Review: Otis Sandsjö - Y-OTIS TRE (We Jazz Records)

We Jazz Records knows a winner project when it sees one and ' Y-OTIS TRE' is definitely that, three is a magic number after all!

Saxman Otis Sandsjö follows-up 'Y-Otis' and 'Y-Otis 2' with another adventure into experimental, avant-garde abstract jazz hip-hop soaked 12 tracks with multi-instrumentalist/bassist/producer Petter Eldh (he of ENEMY, Koma Saxo, Tilo Weber and more) and synths/keyboards of Dan Nicholls (he of divr's 'Is This Water' album- see review HERE)

This is going to be one of my favourite albums of the year as don't we all love a bit of Berlin based Scandi-space jazz that follows the paths of Jimi Tenor (recently 'discovered' by soul-jazz London DJ legend Robbie Vincent!), Madlib and Thundercat/Kamasi Washington.

Not convinced?  Listen to the totally manic-cinematic-Bruk-eque 'LOOMY' and 'midi day job, pt. 4' which stacks up to any 'golden-era' Daedelus or the other single, 'CLICKS 2023' or the instant favourite, 'perla / moln'.

No surprise then that Gilles Peterson, Jazzwise, WIRE and the like are early to the party with this one and any label as varied as hosting The Stance Brothers (see review HERE) and Anni Kiviniemi Trio (see review HERE) is going to be open to the Y-Otis project; FOUR as they might say (as in sometime words have more than one meaning).

Artist: Otis Sandsjö 

Title: Y-Otis Tre

Release date: 23rd February 2024

Label : We Jazz Records

Catalog Number : WJLP63

Format: LP / CD / Digital / Bandcamp 

Review: Koma Saxo - Post Koma (We Jazz Records)

It's the 50 up for We Jazz Records as they continue to find all what's exciting in contemporary jazz; which includes avante-garde, space-age, modal, punk-jazz when it comes to Koma Saxo.

Founded by Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh, the group is becoming more of a big band [small 'b'] with Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger.

Totally different to Eldh's trio work (such as with Tilo Weber, see review HERE) it's definitely "post" Koma, if not "post" everything!  'Koma' is like a dnb rework of some Barry Adamson track whilst 'Watten Koma' gets all dubbed up flute Bob James without keyboards.   

'Komma Hem' has a cool jazz horn line that's romantically soothing with Petter thinking about some Jaco lines before 'Stundens Hetta' goes Big Band Swing-100mph bop: it's that sort of an adventurous album.

'Poly Amok' sounds tinged with 'Ayler' and then, as the title aludes, 'Portal Koma' somehow seems to wrap up all of the above with the comforting squarks of a James White/Black of no-wave jazz and it's heavy as Hot 8 Brass Band, as Nordic as Teppo Mäkynen, as free as Ornette Coleman. 

'Eka Amok' and 'Sista Dansen' are the chill-out/Stereolab versions (one with the mixtapegeeks) along with the Daedelus/'Jobim'/Madlib influenced 'Koma Grav' and the stunning 'Mittenmelodin I Erzeben Koma'.

Fans of last years' album, 'Koma West' will know what's coming but on this new album there's going to be something for everyone and I'm going to call it now, this is going to win awards, perhaps not the Mercury (or the Express & Star), but if you want to get ahead of the 'Musically eclectic and open minded' Jez Nelson's and Gilles Peterson's of this world, this is the album for you/us.

Artist: Koma Saxo

Title: Post Koma

Release date: 10^th November, 2023

Label : We Jazz Records

Catalog Number : WJLP50  LP / CD / Digital / Bandcamp