Møster!
When You Cut Into The Present
Hubro Music!

'When you cut into the present the future leaks out.' (William S. Burroughs)

When naming your album after a Burroughs quote, you don't play around the easy-to-listen-to mainstream of popular music. Burroughs' cut-up technique goes back to the days of Dadaist art. This is about creation/recreation, and the construction/reconstruction of music composition and performance. After Møster!'s intense and spellbinding album of last year, Inner Earth, I was eager to check out Møster! live during this year's ØYAfestival. Unfortunately I could not go. When You Cut... is the third album by Møster! in three years, and the players backing saxophonist Kjetil Møster are the very same as on last year's album. They continue their quest for a somewhat jittery, vibrant and explosive prog rock/prog jazz/vivid psychedelia mixture, inspired by John Coltrane's extended jazz as well as King Crimson's outstretched rock. The five long tracks crawl and spiral their way through some imaginative landscapes, over some most rugged ground in a bouncy and creative way. The take on some sonic outbursts, sounding a bit like when Motorpsycho go to far-off places. No wonder, as the Møster! band counts Motorpsycho's Hans Magnus 'Snah' Ryan (guitar) and Kenneth Kapstad (drums). The rhythm section's bass lines come from Nikolai H. Eilertsen (of Elephan9, BigBang and several other projects). Møster and his players explore unknown territory, and together they try to tame the wild and what seems untameable.

According to their label Hubro, (with last year's album) they 'had the reviewers hunting for both superlatives and comparisons with viscously-flowing lava and volcanic eruptions'. British magazine Rock-A-Rolla said Inner Earth finale to be a 'full unleashing of Møster!'s infernal potential into an obliterating lava flow blasting through every available blowhole.' When You Cut...'s tracks pound out and leap in any possible direction, like a beast astray. Hubro describes the sound of the performance being like 'the musicians hit the floor running, propelling themselves towards ecstasy with constant sonic excesses and grooving with marathon-like stamina'. The opening "Nebula and Red Giant" sees Møster! measuring the monster they're up to confront, planning the attack, before throwing themselves into the wild chase. "Bandha" sees the band lift off, gliding upwards - up, up and away - while "The Future Leaks Out" is the sound of the band giving everything to overwin the ultimate challenge. "Journey" cools down, sort of to reorganize and to re-power the troops, to circle and to surround the prey, before the final, massive attack and confrontation with "Soundhouse Rumble". The final rumble in the musical jungle. Leaving all and everything sweated and exhausted.

When You Cut... is a listening challenge, and must for sure be an explosive experience when performed live. I even feel quite exhausted after listening through the album sitting, and/or lying down on a comfortable sofa with a headphone lock mode. This is for sure a chilling and sparkling sound attack.

[PS! According to Hubro, 'Kjetil Møster is apparently everywhere - all the time': He plays in a number of jazz and/or improvisational bands. He also performs regularly with acts as different as (and more mainstream than his other projects/collaborations) Röyksopp & Robyn, Datarock, King Midas and Lars Vaular. Between the recordings of the last two Møster! albums, he has also released an album with the Hungarian hard-core/jazz-power-trio JÜ (JÜ meets Møster, on RareNoise Records). Møster has also launched a concert collaboration with Chicago musicians Jeff Parker (of Tortoise, Isotope 217 and the Chicago Underground Trio), John Herndon (of Tortoise and Isotope 217, ex-The For Carnation) and Joshua Abrams (of Town & Country).]

Copyright © 2015 Håvard Oppøyen