At some point, next Saturday will no longer exist. Because you’ll be gone the Wednesday before. And in this case, being gone means: dead. That sounds like a bad prophecy. Although Josip Pavlov has to laugh for a moment when he says that. The horn after that sounds like a ship’s horn. And for a moment a film starts to play in my head. Later, when more brass, strings and a glockenspiel are added, the whole thing actually sounds quite cinematic, before it ends almost cacophonically with a cacophonous drum set. Is the threatened Wednesday here now? That would be a shame, because the next day, on Thursday, February 8th, Ippio Payo will present their album “Talking Birds“. The piece “R” described can then be heard.
Ippio Payo is essentially the guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Josip Pavlov, who is very busy in the Munich indie scene and who founded the band in 2017 as a solo project. Trumpeter Martin Lehmann has been on board since the last album “Deus Ex Machina”. And a total of eleven musicians can now be heard on “Talking Birds”. There will be seven musicians at the presentation of the new album, which will be officially released on February 16th. This is probably also needed to reflect the polyphony of “Talking Birds”. The titular birds, which can also be seen on the cover and were painted by the artist Rin Miyamoto, can be heard in the title song. And also “In Anticipation of Godot”, at more than eleven minutes, something like the heart of the album.
The initial chirping of birds makes you feel like you are in the forest. Can you hear distant strings, a baroque scenery? It could also be the beginning of a radio play. Then a guitar and a horn enter as background noise. When the drums start, it finally becomes almost lively. “Don’t Worry About Me” and “Blue House – Bird’s House” are two quiet, atmospheric pieces. The first has a slightly jazzy flair with the muted trumpet, the second has a slightly psychedelic flair with its free-flowing guitar tones.
In “Talking Birds” the guitar onomatopoeically imitates seagulls. Otherwise, the title track lives from the driving drums and the jazzy brass, towards the end it sways subtly in a post-rock manner. The entire thing, very versatile and extremely worth listening to, lies somewhere between post-rock, jazz and radio play Album. Or as the press release says: between a nimble hummingbird and a majestic albatross. By the way, in April Ippio Payo become migratory birds and swarm to distant Australia. A long-cherished dream, as you hear from Josip Pavlov. But before that, they import Export their test flight.
Ippio Payo: Talking Birds (echo chamber); live on Thursday, February 8th, at 8 p.m Import Export, Schwer-Reiter-Str. 2h