MoE, Mette Rasmussen & Ikuro Takahashi - Painted (2023)

The Norwegian experimental band MoE, comprised of bass player and vocalist Guro Skumsnes Moe and guitarist Håvard Skaset, teamed up with Danish, Trondheim-based sax hero Mette Rasmussen and legendary Japanese drummer Ikuru Takahashi to record «Painted» at Black Snowflake Sound in Sapporo in April 2019. Takahashi’s freestyle drumming propels the in-your-face, intense attacks of this quartet, with Skaset, completely blurring the distinction between raw punk energy, pure noise, and free jazz meets free-improvisation. Rasmussen injects a loose sense of coherence into the free-associative, kind of freak-out pieces like the opening «Favourite lungs breath out your tar complete the warriors heart testify if sound hits you», and transforms immediately Skumsnes Moe’s fierce wordless shouts, chants, and thunderous bass slaps into ecstatic eruptions as on «cuts your heart out I run so fast» and «my stones». Rasmussen also injects brief gentle and melodic gestures in pieces like «I can’t carry my heart soul arrest the giant», contrasting the thorny attack of Skumsnes Moe, Skaset and Takahashi. Eyal Hareuveni