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This Celestial Engine: This Celestial Engine
by Glenn Astarita
This self-titled debut album is a masterful concoction of genres, melding psychedelic nuances with avant jazz and progressive rock elements. It showcases the talents of Ted Parsons on drums, Dave Sturt on bass, and Roy Powell on keyboards. These musicians are celebrated for their extensive contributions across jazz, metal, rock, and experimental music genres. Operating out of Oslo, Norway, the band draws on their varied musical backgrounds to create immersive soundscapes that transport listeners across cosmic distances.The album ...
Continue ReadingInterStatic: Arise
by Glenn Astarita
UK-reared keyboardist Roy Powell (Mumpbeak, Naked Truth)has called Norway home for several years while serving as a prime motivator for this futuristic UK-based, record label via sideman duties, and co-leading groups such as Interstatic. The band pushes the envelope yet again on this psycho, acid-rock slant on the jazz organ trio format. Nonetheless, the trio ups the ante a bit on its third album, featuring ECM Records recording artist Jacob Young and notable session drummer Jarle Vespestad. A little genre-busting ...
Continue ReadingInterStatic: Arise
by Vincenzo Roggero
Interstatic è una sorta di power trio formato da virtuosi strumentisti quali il tastierista Roy Powell (Anthony Braxton, Art Farmer, Terje Rypdal), il batterista Jarle Vespestad (Supersilent, Tord Gustavsen) e il chitarrista Jacob Young (Karin Krog, Nils Petter Molvaer, Christian Wallumrod). Trio che ha trovato ragioni comuni solide e importanti visto che è alla terza incisione in tre anni. E prosegue a battere le strade di quella miscela stilistica di jazz, rock, ambient, noise che ha contraddistinto fino ad ora ...
Continue ReadingInterStatic: Arise
by John Kelman
Its beginnings may have been a little closer to the jazz side of the jazz-rock equation with Anthem (PVY Records, 2011), but British expat keyboardist Roy Powell's and trio with Norwegian guitarist Jacob Young and drummer Jarle Vespestad has, since changing its moniker to InterStatic with the release of its first album on UK's RareNoiseRecords label, InterStatic (2012), ratcheted up the energy, the volume and the rock quotient. If InterStatic was the trio's first shot across the bow, then Arise ...
Continue ReadingInterstatic: Interstatic
by AAJ Italy Staff
Di fronte ad un trio chitarra elettrica, organo Hammond e batteria non si può non pensare al Tony Williams Lifetime che, tra il 1969 e 1970, cambiò la faccia del jazz-rock. Eppure, in questo caso i punti di contatto con quella torrenziale ed imprescindibile esperienza non sono così accentuati. Semmai gli Interstatic ricordano piuttosto il trio di John Abercrombie con l'organista Dan Wall e il batterista Adam Nussbaum. Questo gruppo di musicisti nordici (Powell è inglese ma risiede in Norvegia) ...
Continue ReadingTake Five With Roy Powell
by AAJ Staff
Meet Roy Powell:Roy Powell studied piano and avant-garde composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester England, before defecting to jazz. He first came to prominence in 1994 with his debut recording, A Big Sky, which was hailed as a real benchmark in British contemporary electric jazz" by Jazz on CD. He then emigrated to Oslo, Norway, where he collaborated on an album of free improvised music, Holus, which was described as an outstanding success" by ...
Continue ReadingRoy Powell: Solace
by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
Solace came in through the mail slot with two strikes against it: an unfamiliar leader and a program of all originals. Too often, this turns out to be a bad combination – an ego fest of little musical interest – but for once, it was a happy surprise. Pianist/composer Roy Powell is better-known in Europe; born in England in 1965, he was trained there and later moved to Oslo. Powell has worked with Anthony Braxton, Art Farmer, and Vince Mendoza, ...
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