jazzahead! 2018: Kirke Karja Quartet

Kirke Karja is a rising talent on the Estonian jazz scene winning the prestigious Estonian Young Jazz Talent award in 2014. Here she helms her eponymous quartet through some mysteriously beautiful music, at times dark and uncompromising, other times introspective, but always with an intensity that is compelling. Karja’s compositions are marked by a contrast between fast-paced mood sketches and refined storytelling: Combined metre soundscapes with driving rhythms can resolve, all of the sudden, in melodically elegant and energetic solos or act as a pathway to new areas on this exciting listening journey. KKQ is experimenting a lot with different parameters: silence and noise, complex rhythm structures, polytonalities and simplicity. Throughout she is ably matched in guitarist Kalle Pilli who provides another sonic dimension to the music and a driving rhythm section in bassist Raimond Mägi and drummer Karl-Juhan Laanesaar, rounding out this quartet. In April of 2016 KKQ released their first album, in 2017 they were selected to perform at 12points festival and in 2018 they played at Jazzahead.

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MUSICIANS
Karja, Kirke (p)
Pilli, Kalle (elg)
Mägi, Raimond (Double bass)
Laanesaar, Karl-Juhan (dr)