Analysis. Just like the previously described recording, "Light When Dark" features only the two performers - Karsten himself on alto sax and Kristian Blak on keyboards. There are no pauses between the fourteen instrumentals here, although most of them are filled up with the sound of wave lapping which, additionally, serves as a background for Vogel's improvisations everywhere on the recording, being mostly at the same volume and never fully subsiding - even just for a moment. It's most likely nobody other than Mr. Blak who elicits all those 'wet' sounds that this stuff seems to be soaked with throughout, but real keyboards can rarely be heard. To be more precise, they're either completely absent or are just barely audible (and only in places) on more than half of the tracks, namely I Believe In You, Grottocatta-1 & 2, Gandadagur, St. James Infirmary, Stick & Stone, Se nu Stiger Solen and Prelude, the latter, for some reason, concluding the album. Grottocatta-3, Grottoblues, Crosscurrents, You are In My Heart and Cavebirds, each contains some more or less easily recognizable synthesizer sounds, though the latter two exclusively in the form of one dark low-tone chord which is as if emanating a feeling of despair. All in all, Grotimol is the only piece where the keyboards sound just as they should sound to my way of thinking and, at the same, is the only place on the disc where there is a genuine interaction between the two instruments involved. The CD press kit presents this music as 'Jazz for meditation'. I don't know whether any people used "Light When Dark" for their contemplation indeed, but for me personally it was quite a distressing audio experience. Really, it's a sheer hell to hear the waves endlessly, with a maniacal monotony surging towards the seashore at a rainy night, with the sax hovering over them like a lonesome gull vainly seeking for any shelter.

Analysis. The fruit of a collaboration between Karsten Vogel and two singers, Skye Lofvander and Hanne Siboni, "Stained Glass Music" continues the line of the maestro's ambient creations, in a general kind of way. The music is for the most part either slow or just extremely slow - as is on Opening Stroke, Pech-Merle, Ignigena and Celestial Underground, as a result of which it is impossible to determine which of Karsten's four instruments declared in the booklet (alto, soprano and tenor saxophones and bass clarinet) serves as the background for female vocalizations on any of these. The title track, Leaded Visions, Sound Cathedral, As Desmond, Mesa Verde and Padirac all suit my concept of jazz-tinged Ambient, although the former two cuts still come with vocalizations, Hanne singing mostly in a clearly operatic fashion this time around. The remaining three pieces find both Hanne and Skye experimenting, say, with various oral styles (many of which hardly associate with traditional vocalizations, being just clownery in the end) either alone (Cavum Nasi and Durin & Dwalin) or to Karsten's improvisations (Fenja & Menja). As I see most of this recording as nothing more than pleasant quiet background music, I would have probably omitted it had I not listened to Karsten's latest three releases that follow this one.

Analysis. After a whole decade during which Karsten was only occupied with ambient music, here is finally the "Sweet & Aggressive" album by Vogel Steinmetz Quartet, signifying the artist's return to a full-band sound (which is approximately as intense here as that on his second solo offering "Nordic Frame"). Unlike that creation however, "Sweet & Aggressive" doesn't feature a guitar player, so the rock component is much less vivid in this particular case. Nine-and-a-Half, Jacksonii, Joe Hoe and The Andalusian House are all swing-based, for the most purely improvisational tunes whose genre definition would probably be simply Jazz rather than Jazz Rock, although drummer Lars Juul always tends to break the swinging chains:-), at times far transgressing the bounds of a set theme with his powerful and, at once, pounding, highly diverse beats. By the way, it happens very rarely that I welcome drum solos done out of the context of a band's joint performance, but the two on Nine-and-a-Half and Jacksonii are both really enjoyable. The 'sweets', Make a Buck and Goldika are basically very similar, but while those four pieces all only begin and end with unison and the like (e.g. in fourth and fifth) interactions between either sax or bass clarinet and trumpet, otherwise being highly improvisational in nature, these two retain a distinct melodic feeling almost throughout, reminding me somewhat of a pop jazz orchestra in sound. Nonetheless the quartet could have marked out some place on each exclusively for bassist Kasper Tagel's acrobatics. It seems the fast and dynamic Blocks of Noise and the title track both are designed to embody the 'aggressive' side of this accurately titled recording. Each finds the outfit's two primary driving forces, saxophonist / clarinetist Karsten Vogel and trumpet player Hugo Steinmetz, improvising really intensely, the men playing jointly much more often than alternating with each other at the fore. Even though there are still swing-based movements here too, as just one of the styles contributing to the pieces' general architecture, it comes across fine this time. Taking also into consideration that these two are additionally the richest in transitions, it is easy to see which are the winners, although the remaining five cuts are all only slightly inferior to these. The darkly colored Moonshine is built upon the contrast between slowly, yet diversely moving trumpet and clarinet on the one hand and fast bass and drums on the other. Collective Memories of the Past is just the same story - only with the bass and drums creeping along at a snail's pace and so on. Very expressive. The longest three tracks, Intoxicated Lady, The Inner Voice and Tatjana, are the most eclectic, and the only reason I can't put these on the same plane as Blocks of Noise and the title track is the presence, still, of some traditional tricks on each. In all, "Sweet & Aggressive" is in many ways an outstanding album, though it is destined exclusively to jazz lovers.