Kanaan, Odense Sessions: Consecutive Seconds
Posted in Reviews on February 27th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
On the Danish island of Funen, westward across the Storebæltsbroen from (old) Zealand and Amager, where Copenhagen is located, is the city of Odense. The city is home to, among other things, the studio of Jonas Munk, who is best known for his guitar and production work as a part of Danish psych-desert-jazz pastoralists Causa Sui, as well as his solo work and efforts as a part behind the scenes of El Paraiso Records. The label released the debut album from Oslo, Norway’s Kanaan, Windborne, in 2018, and for the follow-up, Munk not only helmed the recording in Odense, but sat in on guitar on each of the LP’s four tracks, adding to the semi-improvised fluidity of guitarist Ask Vatn Strøm, bassist Eskild Myrvoll and drummer Ingvald André Vassbø and further fleshing out the 46-minute instrumentalist set that speaks less immediately to the nuance and bop of jazz than to the atmospheric reach of psychedelia, and while particularly the 14-minute capper “Urgent Excursions to the Tundrasphere” has underlying motion in its steady punctuation of snare and the entire album prior wants little for movement, the overarching vibe of Odense Sessions is much more about casting a laid back, serene immersion for the listener.
I’m not sure it’s fair to call Odense Sessions hypnotic, since Kanaan and Munk aren’t exactly working toward simply inducing a trance either on their audience or entirely on themselves, but the nature of its flow and the ease-into-groove it hones ahead of its last freakout is such that, should one want to put it on and simply check out mentally for three quarters of an hour, it’s certainly possible to do so. At the same time, the longform liquefaction of “Seemingly Changeless Stars” (11:51) at the outset brings a gorgeous sense of drift to the album’s beginning that is nothing if not worth conscious attention. The trio-plus-one build into a procession that very much works in that vein, with one guitar following the bass and drums while the other peppers with ambience and weaves around the central rhythm being crafted. By the time they’re five minutes in, Vassbø‘s drums have grown louder and the guitars more prevalent — bass is steady, an anchor, present, not staid; could be louder in the mix but I almost always say that about everything — and the smoothness of the build is more apparent, even as it continues to mount.
Payoff arrives circa 10 minutes in with the inclusion of what sounds like Mellotron but might just be synth, but it’s important to note that the peaceful feel with which the song started remains, even as the wash is at its most fervent in “Seemingly Changeless Stars” before it drops back to standalone guitar and the drums begin the 8:11 “Of Raging Billows Breaking on the Ground” (there’s that bass). The later moments of Windborne dug into riffier fare, so it’s not out of character for Odense Sessions to do so either on its only track under 11 and a half minutes long, but the side A closer soon enough transitions into its own outward exploratory motion and the question becomes whether or not Kanaan are going to shift back to that central riff they introduced earlier. They don’t make the listener wait to find out, as at about five and a half minutes in, the figure returns as the bed beneath an overarching drift of lead guitar — one presumes that’s Munk while Strøm is holding down the rhythm, but it could just as easily be the opposite — and takes hold again of the proceedings in a triumphant return during the final minute in a skillfully executed blend of improvisation and structure. It is pulled off righteously and ends the first half of Odense Sessions on a high note.
Side B is the longer of the two on the LP, but that seems unlikely to cause complaints as “Vacant Spaces” (11:39) and the already-noted “Urgent Excursions to the Tundrasphere” begin to unfold, the former starting off in mirror fashion to “Seemingly Changeless Stars” with a quiet stretch of interweaving guitar lines and a could-listen-to-it-all-day peacefulness of mood that is genuinely affecting. Myrvoll and Vassbø pull together a subdued swing behind the two guitars that is not to be understated for how effective it is in carrying the proceedings forward and engaging the listener in the spirit of the song. Four minutes pass like it’s nothing, then five, and as they move toward six, the linear build becomes more apparent, and though it’s a bittersweet to let go of the stillness and the meditative moment at the beginning of “Vacant Spaces,” the track moves through a slowly rolling motion that is still kind of an understated crescendo, worthy of its beginning and not at all overdone, but definitely a journey from one end to the other. One might say the same of the closer, or the album as a whole, and not be at all incorrect.
It would seem to be the aforementioned snare that earns the word “urgent” in the title of “Urgent Excursions to the Tundrasphere,” while the “excursion” in question is obviously the all-go-all-gone sensibility of the improvisational undertaking and the “Tundrasphere” perhaps an acknowledgement of Kanaan‘s northern origins and the nonetheless spaced-out spirit they case. A central difference between Odense Sessions and Windborne is in the simple rawness of the tones on the earlier release. The guitar, even when not casting thicker riffing, could have a bite to it that Odense Sessions trades out in favor of the warmth that, even as the finale shifts to its most active riffing and soloing, is maintained. Loud or quiet, it’s not a challenge to hear the fruit borne of the collaboration between Vassbø, Strøm, Myrvoll and Munk, and as “Urgent Excursions to the Tundrasphere” hits its peak with its howls of synth and guitar and tom fills, it’s worth noting that Kanaan once more bring it back to ground to close out not on a raucous note, but a peaceful one, spending the last three minutes of the song in a sunshiny soundscape that, while still perhaps reeling from the tension prior, is purposefully removed from it.
That ending is fairly earned and wholly satisfying, and one only hopes that whatever Kanaan do next — whether it’s in collaboration with Munk, anyone else, or on their own — they take the experience of Odense Sessions and learn from it as they move forward. Given the inclusion of a fourth personage here, it’s hard to relate the LP directly to Windborne in terms of an overall progression of the band, but even the fact of their willingness to explore beyond their own bounds speaks to their open creative spirit, and that can only continue to serve them well. It definitely does in these tracks.
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