Tunnel & Meadow - ∞ [Umland Records 077]

Released via Umland Records as their cat.no. 077 on September 11th, 2k26 is "∞", the latest album outing by the collaborative core quartet named Tunnel & Meadow which is comprised of Jan Klare, Serge Corteyn, Johannes Nebel and Marvin Blamberg on sax / flute, guitar, bass and drums respectively which are joined by Oona Kastner and Marie Daniels on vocals whilst Oliver Siegel steps in for additional synth and x or accordion layers over the course of six tracks and a total runtime of roughly 54 minutes. Born out of Covid-19 with a focus on extended repetition the quartet, alongside its collaborators, presents a journey through various cities on this one - starting out with "Helsinki" via "Shady Glen", "Colfax", "Wuppertal" and "Neukölln" to "Wuhan and beyond, opening with fever'ish, almost tribal'esque, ancient and ritualistic KrautJazz spirals almost subconsciously meandering through several stages of intensity and finally entering a dream-like state of timeless floatation with subsequent stages of deep Ambient-referencing minimalism, phases of hyper-dense FreeJazz / Free Improv madness followed by subdued rhythms and unexpected improvised outbursts, sometimes with an eerie underlying feel in "Colfax" whilst other pieces like "Wuppertal" probably and even then only peripherally border on Deep / Spiritual Jazz, albeit of a stripped down and rhythmically sparse but complex nature whereas "Wuhan" presents a rather explosive and intense closing most likely not unrelated to things that allegedly started there and caused quite a bit of chaos which certainly reflects in what this final piece is and brings to the table. This is a deep one.

Album artwork on Instagram!