Cicadidae

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The cover of Kammerflimmer Kollektief's third album, 'Cicadidae', features a pastiche reminiscent of the famed "fairy photograph" hoax of Edwardian England: Two opalescent, naked pubescents captured toying with something mysterious in an otherwise everyday-looking sitting room.

This image captures very accurately the sound of the group - a kind of Tied + Tickled Trio spin-off (or at least cousin), the group invests otherwise rather standard sounding acoustic jazz chamber pieces with the magic of modern technology. Brass and string instruments, drums and keyboards are coloured and confounded by computer programmes. The ten tracks each have their genesis in improvising over programmed patterns or turning a studio improvisation into a programmed compostion. And yet the root jazz aesthetic shines through - these gentlemen are jamming with one another, regardless of whether their instrument gives off sound through the blowing of breath or the turning of a dial. A music that both crackles and grinds and swings.