KOOP'S "SUMMER SUN"

From Quango:

Cited by legendary radio jazzman Gilles Peterson as one of the two songs that really make him happy (the other was a tune by someone called Stevie Wonder). "Summer Sun" is the brightest, most euphoric thing we've heard in years. The vocal is a story in itself. Hijacked from Gothenburg's Octagon Session, the then 15-year-old Yukimi Nagano was spotted by the Koop-boys at a jazz talent contest where, while rows of 5-stringed bass-broilers did their university fusion-thing, some real raw emotion suddenly bursted from the stage. Yukimi was eventually enlisted by Koop for the album. She lays down two impressive vocal performances on this album. Definitely a talent to watch.

Click here for the rest Quango's review of Koop's second album Waltz for Koop.

I don't recall if I've ever gushed about the Sweedish jazz-house DJ duo known as Koop here at Real Art in the past, but if I already have forgive me for doing so again. It's just that they're so cool. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much out on the internet just yet about Koop, not even a homepage, or else I would have led off with something from Wikipedia about them instead of a review by a guy I've never heard of, but as far as I can tell, they're part of what appears to be a sort of wave of European DJs-as-artists who all got sick of techno-disco grooves in the late 90s and ran toward the jazz idiom. Hard to go wrong there, if you ask me, but Koop, unlike genre-mate Dimitri from Paris, who I like greatly, takes the approach well beyond what I ever could have imagined was possible.

Their first album, Sons of Koop, while pretty good, suffers a bit from a residual techno sound, which also infects and mediocritizes the aforementioned Dimitri, but by their second album, Waltz released in 2002, it's like they're redefining jazz for the 21st century. It's definitely still house music, but it has a real late 50s/early 60s sensibility about it, almost walking a thin line between Duke Ellington and Audrey Hepburn. This album is transcendental, but in a thoroughly modern way. I'll never forget the first time I heard this stuff: my old buddy Kevin and I were driving around Houston for some reason a few years back and NPR's All Songs Considered was on the radio; they were featuring Koop that day, and, let me tell ya, it was like slowly sliding into the most perfect warm bath you've ever experienced, or walking into a restaurant refrigerator for a moment to cool off during a busy wait shift.

Anyway, to come to the point here, I found on YouTube a cool Koop video for their song "Summer Sun." Like the music, the visuals harken to the mid 20th century, abstract expressionism and all that, but are still very contemporary. It also features the very beautiful and talented sometimes Koop member Japanese-Swede Yukimi Nagano on vocals. Go check it out; it's very much a part of my own personal aesthetic these days.


Yukimi Nagano

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$