Otis Sandsjö: Y-OTIS

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Tilo Weber (d)
Elias Stemeseder (p)
Otis Sandsjö (ts, cl)
Frans Petter Eldh (b, syn)

Label:

We Jazz

October/2018

Catalogue Number:

WJCD08

RecordDate:

date not stated

If you tipped the free jazz and electronica sections of your music collection into a jacuzzi, with a couple of classic hip hop records for good measure, you might end up with something like Y-OTIS, the debut album from Swedish saxophonist Otis Sandsjö. Sandsjö's music is abstract and disorientating yet warm – full of synthetic textures, wonky grooves and woozy melodic loops that are blurred and refracted by the electronic manipulations of bassist and producer Frans Petter Eldh. Eldh plays alongside Sandsjö in Lucia Cadotsch's trio, Speak Low. He also works with Dutch electronica artist Jameszoo, whose glitchy cut-up style is a useful point of reference here. As is the music of Canadian saxophonist Colin Stetson: both he and Sandsjö make atmospheric use of extended technique. I'm addicted to ‘YUNG’, which opens with clacking sax keys and spirals of broken pitches. From there it shapeshifts through a series of off-kilter grooves – lurching from dark to light – before settling on the sweetest of tunes.

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