KROKOFANT. It’s a Norwegian invention, somewhere between a crocodile and an elephant – “a lumbering trumpeting beast with a fearsome array of teeth in its snapping jaws…” but not likely to be seen wandering up and down Karl Johans Gate carrying a Gucci shopping bag any time soon.
It’s distinctly a proggy name, isn’t it? It could be an ELP album, a successor to ‘Tarkus.’
The trio, founded in Oslo in 2011 and which used to have two more members, currently comprises Tom Hasslan on guitar, Jørgen Mathisen on saxophone and Axel Skalstad on drums. Skalstad is the only one I’m familiar with and I’ll return to him later.
Acting as a collective with the desire to “sculpt” their music together rather than following the more rigid song structures that are by necessity required by a quintet, they are considered to be one of the founders of the current progressive jazz movement that is sweeping Norway, with a sound which, while firmly from the 70s, has a distinctive and individualistic melodic flair.
Their sixth full length album, imaginatively titled ‘6’, is set for release on January 10th, 2025 and I see one of the tracks is titled ‘Oh my Cod’. Sounds a little fishy to me. (Sorry, just had to get that in).
They have just revealed a new single from the album as a pre-Christmas treat for their fans, called ‘Triple Dad’, and which was composed by Jørgen Mathisen and which is different from their regular compositions.
This jazz-prog thing is not new by any means and we’ve had numerous examples of it in the last few weeks. I reckon it must be difficult to compose when you’ve got one style that is free and loose, accommodating to improvisation, while the other is much stricter and forbidding.
It’s fascinating how, in the eight-minute track, they do it.
Jazz themes predominate from the start although they are built around a weird melody line that sounds like a police siren got stuck in a loop. Bob-ee-dee/ Bob-ee-dee/Bob-ee-dee/ Bob-ee-dee/, changing key like you change your socks – you get the idea.
Then it enters into a period of what I call freeform jazz (other peoples interpretation may be different) like a tune trying to get out of the starting blocks in a time signature that could be 37:9 for all I know while the saxophone runs amok.
With the entrance of a prominent bass line it then moves into a slightly more prog-like motif within which the sax continues to take centre stage, complemented by drum patterns that might have emerged from a Palmer or Bruford.
Not to be outdone, a crisp, rapidly picked guitar solo cuts in around the five minute mark and then gets well into and even beyond Robert Fripp territory.
There are key and time changes and improvisations running wild but at the same time it remains as intrinsically formulaic as the prog part allows for.
I said I would mention Axel Skalstad (the one that looks like Rick Wakeman) as I have encountered him previously. I saw him with the band Eberson at a gig in Oslo almost two years ago.
I described him as defying convention and his style as being like that of Animal, the drummer in The Muppet Show, although technically, falling somewhere between John Bonham and Neil Peart might be more accurate.
And the fact that he is so eye catching onstage alone convinces me that they are probably a very dramatic live band.
That reminds me to tell you that KROKOFANT’s next live appearance will be at the Kafé Hærverk in Oslo, on the 10th January 2025, the same day that ‘6’ is released. More dates to be announced.
Find them on:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/krokofantmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krokofant__/
