Artist: #Bloomerangs
Album: Moments and Fragments
Label: Instru Dash Mental Records
Release Date: 5.15.20
Ranging far and wide, with its astral travels, brief Latin immersions and episodes of cool fusion, among other exploratory trips to the outer regions of contemporary jazz, Moments and Fragments is the surprisingly accessible and always interesting all-instrumental sophomore effort from #Bloomerangs.
Headphones come in handy while tripping to the controlled free jazz schizophrenia and cosmic wilderness of a rambling and constantly evolving “Catch a Clue,” an ambush of odd, inside-out signatures that brings rolling piano through the back door and allows keyboardist Clay Wulbrecht to wander all over the place with chordal bombs going off and frenzied, seemingly improvisational runs through the chaos. It is the unexpectedly weird and wonderful avant-garde centerpiece of a record that negotiates peace between experimental innovation and listenability, as the air-conditioned soul and R&B of “After the Fact” and the rainy day sadness of “Another Melancholy Waltz” cycle through more familiar mood swings.
Leading a cast of brilliant and adventurous players that includes nimble bassist Stefan Lenthe and versatile drummer/percussionist Chris Parker, guitarist Rodrigo Cotelo also produced Moments and Fragments, and his slippery electric guitar work comes to the fore on a soft and tender “Home,” before his slashing banjo introduces the aptly named “Layers of Complexity.” More industrious, an up-tempo “Leaps and Bounds” spirals and darts this way and that in acrobatic maneuvers, as Cotelo’s guitar climbs and Wulbrecht’s piano restlessly gallops along.
Amongst the original music contained here are International Songwriting Competition Jazz category semi-finalist pieces “In Some Shape or Form,” hopping about happily with nuanced touches of guitar and jumping piano, and “S Mitchell St,” another easy-to-swallow piece. The fuzzy Grunge Jazz Etude of “Change of Pace” is nastier and dirtier than anything else here, but celestial closer “That Sums it Up” awes and “Mind Your F” soothes in a more grounded and earthly fashion. Such Moments and Fragments make #Bloomerangs special.
—Peter Lindblad
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