Om utgivelsen
Since their genesis in 2021, Jonas Cambien’s Maca Conu has been rising fast, turning heads with their arresting live performances. Popular Misconceptions, the band’s fierce sophomore album, delivers seven tracks of blistering spiritual free jazz, abstract meanderings, and rebellious hooks. This marks the group’s first release on Sonic Transmissions Records, an Oslo-based label founded by the ensemble’s bassist, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. The group’s self-titled debut album was released on Clean Feed, a label that was at the core of adventurous jazz for over two decades.
Hailing from Belgium but having called Oslo home for many years, pianist and composer Jonas Cambien is both a progeny of and a formative influence on the city’s free jazz and improvisational scene. Maca Conu embodies Cambien’s astuteness in selecting and nurturing some of the most creative and dynamic actors in this landscape. The group features Signe Emmeluth on alto and tenor saxophones, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on double bass, Andreas Wildhagen on drums, and cements the membership of trombonist Guro Kvåle, who featured on two tracks of their previous album.
Popular Misconceptions is spunky and self-assured, dodging pretentiousness with mischievous wit and cheeky elegance. Both gentle yet ferocious, experimental yet catchy, it has an allure that will see it nuzzling the ears of jazz heads and more. The opening track, “Tree Frog”, sounds like its namesake, conjuring a rain- laden jungle and the abstract meanderings of vegetal and amphibious life that inhabit it, sprouting and composting in the loam. “Macaco Nu” (meaning “naked ape” in Portuguese) feels like watching clouds converge into a storm system, a gentle and curious tropospheric foray that thrums into surging voltage. “Cosmic Vacuum Cleaner” evokes avant-garde voodoo ravings. It is gobsmacking, blistering free jazz for an exorcism, mercilessly unleashing Wildhagen’s drums to decimate all surroundings. It also features a rare move by Emmeluth from alto to tenor sax, really elevating the soul-searing element. “Hunting Mosquitoes in the Dark”, as stated, is nocturnal madness—insomniac psychosis soundtracked by entomological rattling and clicking that makes you wonder about the state of your head. “Everything Looks Like a Nail” teases forth a maniacal hip hop beat, doling out playful chaos with a gangster hand. “Factoids” is ambient subterranean tinkering; a miner’s lament in a jazz key. For the finale, the band closes out the album with a ramshackle bebop street party: “Desert Rat”. Dementedly catchy, it is carefully played in a crass way, untethering Maca Conu to indulge in the guilty pleasures of their instruments.
While their self-titled first album marked a robust debut, Popular Misconceptions sees Jonas Cambien’s Maca Conu settling confidently among the celestial echelons of exploratory jazz.
(text: Tucker Wiedenkeller)
Musikere
Signe Emmeluth - Saxofon
Guro Kvåle - Trombone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - kontrabass
Andreas Wildhagen - trommer
Jonas Cambirn - piano og orgel
