Spin Marvel: Infolding

The RareNoise label, based in London, started in 2008 and has become an important source for unique projects combining art (jazz) with hard science (electronic technology). ANIMATION’s Transparent Heart and Indigo Mist’s That the Days Go By and Never Come Again (led by Bob Belden and Cuong Vu, respectively) are examples. Infolding is the third album (the first on RareNoise) by Spin Marvel. They are Martin France (drums), Tim Harries (bass), Terje Evensen (live electronics) and Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet). They make seething, crashing, assaultive, wildly unpredictable soundscapes that intermittently embrace silence.

Spin Marvel references ambient music, rock and electronica, always filtered through a jazz sensibility. Evensen, whatever dials he twists, whatever hissing or shrieking he generates, whatever sonic walls he erects, always sounds like he is improvising. At the core is France, a ferocious drum engine. Despite its capacity for havoc, Spin Marvel is also nuanced, ethereal and atmospheric. On “Tuesday’s Blues,” Molvær’s lonely, desolate trumpet lines emerge from the ambiguous stirrings of Harries’ bass and France’s brushes, then echo far into the distance. Most tunes contain both violence and quietude. “Leap Second” begins with Molvær’s haunting oscillations, hovering in long decays. After nine minutes, France decides to blow the song up from within. The excitement is visceral.

This is challenging music. It has its own illogic. Some tunes contain static interludes that test the listener’s patience. But Infolding sounds real in the moment because it is all live takes, recorded in one four-hour session, with no edits or overdubs. The album did go through a post-production process conducted by Emre Ramazanoglu, described in press notes as an “in-demand producer/programmer/engineer/remix artist.” The dynamic intensity here, the vivid discrimination among the aural building blocks, with their clashing colors and textures, may be Ramazanoglu’s contribution.