The Cologne musician Opek interweaves, on his fourth album Trafo, what already defined his previous records The Call (2024) and Corners (2021) with even greater suppleness. The result is a yearning, intimate, latently melancholic yet lightly grooving amalgam of spiritual jazz, film music and library music. That the tracks feel organic in a kraut-jazz way, and seem almost to breathe, is probably explained by the fact that they were recorded live by a five-piece band. Opek was on drums.
Compared with its predecessor, the album feels less polished, but at times more playful. Occasionally, even dissonances make one prick up one’s ears. Take »Smiling Prisoner«, which recalls the jazzy soundtrack to a 1970s crime film. Subtle disturbances suggest that things are threatening to get out of hand. Yet the tension is held; the hero of this mental cinema keeps moving, and the track retains its groove.
The rhythmically slightly dragging follow-up »My Oh My« sets yearning brass against elegiac vocal parts: an exception on a largely instrumental album, but one that fits harmoniously into the smooth overall impression.
Trafo
