Kevin Kastning :: Intervallum

Intervallum :: Reviews and Quotes

Kevin Kastning / Phil Grenadier / Bruno Råberg: Intervallum (2025)

"The multinational collaboration consisting of Kevin Kastning, Phil Grenadier and Bruno Råberg are out with the album "Intervallum", and experimental music is what the three musicians explore on this production. This is a low key and careful affair, where the most defining feature is a subtly brooding, otherworldly mood and atmosphere that is an ongoing trait throughout. Careful, melancholic laden saxophone textures float on top, with eerie, off kilter and occasionally dissonant and occasionally dramatic details delivered by Kastning's guitar combining into a kind of a twilight zone landscape, where a feeling of slight unreality is an ongoing presence. The bass adds wandering patterns, various percussion details and other more or less subtle details that in part support and in part supplement the sonic tapestries woven by the guitar and the saxophone here, and with all instrumentalists both complementing and contrasting each other in subtle manners, all depending on the part and the passage of the composition in question. I suspect that jazz will be the main form here as far as orientation is concerned, although my association goes towards a bit of an input from contemporary classical music too. Most of all this is a creation I suspect will have it's main appeal among those fond of a more off kilter, low key and at times minimalist run through a jazz flavored landscape, of the kind where expressive details are mainly carefully delivered and sometimes with a bit more of an expressive flair. If that is a notion that intrigues you, and landscapes with a bit of a brooding, otherworldly feel sounds like a good setting for such excursions, chances are good that you'll find this album to be quite the interesting experience."

- The Viking in the Wilderness (NORWAY)
July 2025

Kevin Kastning, Phil Grenadier, Bruno Raaberg - 2025 - "Intervallum"

(41:55; Greydisc)
*****+

"I am always excited to see there is a new release by Kevin Kastning, as his live compositions are always absolutely fascinating and so unlike anyone else around. Here Kevin (36-string Double Contraguitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar) has been joined by Phil Grenadier (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Bruno Raberg (double bass) in another investigation of what can happen when musicians put themselves into the dangerous space of creating music when previously nothing existed and there is no set plan. Recorded on 28th June 2024, here we have three wonderful musicians listening to each other in real time, working out what to play, what not to play, and how to best take the pieces forward. Grenadier often takes time out to let the others have time to provide leadership, as when he is performing, he is often at the fore (although he also produces some lovely low level bass notes at times, while his blowing through the instrument while not producing any notes creates a totally different feeling altogether). Raberg has a different approach to many jazz bassists as while he is more than happy plucking notes in wonderful runs, he will also pick up a bow when the time is right which again creates a very different sound to the normal pizzicato effect. Then of course we have Kevin, who plays guitars with way more strings than one can ever imagine possible, but using all of them to create the sounds he hears in his head. Kevin has released albums with both of these musicians in the past, but in each case it was as duets, and this is the first in a series of three albums we are going to get from the trio, which is going to be a delight as this is avant music which is enthralling, exciting and compelling, all at once. The three know exactly when to make the best use of space and the result is an album which is a delight from beginning to end."

- Progressor Magazine (UZBEKISTAN)
October 2025