Vienna’s charismatic radio.string.quartet have shown how much they understand about jazz spontaneity and urban groovemaking as well as classical perfectionism on covers of John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra and the music of the late Joe Zawinul in recent years. Now at Norway’s Jazzland label, with that imaginative operation’s pop-jazz and electronica-savvy founder Bugge Wesseltoft co-producing, matters have taken a more ambient turn – with live sampling, Wesseltoft’s and electronicist Henrik Schwarz’s instrumental skills, and their own vaporous singing voices now in the mix. Arching high violin sounds whisper above cello motifs that are sometimes bowed, sometimes plucked like a jazz bass. Women’s voices exhale hymnal strains, or lullabies that reflect the members’ inspirations in newborn babies. Rougher-hewn hoedown-like dances spring up, solemn pop-tinged songs drift by, and The World According to Hugo and Jun powers along over an infectious vamp in which the strings snap as crisply as a tabla. It’s a session glowing with rich colours and seductive grooves, though with less spontaneous bite than its popular predecessors.
