{"id":41014,"date":"2016-02-07T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-07T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=41014"},"modified":"2016-02-08T00:27:26","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T06:27:26","slug":"raoul-bjorkenheimecstasy-out-of-the-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2016\/02\/07\/raoul-bjorkenheimecstasy-out-of-the-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"Raoul Bjorkenheim\/eCsTaSy: Out of the Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium alignright wp-image-41015\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/OOTB_opt.jpg?fit=300%2C300\" alt=\"OOTB_opt\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/OOTB_opt.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/OOTB_opt-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/OOTB_opt-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>With an unreal level of musical coherence and communication, Raoul Bjorkenheim and his eCsTaSy quartet has delivered a wonderful and refreshing improvisation-based album with <em>Out of the Blue<\/em>. The experienced 60 year old Finnish-American guitarist draws upon a plethora of styles, influences, and textures to delicately craft this album while still remaining spontaneous. His playing on this album ranges from exotic to nordic to Hendrix. Joining him are Pauli Lyytinen on baritone, tenor, and soprano saxophone, Jori Huhtala on bass, and Markku Ounaskari on drums.<\/p>\n<p><em>Out of the Blue<\/em>\u00a0is quite a bit of fun to listen to because there is so much going on in every song. Each track has a very distinct texture and story to tell. For example, Pauli Lyytinen\u2019s tone in \u201cA Fly in the House of Love\u201d is gnarly\u2014his saxophone emits a sound that eerily matches the buzzing wings of an insect, hence the \u201cfly\u201d in the \u201chouse of love.\u201d The group also embraces their Finnish roots with the distinctly Nordic sounding track, \u201cRoller Coaster.\u201d Other tracks like \u201cUptown\u201d and \u201cQuintrille\u201d feature Bjorkenheim\u2019s distinct blues and Hendrix influenced improvisation style. The improvisational communication on <em>Out of the Blue<\/em> is top-notch. All of the players are flawlessly feeding off of one another\u2019s ideas and energy\u2014a skill that takes years to hone and develop.<\/p>\n<p><em>Out of the Blue<\/em> is a smorgasbord of hand picked ideas that are explored with the improvisational prowess of Bjorkenheim\u2019s quartet. Each song paints a visual picture when listened to which is something avant-garde artists can rarely accomplish due to the wild and abstract nature of the genre. Raoul Bjorkenheim and the eCsTaSy quartet seamlessly blend \u201cinside\u201d and \u201coutside\u201d playing in<em> Out of the Blue<\/em> to create an experimental jazz album for the likes of even the more conservative jazz listener.<br \/>\n<b><br \/>\nRecommended If You Like: John Scofield, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Recommended Tracks: 1 (Heads and Tales), 3 (A Fly in the House of Love), 7 (Roller Coaster)<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Do Not Play: None<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Written by Alex Frank on 02\/07\/16 <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bjorkenheim and eCsTaSy loaded this album with as much texture and imagination as they could.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11774,"featured_media":41015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,4,3235,3230],"tags":[4324,4325,4205,4209,641,4206,4204],"class_list":["post-41014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz-rotation","category-music","category-music-reviews","category-new-music-rotation","tag-alex-frank","tag-avant-garde","tag-ecstasy","tag-finnish","tag-jazz","tag-out-of-the-blue","tag-raoul-bjorkenheim"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/OOTB_opt.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11774"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}