Somnambule - Writing About Music

Scorch Trio ~ Luggumt

From his apprenticeship with the late Edward Vesala to Krakatau’s blasted steppes, from the taut-wire dynamics of Phantom City to the entirely appropriately named Scorch Trio, Finnish guitarist Raoul Björkenheim's career appears to have been a gradually inexorable path towards cataclysmic explosion. Luggumt is like a series of snapshots of the white heart of an inferno and of its ashen aftermath. Nilssen-Love and Haker-Flaten are perfect companions in in the despoliation: thrashing and driving their way through anything that dares to stand in their way. There is a leaden, desperate, sense of transcendence to the trio’s performance as though they are intent upon grinding everything into dust before they depart. There’s an exhilarating grandeur to workouts such as Kjøle Høle and Furskunjt, and a spine-tingling thrill to the ghost-town ambiences of pieces like Sunnja Vega. The raw otherness of Scorch Trio’s sound is reflected in those titles.
Colin Buttimer
January 2005
Published by Jazzwise magazine