Action & Tension & Space
★★★★ Tellus RUNE GRAMMOFON. CD/DL/LP/MC
Trippy Norse fusion of jazz, motorik and space rock.
Tellus begins abruptly with Chromosomes. It’s as if a door has suddenly opened on a performance that’s already in progress. Over its six-plus minutes, recognisable components bubble up: Future Days and Tago Mago Can, A Saucerful Of Secrets’ spaciness, Jenny Ondioline-era Stereolab. Elsewhere on the all-instrumental fourth album by these psychmotorik explorers from Haugesund on Norway’s west coast (their first for high-status imprint Rune Grammofon), the nods to Lalo Schifrin parallel those of fellow Norwegians Jaga Jazzist. As ATS includes mainstays of psych rockers Electric Eye, The Low Frequency In Stereo and soundscapers Lumen Drones, the stylistic pool is broad. Yet despite the touchstones, freshness comes from the outfit’s five core members revelling in the tension of playing against and with each other. It all seamlessly fuses on this elegant trip into inner space. Kieron Tyler