A harpsichord was all but inaudible at a recital I attended earlier this month. I didn’t mind. The novelty of a harpsichord on Tilo Weber’s Tesserae isn’t the most remarkable element of the new release on the Finnish label We Jazz Records either.
So many unexpected things happen on tracks like "In Epitaxy" that the oddity of the harpsichord jingling rendered by Austrian Elias Stemeseder doesn’t even register. The musicians led by the German drummer aren't playing jazz- at least not in the swinging American sense of the word. And it’s not quite European classical music either.
Much of Tesserae contains strong African accents powered by Swedish bassist Petter Eldh. I may not fully understand the intent or the methodology, but the album is an ideal encapsulation of the sounds that most appeal to me at this moment.