Anton Eger: Æ
Edition Records
Anton Eger's eponymous debut sometimes sounds like what might have resulted had the drummer holed himself up for a couple of months with nothing but Prefuse 73 and J Dilla albums (and maybe a Weather Report album or two) and then entered the studio with others. Stated otherwise, Æ often plays like some boombap-meets-fusion hybrid, though any attempt to reduce its ten tracks to a simple formula stumbles when they shape-shift so relentlessly. You know something's up when a preemptory scan of the tracklist reveals titles similar to the kind Autechre favours.
Having drummed for over ten years in Jasper Høiby's Phronesis trio and played with Marius Neset, Django Bates, and others, Eger's well-established, in European circles especially. Many of the musicians joining him are thoroughly plugged-in, with the electric keyboards (synthesizers, mellotron, wurlitzer) of Niels Broos, Dan Nicholls, and Ivo Neame central to the mix. Sax (Otis Sandsjø) and guitar (Matt Calvert) also figure, as does the speaking voice (in French) of Juliette Marland on one track. Eger, who augments his drums with percussion (shaker, plastic, phake pandeiro, stunt surdo), is joined by another drummer, Christian Lillinger, while Robin Mullarkey and Petter Eldh play electric bass. With Eger focused on performing as an ensemble member, drum solos are absent, but his virtuosity is never in doubt when the tunes feature intricate grooves and many in unusual time signatures.
That Æ will be an unusual ride is evident the moment “HERb +++ gA” roars in on destabilizing waves of synth flurries and off-kilter rhythms, the convulsive cut shape-shifting furiously as it advances through wild hip-hop- and fusion-tinged episodes. It's hardly the only dizzying moment on the release, even if it is one of the most ADD-inflected. Animated by a downtempo, quasi-funky lope, “Oxford Supernova +++ jC” fares better in chilling the pace and allowing things, melodically and otherwise, to settle into place. In tracks such as “datn +++ oS” and “Sugaruzd +++ pT,” Sandsjø's sax and Calvert's guitar provide pleasing counterpoints to arrangements heavy in synthesizer detail. Eger's material is so consistently boundary-pushing, the inclusion of a straight-up, rock-styled groove in “Monolith +++ tR” almost comes as a shock.
In general, it's the material that's a little less wild that works best, with Eger in those cases keeping his experimental impulses under control and integrating them satisfyingly into coherent compositional forms. Some of it's overly busy, or at least it seems so to these ears (e.g., “HERb +++ gA”), but credit Eger for trying something new and fresh. I'd rather hear an artist doing something different, even if not entirely successfully, than tilling the same ground others have worked to death already.January 2019