JAZZ

Elastic Axis got together last year in Dublin, but the five members of the band are scattered far and wide. The core of the group are the three Roth brothers, Alex (guitar), Nick (saxes) and Simon (bass), with Colm O’Hara on trombone and Peter Erdei on bass. They will make their debut in Scotland in a double bill with the Edinburgh-based Joe Acheson Quartet (currently working on their debut album).

‘Tim Lane, one of the two drummers in Joe’s band, is a good friend of ours,’ Alex Roth explained, ‘and we have done a bit of playing together in the past, but this will be the first time we have done a double bill. I haven’t seen Joe’s band live yet, so that will be quite exciting.’

Elastic Axis came about though the temporary presence of all five players in Dublin, but only Nick Roth and Colm O’Hara live there. The others are in Devon, York and Hungary, making regular rehearsal a bit of a non-starter. They will get together ahead of these dates, however, and Alex made some suggestions on what to expect.

‘It’s mostly original music, and I’ve also arranged stuff ranging from Radiohead to Messiaen. There is also a Balkan and Klezmer influence, and that all feeds into the music. We are working on different ways of using improvisation within structures - I’m interested in the kinds of forms you can set up, and then how you can improvise within them.’ |

(Kenny Mathieson)