Haftor Medboe Group - The Lot @ Edinburgh

A perfect balance between sound exploration and rocking out.

Article by Ali Maloney | 17 Mar 2006
Jazz is frequently seen to be quite confining, while more liberated music often has to sacrifice beauty for its freedom. But Haftor Medboe's group find the perfect balance, sculpting wondrous aquatic soundscapes equally capable of enthralling and grooving. Although a fantastic group, especially the distant almost-calypso drumming of Signy Jakobsdottir, there is an obvious star. Only occasionally touching upon traditional jazz language, Haftor's guitar moves through spaced out Morricone-esque spaghetti western, noise-surf to gorgeously lumbering rhythms. And with a rack of effect units that stretch halfway across the stage, he is equally adept on electronics, even playing a dictaphone through his guitar pickups at one point. The fact that he looks like Marc Ribot does little to dissuade comparison. This is music that truly transcends the genres it might be associated with, and ultimately is - however much purists might scoff - perfect accessible jazz music. [Ali Maloney]

****Note to subs - Medboe is spelt with a line through the o, not sure if skynet will like this though****
In Perpetuality is supposed to be out now. But it's not. http://www.haftormedboegoup.net