Jazz breaking news: PELbO, Elifantree and Kaja Draksler Shine at 12 Points!

The alternating pattern of home and away destinations finds 12 Points! returning home to Dublin from its Norwegian adventures in Stavanger last year. Festival director Gerry Godley and his team once again had done a fine job of connecting a compelling selection of hugely different acts from Porto, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Gothenburg, Geneva, Trondheim, Helsinki and for the first time Ljubljana in Slovenia, into a programme that both surprised and delighted in equal measure. Early highlights included London-based Phronesis creating their usual blend of kinetic-melodic madness on Wednesday and Thursday’s standout vibes-led Parisian trio MeTaL-O-PHoNe and their lopsided rhythmic brew of incessantly pounding beats and gut wrenching bass figures.

It was then onto the sparse, David Lynchian soundscapes of Gothenbeg’s Isabel Sörling sextet, a scarily sophisticated crew of high-minded young guns (most still students and yet to record an album) finding extraordinarily obtuse angles into layering acoustic sounds of fluttering saxophone keys, chiming tiny cymbals and hovering chords over ostanato bass riffs. Sörling herself reminded of Sidsel Endresen’s sometimes visceral, certainly disturbed, vocal gymnastics each syllable enunciated with extreme detail whether it were feathery falsettos or snarling blues shouts, the results were as dizzying as they were dazzling. Tenorist Otis Sandsjo deserves mention too for his sublime tone and kooky stage presence.

Swiss pianist Colin Vallon was up next with his ECM-signed trio delving into a brooding world of Reichian rhythms and delicate textural atmospherics, swelling to exhalant group improv much in the vein of Helge Lein, Jef Neve et al, yet it was the firecracker drum work of Samuel Rohrer that provided a head-smacking highlight. Thus it was left the tuba-doom-metal stylings of Norwegian trio PELbO to close things out on a wave of sub-sonic pleasures. One of several tuba-fuelled combos doing the rounds in Scandi-jazzdom (see also Chilli Vanilla) PELbO draw an unlikely blend of post-Umpa brass, thrash-metal drumming and sublime soul-jazz vocals woven together into a post-rock alt.pop whole. This works thanks to singer Ine Kristine Hoem’s (pictured) supreme command of her live looping FX pedals that enables her to layer two and three part harmony vocals above the low-end melee, that, when combined with the skinny Indie rock stage antics of tuba-master Kristoffer Lo and lank-haired metallish kit playing of Trond Bersu, you have the most unlikely, yet likable, of stadium bands. A cross between Beady Belle, the White Stripes, and Sepultura this is a group that’s as likely to get people talking as it is to become one of the hot tickets on the European festival scene, and with their new album to be produced by guitar demigod Stian Westerhus the sky, or the hugeness of the bass bins, are the limit.

Trying to top this was always going to be a tall order and Irish quartet RedivideR led by polyrhythmic drummer Matt Jacobson did a fine job of getting the closing night underway with his Led Bib-ish mix of jazz-rock riffing, sophisticated harmonic structures and fractured beats. While they lacked the sheer impact of some of the more developed groups on the bill Jacobson’s writing shows promise and fretless bassist Derrick White and scorching London-born altoist Nick Roth proved their metal with strong performances. Yet perhaps unintentionally the festival’s wild cards from Slovenia (though ironically based in relatively close proximity in Amsterdam) pianist Kaja Draksler took things to a completely different level with her stunning Acropolis Quintet. Rather than mining a straightforward mix of Balkan folk melodies, theirs was a wide-ranging sound world seamlessly splicing together Eastern modalities, deft Chick Corea-esque compositions, crunching Downtown-ish guitars and subtle electronica over urgent bass and drum figures to create a perfectly balanced hybrid sound. This was contemporary music making of the highest order, with the stunning vocals of Sanem Kalfa finessing their already intoxicating brew with a beguiling approach that found common ground between plaintive folk and excitable jazz harmonies. The band reached their rhythmic peak on guitarist George Dumitriu’s locomotive inspired tune ‘Pacific’ with its interlocking grooves delivered with feverish intensity.

It was going to take something very special indeed to surpass let alone equal this show of strength, yet 12 Points! is all about camaraderie not competition, and with the audience palpably buzzing, they were ready for even more sonic exotica. This was ably supplied by hotly tipped Finnish trio Elifantree, fronted by flame-haired singer Anni Elif Egecioglu alongside pugnacious tenorist Pauli Lyytinen and hyper drummer Tatu Rönkkö, they created a sound much larger and wider than the sum of their parts. This included Egecioglu’s constantly shifting vocal sonorities diving from operatic vibrato to punky shouts, hushed soul to wild scat, all peppered her charming humour and wry smiles. Dipping into improvised funk, punk, pop, ambient and rock textures all wrapped up in a tightly drilled stage show, made for an arresting live experience that proves imagination and sheer bravura showmanship can make the most unlikely of musical marriages soar to emphatic creative highs.

– Mike Flynn