm section. Sax will replace the viola and the sound turns more powerful. Then the tempo picks up. The sax is dissonant at times and I like the calm with those synths and viola leading. More dissonant sax 5 minutes in. "Patterns" is just that with the punchy and intricate sounds and almost a swinging style with the viola. The sax is adventerous and incredible here.

"Sadness" is interesting despite meandering a lot. It's like everything is restrained early on. "Irgendwo" is my favourite. Some power and heaviness before a minute then it settles back as bass and viola take over. Love that bass! And it's upfront throughout the whole album. There's this KING CRIMSON vibe on this song which is a "surprise" indeed. It's fairly powerful at 3 1/2 minutes with sax over top then the rhythm section starts to drive this one hard 6 minutes in.

This is a consistently good album just the way I like them. A very solid 4 stars. And I really hope the original lineup returns one day.