Musings: Kajgūn – FZ22

Kajgūn is a psychedelic jazz metal band that plays improvised music. I reviewed their debut album Daogoad back in January and they return with a live album, FZ22, featuring five brand new compositions. The quartet plays each piece of music only once, so what you get here is a set of fusion jazz metal instrumentals performed at the Fekete Zaj Festival in August of 2022 that have never been heard before or since.

Once again, the track titles aren’t real words (to my knowledge, anyway), but serve to identify the compositions that are played. The production value of this concert is top notch and the band shows once again that they are highly skilled musicians. We get a wide array of instruments to paint many pictures throughout the 58-minute runtime such as guitars, fretless bass, drums, saxophone, wind instruments, synths, theremin (I love that instrument!), and e-violin. “Noum Afrah” gets the show going, evoking mysterious, smoky rooms. It tends to drag a bit, running close to 14 minutes. “Toraam Oshaam” follows, a subtler track with prog elements where the sax is at the forefront. “Borollo” is quieter, it builds slowly and the lineup plays more in unison than on the previous two numbers. The penultimate piece, “Koatakane”, runs at 16 minutes and really felt like it overstayed its welcome by the end. I guess that’s where the improvised nature of what Kajgūn does tends to be a double-edged sword: an extended jam that just goes on for too long. Then again, improvisation oftentimes leads to creating magic and allows room to be daring in its approach. For my part, I just found that this track lost steam the longer it went on. The show comes to an end with “Prawu Yraad”, the shortest tune, clocking in at 6 minutes. Here the band sounds tighter and plays with more urgency. It’s my favorite track of the LP.

I must admit that for me, this album left less of an impression than Daogoad did. I don’t know if it’s because the novelty factor of merging jazz and metal that the previous record had (for me at least) has worn off, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. I also think that sometimes the large number of instruments can be a detriment to the songs. Sometimes less is more and having too many instruments can prevent the music from breathing. Don’t get me wrong, FZ22 is a good record and those who appreciate improvised jam sessions or lengthy jazz and/or metal performances will undoubtedly get a kick out of this album. Mileage may vary. I also believe that witnessing this concert in person would’ve heightened its enjoyment. A video of the full show will also be released and I have a feeling that watching the musicians play these compositions in a live setting will be a more rewarding experience than simply having the audio. In the end, while I find this album to be less focused than the previous one, it remains a feat to be able to put on a raw, spontaneous performance in front of an audience time and time again. In any case, check it out and judge for yourself; it’ll be out on November 26^th.

Kajgūn on Bandcamp: https://kajgun.bandcamp.com/music