Jazz Articles about Koplant No

Koplant No: Elker

by Glenn Astarita
August 13, 2018

This midwestern band cross-pollinates jazz with elements of German krautrock, pulsating funk and streaming ambient synth effects. Hence, the musicians bill themselves as a cinematic electro-jazz entity. The quartet's third album features synth strings, cyclical beats, and the creative fusion of saxophonist Joel Vanderheyden and trumpeter Brian Lewis Smith's spry horns charts and gritty soloing spots. Otherwise, the group injects numerous treatments and simple melodies amid dynamics and variances in pitch, evidenced on the title track “Elker," for example.