Piano Nights [Vinyl]

Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Piano Nights [Vinyl]

Formed in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1992, Bohren & der Club of Gore emerged from the German hardcore and metal scene only to abandon it almost entirely - slowing their music to a crawl and inventing a genre all their own. Blending the hushed melancholy of jazz with the weight and menace of doom, the band pioneered what became known as "doom jazz" or "noir jazz": glacial, instrumental soundscapes built from mournful saxophone, spectral Rhodes, brooding piano, deep double bass and the softest brush of drums.

As it's title suggests, "Piano Nights" (2014) draws the piano gently to the centre of that world. On their seventh album, the band distil two decades of slow-motion noir jazz into something exceptionally spare and tender: Morten Gass's hushed piano and Fender Rhodes drift over Christoph Clöser's smoky saxophone, brushed drums and deep, patient bass, each note left to hang and dissolve in the dark. More restrained and delicate than ever, it is music of extraordinary stillness - melancholic, cinematic and quietly overwhelming, the sound of a band who long ago perfected their own genre and simply keep deepening it.