Cuneiform: The Kandinsky Effect – Synestesiat // Diesen Sonntag für FIVE

„…a mind-bending, eclectic and challenging sonic stream that doesn’t contain even a shred of pretentiousness, but is full of creativity, individuality, expressivity and outside of the box thinking.“ – Igloo // „Come to this show blindfolded and you’ll have a hard time believing the music is being created by just three people.“ – Capital Bop

Conceived on Paris’s cosmopolitan jazz scene, forged on the road in America, and informed by international currents in electronic music, The Kandinsky Effect is a jazz power trio for the 21st century. Now based in New York City and Paris, the band makes its Cuneiform debut with Synesthesia, a roller-coaster ride of an album marked by fierce grooves, subtle electronic textures, intricate metrical shifts, and a commitment to empathic group interplay. 

Featuring Warren Walker on saxophone and electronics, Gaël Petrina on bass and electronics and Caleb Dolister on drums and laptop, The Kandinsky Effect avidly explores a vast sonic territory, including some too seldom associated with jazz. They are searching for new ways to work within the jazz idiom by blending the borders of jazz, rock, electronica, hip-hop and experimental sounds. 

Steeped in improvisation and various post-bop vocabularies, the trio has honed a sound described by the Los Angeles Times as “bracing, electronically tweaked jazz.” It’s an approach that erases distinction between front line and rhythm section, as all three musicians constantly direct the music’s flow, changing arrangements and musical movement on the flying by employing several dozen hand cues and other methods. As the group states, „Our music doesn’t have to be harmonically complex to be interesting. The effects are almost a separate instrument. We think of ways to shape the effects around the tune. It’s never ending. Every gig is different and an experiment. The risk is what makes it happen.“ 

Active for 5 years at the time of this release, the group has toured extensively, hitting clubs and festivals all across the USA, Canada and Europe. 

Warren Walker – Saxophone/Effects 
Gaël Petrina – Bass/Effects 
Caleb Dolister – Drums/Laptop 

Recorded September 2011 at Syrland Studios in Hafnarfjörður, Reykjavik, Iceland.