Review of Tilt by The Great Harry Hillman, Cuneiform Records, 2017
Is it time for post-jazz, after post-rock? This record of the Swiss quartet The Great Harry Hillman makes me think about this. Their music is a really intriguing jumble that resembles both the Tortoise debut as well as the visions of 70’s and 80’s European atmospheric jazz. Their music alway alternates dreamy and smoky atmospheres at more contemplative and calm moments, to which also follow folks and more aggressive, distorted rhythmic guitars.
From a technical point of view, they are a very good quartet, very close and with a great interplay that can handle not only music but also moments of pause, which represent in the general economy of this cd,Tilt, not only moments of reflection but moments where the music itself seems to reorganize and then start again.
I don’t want to be unpolite with the other members of the band (Nils Fischer: saxophone, bass clarinet, Samuel Huwyler: bass, Dominik Mahnig: drums) but I have to mention the skill of guitarist David Koch, also Swiss, whose musical career began as a flutist and later, having attended various musical genres, he became a guitar player.
The disc is really interesting and it’s a pleasant listening there are no forcing, music runs smoothly without however leading to a banal easy listening. These are unconventional musics whose form is not immediately recognizable to a specific genre and therefore, even more enjoyable to listen to. I would say that this Tilt is a great job, which I hope can help this great quartet to become better known.
NeuGuitars 