emilbach
I’ve found out lately that if Petter Eldh and Otis Sandsjö are involved in a project it’s almost guaranteed to be awesome. This one is no exception!
Favorite track: Kali Koma.
Jakub Knera
This is one of the best jazz or near-jazz records I’ve heard, not just this year, but even in the course of the last couple of years. It is not often that I turn on an album and from the outset get carried away by something – idea, flow, dynamics and passion in the band – that keeps me absorbed until the very end. And then there’s the amazing cover, which perfectly portrays what’s inside: interesting, original music that just doesn’t let go.
Favorite track: Koma Tema.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
€7EUR or more
Bundle: Koma Saxo LP + 7" single
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
So sweet to pair these up! Get the "Koma Saxo" LP and the NON-LP 2-tracker 7" "Port Koma / Fanfarum For Komarum" on the same go, and enjoy the full KS experience... You'll also get the DL for both releases, which is nice.
Includes unlimited streaming of Koma Saxo
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Vinyl LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Koma Saxo solid brain-melting bizniz as a BLACK VINYL edition. Tip-on sleeve (high gloss + matte), printed inner sleeve with info, with amazing GOLD lettering for the text in front. This one's a keeper.
Includes unlimited streaming of Koma Saxo
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Red Vinyl LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
SOLD OUT IN UK, REMAINING COPIES SHIP FROM FINLAND. Koma Saxo PURE FIYAH on vinyl, available here as a RED VINYL edition. Tip-on sleeve (high gloss + matte), printed inner sleeve with info, with amazing GOLD lettering for the text in front. Hot as the weather!
Includes unlimited streaming of Koma Saxo
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
CD
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Koma Saxo available on CD. Make no mistake: this one's a beauty. You got your pure fire KS sounds right here on a stylish matte digisleeve, complete with GOLD lettering on the front cover. Nice, nice, nice.
Includes unlimited streaming of Koma Saxo
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Koma Saxo is a highly potent new five-piece produced by the visionary Berlin-based Swedish bassist-producer Petter Eldh. The lineup brings together five heavy jazz names on the Berlin–Nordics axis, including Eldh on bass, Christian Lillinger on drums and the frontline of three saxes: Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar and Mikko Innanen. Despite the top-billing names, make no mistake: this is not just another "supergroup", but a real working band with their own sound and musical trajectory.
Eldh's vision for the Koma Saxo sound is one step ahead of what groovy avantgarde jazz could sound like in 2019, involving postproduction work with the raw material recorded in Helsinki in connection to Koma Saxo's successful debut at the We Jazz Festival. Both studio and live tapes exist side by side, and Eldh goes deep in molding the final music to be heard on the upcoming Koma Saxo releases.
The Koma Saxo debut LP on We Jazz Records is a revelation for anyone seeking contemporary jazz music with edge and vision. From the opener, the brief but fiery "Kali Koma", right into the pastoral finale, "Så Rinner Tiden Bort", Eldh & co are on it, like a tightly-knitted posse of jazz assassins on the run. At times, the pieces fall gloriously apart, just enough in order to be ripe to put back together again. Take "Ostron Koma" for example. From the intense opening seconds full of suspension, the track moves forward with breathtaking swing, then onto full-on free breakout, to be born anew.
In addition to scorching originals by all members of the band, Koma Saxo tackle a handful of carefully-picked and highly inspirational borrowed tunes from Finnish legends Matti Oiling, Edward Vesala and the Swedish composer Olle Adolphson. Even at their most freeform, Koma Saxo have an underlying "threat" of swinging hard. At their most peaceful, their hymns are full of genuine serenity and charisma, enabling them to never fall into easy sentimentality.
Whatever the mood, Koma Saxo are like lightning in a box, yearning to be set free.
"Koma Saxo" by Petter Eldh is released on Helsinki's We Jazz Records on vinyl, CD and digitally. The vinyl version comes in a "tip-on" sleeve with gold lettering as red and black editions. The CD is available as a digisleeve edition with gold lettering.
KOMA SAXO LIVE 2019
23.8. Saalfelden International Jazz Festsival (AT)
28.9. Kim Festival, Berlin (DE)
4.12. We Jazz Festival, G Livelab Tampere (FI)
5.12. We Jazz Festival, G Livelab Helsinki (FI)
credits
released October 4, 2019
Petter Eldh, bass / Christian Lillinger, drums / Otis Sandsjö, tenor saxophone / Jonas Kullhammar, tenor saxophone / Mikko Innanen, alto & baritone saxophones
Produced by Petter Eldh
Executive producer: Matti Nives
Recorded by Abdissa Assefa at at Finnvox Studios, Helsinki, 4 Dec 2018 and at We Jazz Festival, Kaiku, Helsinki, 3 Dec 2018
Additional recordings by Petter Eldh at Galatea Studios, Berlin
Mixed by Petter Eldh at Galatea Studios, Berlin
Mastered by Martin Ruch at Control Room Berlin, May 2019
Original artwork by Eero Nives
Band photos by Juho Luukkainen
Design by Matti Nives
I was brought here after listening to a live performance of Makaya's on you tube. I instantly loved the song Holy Lands so much that I had to see if the album version was the same rendition as the live one. Then I listened to the whole album! Universal Beings is a just a groove... It's a mix of traditional and something new, very nice. pandr1900