THE VERGE
The Verge IS IT JAZZ? RECORDS
Instrumental Norwegian quartet tap jazz-rock, prog and metal.
The Verge met at Trondheim’s Norwegian University Of Science and Technology while enrolled on its course for elite jazz performers, so it’s unsurprising that their part-improvised, live-inthe-studio debut offers few easy hand-holds. In less capable mitts, tricky and antsy instrumentals such as Hyperreality and the Zappa-like The Blast Supper could become car-crashes, but guitarist Emil Storløkken Åse, saxophonist Aksel Rønning, bassist Alf Høines and drummer Ingvald André Vassbø have chops to spare. Jazz is by no means the only touchstone here, though. The aptly titled nine-minute closer Patterns For Meditation begins with gorgeous guitar arpeggios reminiscent of early Rush, while the filmic, unsettling Emils Låt / Postludium (‘postludium’ is Norwegian for a piece of music played after a main work) moves at glacial speed, its crazed sax and skittering drums building tension. Best of all is Snake, which really does conjure up a serpent going about its business, tongue flicking. It’s a slightly obtuse tune in which slinky sax and extemporised electric guitar carnage spar with Høines and Vassbø’s dazzling rhythm-section interplay.