Last month when I was doing Musick that Needed Work: T I shared The Thing with Five Eyes. That was an experimental Darkjazz project of Jason Köhnen, formerly of the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble & The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation.
In the mid-Aughts I listened to a lot of Darkjazz but with the passage of time, other sounds came along & soon we forget. Sharing TTwFE got me to listening to the Darkjazz mountains again & realizing how much I still really enjoyed the musick.
Darkjazz is a slow, somber contemporary style combining jazz instrumentation to create a doom-laden, cinematic atmosphere. It emerged in the 1990s, then gained most prominence in the 2000s, primarily in Europe with acts such as Bohren & der Club of Gore or The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble.
An early proponent of the genre is Angelo Badalamenti's work on the Twin Peaks soundtracks starting in 1990. Darkjazz uses Ambient & lounge elements alongside its surreal jazz sound. Heavily inspired by the dark, brooding themes & moody, shadowy visuals of Film Noir movies, the soundscapes of Darkjazz seek to conjure up images of smoky, dimly-lit jazz clubs or eerie, rain-soaked city streets.
Drawing on the Crime Jazz scores of 1950s - 70s Noir (such as The Man with the Golden Arm or Taxi Driver), Darkjazz is performed at a considerably slow tempo, showcasing an exaggerated form of the gloomy, dread-inducing moods & sounds heightened by the use of mournful trumpets / saxophones, brushed drums, electric piano / mellotron, vibraphones, double bass, all with a noticeable lack of upbeat big band stylings.
Decided I'd share some with you all & see how you like it (or like it again or still like it, whichever). I'll start with this compilation of Darkjazz, called simply...
Sunshine III - Côte Déserte
Il Reverchon Cascatelle - Dale Cooper Quartet & the Dictaphones
Murdered (by Love) - Detour Doom Project
Detective's Tears - Macelleria Mobile Di Mezzanotte
Sleepdriving into Oblivion - Manet
Loose Change - Michael Arthur Holloway
The Rose Sail - Nobody Jazz Ensemble
Combava Blissophony - Noroeste & Shri
Crowhurst Yew - Somnambulist Quintet
Dark Night of the Soul - The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (original by Danger Mouse, David Lynch, & Sparklehorse)
Meduxae - The Thing with Five Eyes
Krakau - Trigg & Gusset
Now on to some Dark Moumtain music...
Mutations (EP) is just that, adaptations of earlier tracks off the debut album The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble which I previously shared here & demos that later became the tracks on the second album Here Be Dragons , mutated.
Track "Caos Calmo" is a reworked "The Nothing Changes"; track "München" is a reworked "Lobby"; track "Serpents" is a reworked "Pearls For Swine"; track "Twisted Horizons" contains some elements from "Parallel Corners" all from their self-titled debut; track "Shadows" later reworked in "Embers" on Here Be Dragons contains the melody from "Senki Dala" by Venetian Snares that appeared on the Rossz Csillag Alatt Született album (or "Senki Dala & Öngyilkos Vasárnap (Bong-Ra Remix)" from 4 Adaptations of Rossz Csillag Alatt Született by Venetian Snares vs Bong-Ra); track "Symmetry of 6's" contains some elements of "Solomon's Curse" & track "Horns of King David" contains some elements of "Guernican Perspectives" from the debut; while track "Avian Lung" was later reworked to "Seneca" on Here Be Dragons.
München
Serpent
Twisted Horizons
Shadows
Symmetry of 6's
Horns of King David
Avian Lung
I Forsee the Dark Ahead, If I Stay is the first TKDE live album. A compilation of 9 live tracks recorded during the period of 2006 to 2011, from shows in The Netherlands, Slovenia, Hungary, Spain and Poland.
Celladoor (The Netherlands, 2011)
Lobby (Hungary, 2007)
Mists of Krakatoa (Poland, 2011)
Adaptation of the Koto Song (Hungary, 2011)
Symmetry Of 6's (The Netherlands, 2009)
The Nothing Changes / Senki Dala / Embers (Hungary, 2007)
Black Wings (Spain, 2006)
Goya (The Netherlands, 2009)
The MacGuffin (Slovenia, 2007)
This is not the first live music TKDE has been involved in however. The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation is the live improv alter ego of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble. Their offerings are live recorded releases with several members of TKDE + guest musicians. All The Mount Fuji shares are live concert recordings.
This next one was recorded live in Amsterdam on February 24, 2007. As there are no true breaks between tracks, I have combined all nine into one continuous uninterrupted track for your listening pleasure...
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
This last one was recorded live at Telco HQ, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, January 15, 2009. while viewing Jess Franco's 1969 film Succubus, a low-budget erotically charged sadomasochistic murder horror flick. (note - A lifelong jazz enthusiast & pianist, Franco studied music at the Madrid Royal Conservatory as well as the Instituto Ramiro de Maeztu, before embarking on a film career.)
Erotic Love Queen
Strange Dreams
Castles by the Sea
The Admiral’s Game
The Morning After
Perverted Pleasure Party
A Bad Trip
A Place for Fantasies
Murder Amongst Mannequins
Fleeing the Scene
Deadly Rehearsal
Faustine
Enjoy,
NØ
