Jonas Cambien’s Maca Conu – Popular Misconceptions (Sonic Transmissions Records) – Jonas Cambien’s Maca Conu have apparently been around since 2021, seems they’ve been turning heads with their “arresting live performances”, this, their second album, Popular Misconceptions, is our first encounter with them as far as I recall although you’re probably going to tell us we reviewed their first album now aren’t you? We are kind of swamped with music now and it is almost impossible to remember the wood from the trees (or however it goes), This is rather memorable though, this is seven rather bright, rather refreshing slices of play-it-again “spiritual free jazz, abstract meanderings, and rebellious hooks”. It is both an incredibly complex naturally clever boundary pushing album and also an album that’s a lot of fun to just spend time with.
Says here that “this marks the group’s first release on Sonic Transmissions Records, an Oslo-based label founded by the ensemble’s bassist, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. The group’s self-titled debut album was released on Clean Feed, a label that was at the core of adventurous jazz for over two decades. Hailing from Belgium, they’ve called Oslo home for many years and Cambien is both a progeny of and a formative influence on the city’s free jazz and improvisational scene. Maca Conu embodies Cambien’s astuteness in selecting and nurturing some of the most creative and dynamic actors in this landscape. The group features Signe Emmeluth on alto and tenor saxophones, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on double bass, Andreas Wildhagen on drums, and cements the membership of trombonist Guro Kvåle, who featured on two tracks of their previous album…”
What you really need to know is that this is a joy, it might be “free”, it might be “improvised”? Actually I don’t if it is or not? It feels very tight, it feels instinctive yet positively controlled, considered, it flows so so well, it is wonderfully detailed, deliciously abstract, always inviting. Tunes that really do, after a play or two do, well, you know, just stick around and make you want to play them again. Once you get comfortable with their weave, with their interplay, then these a bright tunes (tunes is the key word here) that really do take you with them. These are rhythms that really do delight, this is serious playing, very serious experimental music, yet they sound like they’re having a wonderful time playing them, tunes and players that all sound like they have great big smiles to go with the knowing nods and glances and the runs into wild tentacles.
Popular Misconceptions is indeed self-assured, it never ever gets pretentious (not that there’s anything wrong with getting pretentious when the time is right), it does indeed have a mischievous wit, you really don’t have to be a jazzhead (I’m not) to enjoy it, and well, give it a go, give it several goes, let it get in, give it time, it is well worth it…
