Nils Petter Molvaer: Khmer (ECM 78118-21560-2).

Nils Petter Molvaer: Khmer (ECM 78118-21560-2)

Remember when -- thanks mostly to Sting -- the concept of "synchronicity" was all the rage? Well a couple of days before Christmas I was in a used CD store and picked up a copy of Khmer. I knew nothing about it, but I usually find ECM recordings interesting and I thought the instrumentation listed on back (e.g., trumpet, guitar, bass, drums, percussion, samples, and even a guy credited for "sound treatment") sounded promising, so I picked it up and brought it home, where I promptly stuck it on a shelf to sit idly while I played mostly Christmas CDs for the next couple of days. On Christmas morning, one of the Christmas presents under our tree was a small but relatively heavy package marked for Dad that turned out to be The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions. Needless to say, the trumpet of Miles Davis was soon heard in the Nehring house -- not exactly traditional Christmas music, but most enjoyable on a cold winter's day in Ohio. Later that evening, I was looking around for something to play, and I remembered that I had bought a few new CDs recently. I saw Khmer sitting there on the shelf and decided it might be worth a quick listen -- surprise of surprises, it sounded like a '90s version of Bitches Brew. Synchronicity!

What we have here are two discs, a 42-minute main disc and a 19-minute "dance mix" disc with vigorously variant versions of four of the cuts from the main disc. All of the music features Molvaer's Miles-like trumpet weaving in and out of an electronic tapestry that is recorded with plenty of little phase flips that make the soundstage -- even in antiquated two-channel playback (WARNING: possible sarcasm detected) -- T-H-I-S B-I-G. The music is not as complex as that on Bitches Brew, but is much more danceable. Fun, fun stuff, and one of the best CDs I have found for playing in the car in a long, long, time. You start your journey playing the main disc, then you slap in the dance mix to really get your door panels flapping. -- KWN