in Reviews

Jazz and Not

by Jan-Erik Holmberg

"The album being so well-organized and aurally multi-faceted, it is at times hard to fathom that the music was improvised and recorded during a single session."

On the flip side of the album cover there are two checkboxes, one labeled jazz, and the other one labeled not. Both are checked, so, considerations about genres are obviously up to the listener.

Born in Germany, pianist and keyboardist, conductor and composer, Sid Hille has resided in Finland since 1994.

The name of this trio with Jori Huhtala on double bass and Markus Ketola on drums should be pronounced 'FIS', which would be an abbreviation of Free Improvising Spirits. And there we have the heart of the matter; the music is completely improvised, still not free jazz in the sense that grooves and chord changes are abandoned, nor stylistically. Curiously, Hille’s previous album, Farbformen, comprising his second and third violin quartet is almost completely notated.

The album being so well-organized and aurally multi-faceted, it is at times hard to fathom that the music was improvised and recorded during a single session.

Estonian vocalist Liina Saar scats in a strongly personal fashion on three tracks.

F#: The Wannsee Punk
Sid Hille, keyboards, theremin
Jori Huhtala, double bass
Markus Ketola, drums
Liina Saar, voice

Satnamusic cd 181