Causa Sui: Szabodelico
El Paraiso Records
In contrast to some of Causa Sui's earlier releases, many of the thirteen tracks on its double-album set Szabodelico (available in both surf green and black vinyl copies) are song-like in length and form. Largely absent are sprawling psych-rock instrumentals checking in at ten minutes, in its place three-to five-minute pieces distinguished by melodic content and verse-chorus structures. Further to that, a panoply of esoteric styles is explored, the band clearly intent on broadening the terrain it typically tackles on a release.
That guitarist Jonas Munk, keyboardist Rasmus Rasmussen, bassist Jess Kahr, and drummer Jakob Skøtt are keen on venturing into new zones is indicated by the two-part opener, which sees the four delving into spiritual jazz. During the two-minute intro “Echoes of Light,” rustling bells and organ flood the space alongside Munk's ecstatic musings and Skøtt's aggressive flourishes, after which the elements coalesce into a trademark Causa Sui workout for “Gabor's Path,” an elegant guitar figure leading the way and everything else operating in tandem with it. Up next, “Sole Elettrico” sounds as if the band might have been absorbing The Mahavishnu Orchestra's “One Word” before unleashing its own exercise in white heat. In this high-energy take on electric jazz, Rasmussen's electric piano collides with Munk's raw guitar riffing as the rhythm section digs in. Shifting gears again, “Under the Spell,” oddly enough, calls to mind The Zombies' “Time of the Season” and even, a little bit, The Doors' “People Are Strange.”
Naturally some material hews to the kind of classic instrumental rock for which Causa Sui's become known, the title track, for example, which swells from muscular psych-rock to freakout in seven minutes, but more often than not Szabodelico looks elsewhere. “Honeydew” presents a sweetly singing pastoral tapestry, and revisiting that spiritual jazz vibe, “Laetitia” works bansuri playing by Jens Aagaard into its meditative drift. With tremolo guitars and hand percussion along for the ride, “Rosso di Sera Bel Tempo” casts its sights on Morricone; “La Jolla,” on the other hand, could pass for a Causa Sui tribute to Popol Vuh.
Recorded during sessions in 2019 and early 2020 at the band's studio in Odense, the release is sixty-four minutes of vintage Causa Sui. There's a looseness (not to be mistaken for sloppiness) to the playing that suggests that many of the tracks were first or second takes, such confidence and ease surely one of the byproducts of musicians having played together for fifteen years. The group's the classic illustration of the familiar Gestalt principle of the whole being greater than its parts. When these four come together, special things happen.December 2020