Short Reviews [Superfjord - 2020 - "For The Moment, Vol. 1"]

Following on from their two studio albums, ‘It is Dark, But I have This Jewel’ (2014) and ‘All Will Be Golden’ plus a few vinyl singles, this Finnish band have released extracts from a concert recorded at the beginning of 2020, just before the world went weird. Improvisation in live performance has always been an important aspect of the band, as they balance between composed and improvised, and this release finds them very much concentrating on the latter. Consequently, we have three improvised pieces called “Moments” as they are literally moments of the gig although while the word “moment’ makes one think of a small unit of time, each of these is more than ten minutes in length, plus a track which originally appeared on their last album, “Rainbow”. Interestingly the way this has been edited we have “Moments 2” gradually segueing into that track and then segueing back out again to “Moments 3”. To provide musical reference points the band themselves suggest The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, 70’s modal/spiritual jazz, kosmische music and Gong while it is also easy to add King Crimson and Oresund Space Collective to that mix as well. Unlike many improvisational bands, these guys have such a clear understanding of their role and each other that even their improvised pieces appear to be composed, which is no mean feat. “Moment 2” even includes some vocals, with the rest of the band relaxing and sitting back to allow them to go where they will. This is one of those albums which does need a few plays to get inside, and definitely benefits from being played on headphones when there is no-one else around and attention can be given solely to the music, as otherwise it can just wash over the listener. The first time I played this I was obviously not in the right mood as I did not think much of it at all, yet when I went back to a second time, I realised just how much of a delight this really is. I have not heard their earlier studio albums but can see I need to seek them out as is this is a fascinating piece of work.