Roadburn Festival Conjures Jazz, Psych

Live, News, Peter Brötzmann, Mats Gustafsson

By Jamie Ludwig I Apr. 23, 2019

Saxophonist Peter Brötzmann performs with heavy-psych act Black Bombaim at the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands, on April 12.
(Photo: Paul Verhagen)
Heavy-psych act Black Bombaim performs with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann at the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands, on April 12.
(Photo: Paul Verhagen)

At a festival where heaviness is de rigueur, experimentation is encouraged and extreme sounds are king, Scandinavian jazz ensemble The End were masters of all three. Led by Swedish free-jazz saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, the five-piece confronted the Sunday night Patronaat crowd with frenzied woodwinds, devastating drums and grimy guitars, over which singer Sofia Jernberg’s vocal lines shapeshifted from atmospheric effects to harsh shrieks and a soaring choral style befitting the venue’s more reverent days. The End provided some of the most challenging—and rewarding—sounds of the festival, and looking around the room at the array of metalheads, punks and hippies relishing every note, it was hard not to wonder if any of the band’s previous performances (including a show at Vossa Jazz earlier that weekend) had been met with equally intense headbanging.

“Music can change things,” Gustafsson said. “Music that is built on communication and improvisation has the power of doing that. To play at a festival like Roadburn is golden; exposing your music to a mixed audience is the best thing you can do with your clothes on—and going record hunting, of course.”

The venue Patronaat soon is set to be closed and renovated for residential use, but with New York’s Imperial Triumphant closing things out Sunday night, it was clear the venue wouldn’t shut down quietly. Ostensibly a black-metal outfit, all three members of Imperial Triumphant are formally trained in music and linked to their hometown’s vibrant jazz scene. Together, the trio takes its city’s entire music history and pulverize it into something enormous, confrontational and unsettling. If the music-loving, psycho-reactive slime that flowed beneath the Big Apple in Ghostbusters II had a favorite band, this could be it. Decked out in robes and masks, the group had the entire room at attention with its dystopian fusion of blistering metal and jazz-age grandeur. Some people even climbed atop the bar to get a better look. After four days of mind-bending music (five for those who made the pre-party), Imperial Triumphant made the last set ever at Patronaat a memorable one.

With Roadburn 2019 over and done, some already are looking toward next year, with many fans sharing their hopes—however far-fetched—for next year’s bill. Talking to Hoeijmakers, it seems as if that’s all part of his plan: “What I really want with Roadburn is for it to actually have a profound impact on the way you experience music and [show] how music can be such an inspiring part of your daily life.” DB