Following the success of their
acclaimed RareNoise debut, 2014's Jü Meets Møster (a killer collaboration with
renowned Norwegian saxophonist Kjetil Møster) the experimental Budapest-based
trio of guitarist Ádám Mészáros, bassist Ernö Hock and drummer András Halmos
once again bridges hellacious free jazz, throbbing hardcore rock and spacious
world and ambient music on their ecstatic, envelope-pushing opus, Summa.
Alternately calm (the 12-minute "Jimma Blue") and crushing
("Mongrel Mangrove," "My Heart Is Somewhere Else" and the
blistering title track), Summa stands as another powerful manifesto against
complacency by the renegade trio. "The original form for us is the trio
form," says guitarist Meszanos. "The first album with Kjetil was more
like a great adventure. This is just us, and this is the Jü sound." Møster
does appear as special guest alongside celebrated Hungarian electroacoustic
composer Bálint Bolcsó on the expansive 12-minute track "Partir,"
providing a bridge to the first album.
Another element that enters into the picture to a degree on
Ju's sophomore outing is folk music, which can be heard on tunes like
"Lady Klimax," with its presence of kalimba, and "Sinus Begena,"
fueled by Hock's sintir-like bass playing. "We listen to many kinds of
traditional musics and like to see ourselves as folk musicians," says
drummer Halmos. "Many times when we hear traditional music that is
ancient, it sounds really raw and simple, even if it is actually complex. And
the music is held together differently than in music that is based on a
metronomic pulse. It's a question of being in the moment, so you don't want to
control every part."
"For me, it was never a conscious thing to prepare for
being able to play different styles," he adds. "I don't prefer any
genre, just looking for music that I like and trying to play inspired by them.
I'd like to avoid being labeled, as it often happens, as a noisy punk band.
While their first RareNoise release was recorded in a single
day, the Summa sessions took place over the course of five days in the studio.
"So we had time to find form for the songs," says Halmos. "If
you heard us live recently, you could hear that we play these songs more or less
in the forms they are on the album but as we use those forms as starting points
to wherever we are taken in the moment. Even though there was a lot of
improvisation in the process, the sounds of the songs and the themes are there
as anchor points. Still, we always try to keep them fresh, so basically
anything can happen while playing."
Formed in 2012, each member of Jü is an accomplished player
on the Budapest scene. Beside dozens of Hungarian groups, the members have
played with such internationally acclaimed musicians as John Zorn, Eugene
Chadbourne, Charles Gayle, Chris Potter, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Pamelia
Kurstin and Mikolaj Trzaska. As developing musicians in Budapest, they came
under the sway of such American renegades as John Zorn (particularly his Naked
City and Moonchild bands) and Last Exit, the renegade noise quartet of Bill
Laswell, Sonny Sharrock, Peter Brotzman and Ronald Shannon Jackson. Says
Mészáros, "Of course I used to listen to these bands a lot. They had a
kind of punk appeal that I think of as more physical, so it offers Videosome
kind of relief also in a physical way. And we are trying to do that in our own
music while allowing for some small accidents to happen along the way that can
take you out of your comfort zone, which I like."
"Basically, we are trying to tell the same story again
and again which is not written word buy word," he adds. "Sometimes we
forget something, sometimes we tell more. It's affected by who and when and
were we are telling it but it's still more or less the same story."
Those stories are told with intensity and sheer abandon on
the bone-crunching Summa.
TRACKS
1. Lady Klimax
2. Socotra
3. Summa
4. Keltner
5. Partir (featuring Kjetil Møster and Bálint Bolcsó)
6. My Heart is Somewhere Else
7. Jimma Blue
8. Mongrel Mangrove (for Boros Levente)
9. Sinus Begena
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