Skadedyr: Musikk!
Hubro
Brazen, uncompromising, and unrepentant, the Norwegian outfit Skadedyr traffics in a kind of wild, genre-eclipsing music that suggests connections of some tacit kind to Sun Ra, Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Pharoah Sanders. Yet while those three are nominally jazz artists, the twelve-member Skadedyr is more a rag-tag mob specializing in all manner of eclectic sounds, jazz but one of them. More precisely, what the mini-orchestra shares with those US counterparts isn't so much a stylistic approach but instead a sensibility and openness to inspiration. Upon closer inspection, it makes sense that the band's fire music should splinter into multiple parts: drummer Hans Hulbekmo is credited as the composer of four of the six tracks on Musikk!, but he's but one of four founding members, Anja Lauvdal (keyboards), Heida Mobeck (tuba), and Lars Ove Fossheim (guitars) the other three.
They're quite capable of generating a significant noise level on their own, but Skadedyr wouldn't be complete without the contributions of its other members: Marius Hirth Klovning (lap steel, dobro), Adrian Løseth Waade (violin), Torstein Lavik Larsen (trumpet), Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø (trombone), Ida Løvli Hidle (accordion), Ina Sagstuen (voice), Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson (basses), and Øystein Aarnes Vik (drums). Such resources crystallize in a large-scale sound where in certain passages the elements coalesce into a striking whole, be it a unison theme or resplendent sprawl. At such moments, the impression created is of a single organism, albeit one massive in scale and operating according to a collective nature as opposed to one directed by a leader, single or otherwise.
In its title, length, and scope, the twelve-minute opener “Musikk!” could be taken as a manifesto of sorts for the project. Though credited to Hulbekmo, it's very much a group conception, with each member integral to the result. In this instance, a rather mellow (for Skadedyr, that is) intro packed with wide-ranging and restlessly mutating colour segues into a pealing, vocal-led theme, the controlled ecstasy of its wail a gateway for the robust freewheel that follows. Episodic in the extreme, percussive interplay, sing-song horn phrases, and glissandi treatments all follow in turn, as the music gradually assumes some semblance of weird, tongue-in-cheek coherence.
What with its weird noisemaking, the improv-styled group composition “Frampek” could pass for a homage to John Zorn's early duck call-graced experiments, even if the drummers use a comparatively straightforward rock groove to power it. Arriving in the wake so much shape-shifting, “Festen” startles somewhat in opting for a style closer in spirit to jazz than anything else, with Waade and Nørstebø contributing swinging solos when the band's not voicing an equally swinging head to give the tune shape.
As noisy as Musikk! often is, it's not without a restrained moment or two, Hulbekmo's “Kallet” a case in point. In large part a showcase for trumpet, trombone, and guitar histrionics, the piece is nevertheless a Skadedyr piece through and through when all the myriad other sounds are accounted for. His “Hage Om Kvelden” likewise closes the release on a somewhat quieter note, with acoustic piano, accordion, and voice providing a calming backdrop for muted trumpet and tuba soloing. If one MO in particular might be said to govern Skadedyr, it's unpredictability. This is a band resolutely open to wherever the music takes them.October 2018