Saxophonist/clarinettist Otis Sandjsö is, along with bass player PetterEldh, a key member of Lucia Cadotsch’s Speak Low group and also plays with Eldh in the latter’s Koma Saxo band. In the Y-Otis group he continues his partnership with Eldh and is joined by Dan Nicholls, the graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire jazz course who seems to spend his time between London and Berlin where Sandjsö and Eldh are based.
The music on this, the third album by Y-Otis, consists of twelve short tracks, all between two and just over three minutes in length, and is taken from hours of studio jams, following the pattern of Miles Davis’ approach to the recording of albums such as Bitches Brew or A Tribute To Jack Johnson. The trio are joined by a number of guests.
The approach to the music is described in the sleeve notes as ‘layer-caked liquid jazz. This description also applies to the various recordings of Eldh’s Koma Saxo band (link to reviews below), and refers to a style that involves rapid changes of pace and constant jumping from one musical idea to another, all in the space of each individual track. The music is often quite manic, but it has a unique energy.
The opening track, OOMY, sets the pattern with its constantly changing moods and sounds; it begins with Nicholls’ keys playing over drums with a distant sound of the saxophone, moves into a passage with Eldh’s electric bass over the keys, then Sandsjö enters on tenor saxophone playing over some weird sounds from the keys before it moves rapidly into an even more upbeat passage with keys playing over drums, and then over bass. This all takes place within 3.25 minutes.
The remaining tracks, all of which have unusual names such as RHUBARBS or LOOMY, follow a similar pattern. The former begins with melancholy saxophone over a sombre keyboard sound, but moves rapidly into a series of drum beats before moving back and forth between more forceful saxophone, keys and drum beats, while the latter features a manipulated saxophone sound over a whole range of sounds from the keys. Each short track is taken from a segment of the studio jams, and this gives the album a good degree of continuity.
It is stimulating and good fun. Perhaps it isn’t an album that one would want to sit down and listen to from beginning to end as many listeners want to do with a jazz album. It is rather an album to dip into, listening to, say, three or four tracks in one go, and then return to more tracks at a second session.
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