Idiotek: IDIOTEK

One of the basic principles of physics holds that materials can respond to force in three ways: elastic (reversible), plastic (irreversible), or viscous (progressive over time). Combining all three, the possibilities are limitless and hard to master. IDIOTEK's material is mastered, and it explores the domain of viscoelasticity. Time stretches and contracts at the whim of the polyphonies and polyrhythms. Nothing is irreversible, but time can do a great deal.

IDIOTEK is the debut album by guitarist and composer Kristian Enkerud Lien's group Idiotek, featuring Johannes Elnan on bass and Trym Saugstad Karlsen on drums.

Lien's nine compositions are small, precise objects of great depth, often serial in inspiration. Lien cites Pierre Boulez in particular. The horizontal melodic development often recalls a kind of imaginary ornithology inspired by Olivier Messiaen's ornithological works, for example in "Morrow," or in "Alternum," where this Messiaenism takes on a sometimes almost rock-like colour.

Tapping along, one realises that the tempo is often quite fast. But viscoelasticity is at work, and there is hardly a track in which a sense of speed prevails.

Karlsen's playing is admirable, which ultimately serves to tie everything that is happening together. At AAJ, we have known him primarily for his effective drumming in the experimental large ensemble Amalie Dahl's Dafnie EXTENDED, notably on Live at Moldejazz (Sonic Transmissions Records, 2026), and in the Ingeborg Sollid Quartet, where on The Aftermath (Fjordgata Records, 2026), he puts his playing at the service of poetic and narrative development.

And a lot happens! Thus, "Mon" opens with eight beats for everyone, overlaid by a slightly loose septuplet on guitar while the bass stays on four. The regular pulse then shifts to Lien, leaving Elnan free to improvise with his beautiful, massive, dry, raw-wood tone, already heard on the playful work Music For A Noisy Environment (Sonic Transmissions Records, 2026) by Anna Ueland. Karlsen joins him as the guitar returns to the septuplet. Long-form time stretches over a pedal tone and discreet washes of sound, countered by a rhythm section that, in the end, would be almost rock in spirit.

"Seashell Eyes" may be the track whose polyphonic structure is the least disorienting for the conventional jazz listener (whatever that means), a gateway into the other tracks. 

In this game of guitaristic affinities, the somewhat meditative and lyrical side of Wallumrød Christian Wallumrod finds echoes in Lien. One finds the same kind of tone and melodic sense as with Ronny Graupe´s Spoom, but where Graupe is dreamy and often does not stray far from established jazz concepts, the treatment of the sound material here is more elaborate. While Alec Godfarb's guitar readily fits within a framework influenced by contemporary music, it remains far from serialism.

Compelling yet controlled, rigorous and intuitive, intelligent and unusual, featuring young artists among the most promising on the Norwegian scene, the great richness of this album reveals itself on repeated listening, over the course of which one gradually takes the measure of just how skilled these artists are at controlling every aspect of what makes good music.