When I went over onto their Bandcamp site to see how they described their music themselves, I see that Danish group Afenginn call themselves “world”, “ambient”, “contemporary”, “classical”, “folk” and “Nordic” while PA list them as RIO/avant-prog. I actually think that there is a great deal of jazz in what they are doing and if I had to force them into a musical pigeonhole that is where I would put them. But, as you can see there is a lot going on and they don’t really fit anywhere. The band themselves comprise Rasmus Krøyer (clarinet, bass clarinet, contra bass clarinet), Niels Skovmand (violin), Kim Rafael Nyberg (mandolin), Erik Olevik (contrabass) and Rune Kofoed (drums, percussion) while they also have guests in Bent Clausen (marimba, vibraphone, waterphone, percussion), Mads Hyhne (trombone) and Nikolaj Busk who provides grand piano on “Autumnus Elegia”. Kim Rafael Nyberg composed all of the music, which to my ears is somewhat strange as the mandolin rarely takes centre stage. I am also a little surprised that Bent is just a guest, as his marimba playing is key to the overall sound.
In many ways these guys come across as a highly orchestrated jazz group, with everyone knowing their part and playing it to the full. It is an album that is incredibly hard to describe as in many ways it is quite different to anything I have heard before, although Robin Taylor and possibly Frank Zappa did come to mind as potential influences (and give that Robin is also Danish and has been prolific over quite a long period I would think that this could be quite possible). Certainly, if you enjoy the more structured Robin Taylor’s Universe then this could well be for you. This is something that one should definitely hear before listening, but luckily it is possible to do just that at their bandcamp site, so why not visit afenginn.bandcamp.com/album/lux and see if this is for you. I found it polished and intriguing and am certainly pleased that it came my way.
