Artist Watch: Kase + Klassik
FEATURING FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, PLAYERS, COMPOSERS AND THEIR MUSIC OUTSIDE OF THE LICENSE LAB CATALOG
Artist: Kase + Klassik
Release Title: Live at The Opera House
Genres: Jazz, Hip-Hop, Turntablism, Free Jazz
Quick Description: Sonic exploration and improvisation featuring top talent from Milwaukee’s robust jazz and hip-hop scenes, this live collaboration creates a hypnotic energy that keeps on giving.
For Fans of: Portishead, Robert Glasper, DJ Logic
Calling out the live nature of any given release from improvised trio Kase is merely a formality. It is in the DNA of the Milwaukee group made up of Jamie Breiwick (trumpet, electronics), John Christensen (upright bass, electronics), and Jordan Lee (turntables, electronics) as demonstrated by their previous releases, residencies, and recent contribution to our catalog of production music. They do what they do in a live setting. That is where they create their magic. It just so happens that sometimes it’s recorded and released as it has for the 2022 album, Live at The Opera House.
Kase has expanded the preexisting venn diagram between the jazz and hip-hop worlds. While the link has always been present, they’ve pushed and pulled that space between the two circles so far that there might as well be a third circle. Add in Milwaukee rapper, producer, multi-instrumentalist Klassik, who plays with the boundaries between those genres in his own work, and you have a sandbox for musicians who are not afraid of taking risks and exploring new ideas, welcoming in the spirit of improvisation to build on the best of both worlds.
Live at The Opera House is an intimate record that feels less like you’re in a gorgeous auditorium and more like the musicians are in your living room. But the history of the building, the expansive space, and single-day recording session that took place midway through 2021 are all part of the recipe, ingredients that inform and fuel the performance rather than dictate the recorded result. The largely laid-back vibes are so familial and comforting that they lull you into a heightened hypnosis. Time is irrelevant as you take in the seemingly endless combinations of trumpet lines, bass riffs, turntable scratches, manipulated samples, rap verses, emotive vocalizations, and touches of piano.
The free nature of the collaboration and genre-blending performances of Live at The Opera House lend itself to wherever you need it. It’s a record you can listen to while sipping a glass of something delicious, or while filling out spreadsheets at work. And with twelve unique tracks, it’s a record that keeps on giving as you continue finding nuances you didn’t catch before.