Seval
i know you
482 Music
www.482music.com
By George W. Harris

Is it folk? Is it jazz? Is it indie? Whatever you want to call it, it’s here by the group Seval, which is comprised of Fred Lonberg-Holm/cello, Sofia Jernberg/voc, Patric Thorman/b, Emil Strandberg/tp and David Stackenas/g. The mix of instrumentation has potential here, but, except for the lithe bohemian swing of “I won’t go” (did ee cummings write the song titles?), most of the material gets a bit too fragmented and quirky for these ears. Jernberg’s voice is fragile to the point of breaking on the folksy tracks, and then does this breathy panting on a few tracks that sounds more distracting than improvising. The free form tension of the title track gives way to anarchy on “just don’t listen,” while the rest of the material seems like it’s just trying too hard to be neo-beatnik.