Reviews

• alfredo rastelli, december 2008, sands-zine

  let’s say it immediately: this trilogy of new releases by the dutch label evil rabbit maintains those qualitative standards we are already accustomed to by their earlier productions.

  the first one, “seductive sabotage” by spoon 3, features again the two founders of the label, albert van veenendaal and meinrad kneer, in company of vocalist jodi gilbert; the presence of gilbert, an artist with a wide vocal spectrum, pushes the sonority of the trio, which maintains a base of impro-jazz, towards territories that touch a form of song (pointing in the direction of the cross-over by the group ‘4walls’). within a few minutes the trio succeeds in enclosing you in popular traditions (not know no rest/the box/third arm; distance), opera (spoons), improvisation (slowly i turn, happy go lucky), jazz-song (bibblin' bubblin'), contemporary music (persephone's song); it’s an impeccable music, in which textual experiments play a key role and the skillful comedy dowries of gilbert are close to contemporary artists like ute wasserman and maja ratkje. a great cd. (…)

  alfredo rastelli, december 2008, sands-zine

• mischa beckers, 16 august 2008, jazzenzo.nl

  evil rabbit records was founded in 2006 by pianist albert van veenendaal and contrabassist meinrad kneer. in their own words, it is a label for musicians, by musicians, with the production and promotion of original contemporary jazz and improvised music the goal. in the meantime, the present catalogue now encompasses 10 albums. the 5th, 7th, and 8th are seductive sabotage, rigop me, and the the mystery of guests, respectively and are good examples of a cross-section of what the label offers. jodi gilbert graduated from uc berkeley. she has worked with meredith monk, roscoe mitchell, paul termos tentet, michael moore, and in mengelberg’s icp opera, behang, as well as with dell arte, orkater, the nationale toneel, and feri de geus, among others. she gives workshops regularly in voice and movement throughout europe and the united states. the fact that van veenendaal and kneer complement and understand one other well, is already known. gilbert adds an extra dimension with her voice. these musicians can seduce, follow or complement one another beautifully, challenge one another and sabotage. in fact, to look for traditional song structures or classical harmonies is, in vain. seductive sabotage is made up out of a variety of elements. the opening number no, no know no rest, is a good example. it starts with an open and clear improvisation of the piano and bass that eventually dissolves. gilbert doubles the piano theme, and then goes further into a duel with kneer, and uses here strange vocal effects (vibrato and tremolo). gradually van veenendaal brings in a tight accompaniment over which gilbert sings her text clearly. kneer then takes over with a dramatically bowed bass improvisation, in which gilbert sets in the last snippet of text “i cannot relax” and with an impressive vocal technique goes into the next part, the box. effortlessly van veenendaal goes from melodious and atmospheric to atonal and richly dissonant passages and kneer plucks or bows introverted passages or lets his bass strings clash and grate. in one passage van veendendaal makes use of samples to beautifully echo gilbert’s spoken text.

  mischa beckers, 16 august 2008, jazzenzo.nl

• joachim ceulemans, 08 august 2008, kwadratuur.be

  pianist albert van veenendaal and contrabassist meinrad kneer are the founders and the driving force behind evil rabbit records. with this label they truly focus on the musical territories of original contemporary jazz and improvisation. the duo is regularly featured on the label's previous releases and this is also the case here. together with the american singer, jodi gilbert, they form the formation of spoon 3. In this transparent and simple setting of voice, piano, and bass, the group offers a varied 5-course menu, full of daring experiment.

  an american residing in amsterdam, jodi gilbert feels at home in a variety of artistic disciplines. besides being a successful singer, she is also an actress and dancer. this multi-facetness is also found in her vocal work in seductive sabotage. not only does gilbert posess a beautiful singing voice, she also excels as a vocal-artist par excellence. on the album lyrical song lines trade off with ominous throat sounds (the terrifying persephone’s song) and spoken passages, without appearing forced or flat. this is also a result of the excellence of albert van veenendaal, who with his repeated heavy piano chords creates a dramatic effect, comparable with the minimalism of philip glass.

  more than once he makes use of the prepared piano, objects placed between the strings, resulting in an ominous muffled effect, as in the fragmented “the prairie” . meinrad kneer lets his bass growl and shriek at the same time, but also regularly supplies a percussive effect, “northern exposure”, a good example. in appropirate moments the trio also uses a sampler . a pre-recorded basic track in “business suit” serves as a background for the sparce bass and piano riffs. in the meantime, jodi gilbert plays the role of a frustrated office clerk, who decides, after a short tirade, “i quit, i quit”. the 20 tracks on this album are made up mostly of compositions that have found a set form out of improvisation. carefully worked out improvisations (persephone’s song”) are combined with short, explosive experiments of barely a half a minute (“spring cleaning”) which sometimes understandably result in a game of hit and miss. the musical content of seductive sabotage is absolutely not obvious, but still remains accessible thanks largely to the presence of the human voice. in all, spoon 3, offers a very successful collection of music that brims with creativity.

  joachim ceulemans, 08 august 2008, kwadratuur.be

• herman te loo, june 2008, jazzflits

  there are singers who can sing beautiful songs, and there are singers who can do exciting improvisations. there are few that can do both. from the select few, there is one in amsterdam who is for years underappreciated: the american jodi gilbert. in the new trio, spoon 3, she finds at her side, the evil rabbit creators, albert van veenendaal (piano) and meinrad kneer( bass). with them she has found the perfect collaborators that feel just at home with strong structures as unplanned musical adventures. in the first number on the cd seductive sabotage, is there an immediate hit. “no no know no rest/the box/the third arm, shows exactly what this trio is capable of. van veenendaal and kneer open strongly, in the manner reminiscent of paul bley and gary peacock. when gilbert joins, she improvises a beautiful vocalise (song without text) with kneer. then the rhythmically strong pianistic of albert van veenendaal joins, and there emerges a song that for me brings up associations of the german/english cult band slapp happy (with singer dagmar krause, who also possesses such a clear instrument as gilbert). the next piece, spoons, offers an exciting soundscape with bowed bass and well-placed samples. these are just a few examples of the agility of the trio. humor, passion, stillness, raw abrasive impro, abstract cowboy sounds (the prairie), gamelan-like prepared piano, unprecedented vocal sounds, ultra-short miniatures, intimacy, wild climaxes, everything is there. and above all, also well- dosed, because the ability to successfully use improvisations at the right moment (and in time) is unfortunately an artform that not everyone understands.

  herman te loo, june 2008, jazzflits