Sagapool: Sagapool

This is one of those times when descriptions don’t describe, but here goes: a complicated murmuration, not one thing, not another thing, French cafe but not, Balkan but not, jazz but not, fast but not, slow but not, accordion, yes, piano, yes, atmospheric, yes, and originally, says the publicity, these Montreal-based musicians thought they were going to be a klezmer band, but the idea of movie soundtracks got in there somehow, the clarinet stayed, there is an impression of distances slowly scanned, as if we’re in a pensive but not melancholy film about a natural feature such as tundra or lake, and the music does that tricky but organic thing of reaching a point of fullness that is unpinpointable but unmistakably correct — and then changing in a way that was unpredictable but likewise unmistakably correct. In the opening song they pause during an upward charge to throw in a burst, then continue upwards. Somehow this interruption is right. Everything is right. Perhaps overuse of upwardness overall, but I didn’t mind.