Short Reviews [Machine Mass Sextet - 2021 - "Intrusion"]

Here we have the fourth studio album from Machine Mass, here amended to Machine Mass Sextet as while they normally have no more than four people involved including guests, this time we are up to six. Founders Michel Delville (guitar, Roland GR09 guitar synthesizer) and Tony Bianco (drums) are at the heart of everything while Antoine Guenet (piano) returns as a full member following on from his guest appearance on the last album, and these are then joined by three new members, Laurent Blondiau (trumpet), Manuel Hermia (saxophones) and Damien Campion (double bass). Only one of the songs is a full band composition, with Delville providing three, and Campion and Guenet one each. They kick off with Coltrane’s “Africa” and ends with Zawinul’s “In A Silent Way”, which was of course originally recorded by Zawinul with John McLaughlin, Wayne Shorter, and Miles Davis on Miles’s album of the same name. This is jazz, experimental and at times quite avant-garde, but jazz nonetheless which each of the musicians listening to what is happening and being involved to lesser or greater degrees. I am sure that during the title track Michel went off and grabbed himself a drink, or two, as his input to this is minor in terms of what he played but huge in terms of what he did not as he allows the horns and piano to very much take the centre stage. I must confess the first time I played this album I was not too sure, but I also knew that music like often takes time and by the time I was going through it the third time I was a deep fan. Music like this is very special indeed, with everyone involved living in the minute and bouncing their ideas to try to capture the magic they feel, and it is up to the listener to put themselves in that very same space to fully appreciate it. I have long been a fan of Michel Delville and his different projects, and this is yet another which fans of complex jazz would do very will indeed to discover.