From the Mailbox 84

Ratanga Junction – While Your Heart Flickers On It Today, a few unexpected turns in the realm where electronica and jazz meet. I’m skeptical of music that casts jazz in new lights. As someone whose childhood was soundtracked largely by 50s and 60s bop, I have a hard to enjoying any modern jazz — especially when it lacks the textural qualities of old recordings, and pretends skillful playing is enough alone to communicate emotion. But the skeptic in me also needs to recognize that part of what made the bop jazz of my father’s era so compelling was that it was a revolution against convention; one that did prioritize the creativity and experimentation of the individual. In that spirit, first up tonight is the opening track from the new album, Ellipses, from Philadelphia-based composer and producer Joel Ronning, aka Ratanga Junction. On Ellipses — and especially so on this song — Ronning designs a delicately hectic forest of atmosphere and prickly synthesis, and casts dueling woodwinds…

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