Bernhard Meyer & John Hollenbeck - Grids (2020)

It may not seem that way – there’s a mix of soft rock-oriented and minimal atmospheres all along this record,sometimes making us think of the quietest instrumental moments conjured by Tame Impala or even Cigarettes After Sex –, but both Bernhard Meyer and John Hollenbeck are jazz musicians. With no overdub, this duo sounds like much more than two players at work, and that's because of the different sound layers they manage to overlap. But if this is not a jazz record, neither is a pop-rock or an ambient one, having nothing to do with the reimagination of the pop universe that Hollenbeck did some time ago to songs by Cindy Lauper, Daft Punk, Queen and Burt Bacharach. The music inside is to complex, to exploratory, to deliciously strange to have a label. Imersive, but never imposing on us, it takes its listeners to a flight above ourselves and our surroundings, as if studying us in relation to space and time. A very welcomed surprise, when the most part of the available music is the same old same old music of nowadays.

Bernhard Meyer - electric bass, fx
John Hollenbeck - drums, percussion, prepared piano