Astrology (The One True Science)

Written by Even Helte Hermansen (Tono)
Director/camera: Kristian Haug

Even Helte Hermansen – Baritone guitar
Trond Frønes – Bass
Bernt André Moen – Rhodes
Torstein Lofthus – Drums and percussion

Distilling order from a crushing whirlwind of chaos has been the stock in trade for Red Kite since the Norwegian jazz-rock supergroup joined forces in 2014. Apophenian Bliss, the much-anticipated follow-up to the quartet’s powerhouse 2019 self-titled debut references the tendency in the human brain to find patterns and connections even when none actually exist. While it may be a stretch to call Red Kite’s blistering alchemy of surging psychedelia, steamroller rock and fringe-dwelling jazz “benign,” it’s at least a far less harmful application of the term than the conspiracy theories warping minds across the globe.

Still, corralling the heady pandemonium of heavy prog, free jazz, combustible fusion and avant-metal into a cohesive sound is one thing; bringing that music to life in the face of the real-world chaos of a global pandemic is something else entirely.

Once the quartet – Lofthus, guitarist Even Helte Hermansen, bassist Trond Frønes and keyboardist Bernt André Moen – managed to regroup from the unexpected disruption heard round the world, they decided to regroup in a recording studio in Halden, Norway and vent their frustrations the best way they knew how: by generating a throttling, visceral collection of new sounds. Hermansen set to writing a collection of new material fit to spark the combustible alchemy that the band had achieved on their acclaimed RareNoise debut.

Covid conditions meant that the band couldn’t workshop material live as they had in the past. But given their combined experience – Red Kite brings together members of some of Norway’s best-known prog outfits, including Elephant9, Shining, Bushman’s Revenge and Grand General – and the chemistry they’ve forged together over the last seven years, they were able to conjure their adrenalized collective energy even under these less than ideal conditions.

While the band is quick to disavow any over-arching theme to their music (“Naming any kind of music without lyrics is kind of absurd in itself,” insists Hermansen), the title of Apophenian Bliss at least reflects the worrying prevalence of conspiracies and misinformation in modern social and political discourse. Hermansen merely drew the phrase from a list of words and phrases he steadily compiles for just such purposes, but the addition of “bliss” certainly suggests that other woefully blissful state of humanity: ignorance.

The album explodes into existence with Lofthus’ pummeling intro to “Astrology (The One True Science),” which proceeds with reckless abandon and an angular groove propelled by Hermansen’s paint-peeling guitar pyrotechnics. Frønes’ muscular bass slithers at a determined, menacing pace on “This Immortal Coil,” a seductive blend of doom metal and electric Miles cool cloaked in Moen’s soulful Rhodes. The bliss is implied on “Apophenia,” a mesmerizing, free-floating piece of psych atmospherics.

Lofthus again seizes the reins to hurl the listener into the vertiginous “Red Kite Flight,” followed by the album’s sole non-original, “Morrasol” (which translates to “Morning Sun”). This absorbing rush of psych-jazz, marinated in the third-eye spiritualism of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane, was borrowed from saxophonist/composer Gisle Johansen, a friend of Hermansen’s who the guitarist says, “loves death metal and Coltrane at the same time, just like us.” The album draws to an ethereal close with the spacious “Sleep Tight,” with Hermansen and Frønes weaving unison lines over Moen’s coronal drones and Lofthus’ pointillist interjections.

Red Kite’s music bristles with the collision of disparate extreme musics, making it tempting to find a kind of mission statement in the title of Apophenian Bliss. Music, after all, is an abstraction – could it be the most sublime example of our search for pattern and meaning in the background noise of existence?

Apophenian Bliss

Astrology (The One True Science)
This Immortal Coil
Apophenia
Red Kite Flight
Morrasol
Sleep Tight

All compositions by Even Helte Hermansen (Tono), except Morrasol by Gisle Johansen (Tono)

Recorded and mixed by Dag Erik Johansen at Athletic Sound, Halden, Norway
Mastered by Espen Høydalsvik at Oslo Fuzz, Norway
Artwork and design by Per Spjøtvold

Supported by Sørnorsk Jazzcenter

Produced by Red Kite
Executive Producer for RareNoiseRecords: Giacomo Bruzzo

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