Press 19 – Haftor Medbøe Group – In Perpetuity

Another Edinburgh based band, Haftor Medbøe is a guitarist and composer really doing something different. This album heavily features Susan Mckenzie on soprano saxophone, a player with a classical background, but utterly at home with this type of intense jazz. They are joined by Chris Greive on trombone, Signy Jakobsdottir on percussion (a one-woman percussion section!) and the Edinburgh Quartet on strings. Despite the unusual line up, there’s a really coherent sound – the sax & trombone trading lines across the disjointed angular guitar/percussion backings in the middle of this track flow as well as if there was a conventional funk groove. Live, this band puts on some of the best gigs I’ve seen too – highly recommended.

The Pickles – jazznoises.blogspot.com – 29th March 2006