THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET - Image Of You (Tribute to Red Snapper)

The brave new world of international shipping! Even within the EU it often just sucks now. Shit just gets lost. And that's why I haven't been reviewing this EP already two months ago. But when I realized that I should have received the CD an eternity ago, Jason Köhnen thankfully was kind enough to send it out to me again.

THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET - Image Of You (Tribute to Red Snapper) (CD) (2023)

Just like "Seekers Who Are Lovers", which I reviewed as a digital track and purchased on CD later, this one-track EP belongs to a tribute series, which - at least how it seems as of now - takes a song of another artist and reimagines it as a gargantuan track of exactly half an hour length. In the beginning and some reprises along the way you could consider it a "normal" cover version, but all in all these rather appear to be very satisfying excercises in exploring a theme in the complete variety of moods and styles inherent to The Lovecraft Sextet.

And those are plenty! So what was originally a Trip Hop track by the band Red Snapper in the 1990's now morphs from that to eery Doomjazz, Eighties Darkwave, Horror Opera, annihilating Black Metal and much more. Jason Köhnen's vision and the spectacular aid of familiar collaborators like soprano singer Lilian Tong or saxophonist Colin Webster ensures that this patchwork always fits together and never gets tiring.

Even though he didn't even cover songs I had been familiar with before (or because of it?) this series is already among my favorite things in Köhnen's ridiculously prolific output - which besides The Lovecraft Sextet also includes Mansur, Bong-Ra and of course all the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble / Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation classics.

The limited signed CDs come in a black vinyl look in a neat little cardboard cover. Definitely a "nice to have", not too expensive collector's item which adds a lovely physical touch to this already amazing music.