This album is one of a few that I’ve had on repeat for a major part of 2026. Red Kite’s This Too Shall Pass is a visceral yet cerebral album of jazz rock fusion from a band of veterans who’ve been going through a bit of a rough patch leading up to the making of its third full-length.
I was already inclined to like Red Kite because of the presence of guitarist Even Hermansen, who fronts label mates Bushman’s Revenge. The rest of the gang includes Trond Frønes on bass guitar and Torstein Lofthus on drums plus new member Gisle Johansen on saxophone. He was only going to be sitting in as a guest, but as things happened he just went ahead and joined the band full time. Shortly before recording, the band’s keyboard player Bernt André Moen stepped down due to some health issues, but Ståle Storløkken (who is a member of the jazz rock trio Elephant9 with Lofthus) was able to sit in on short notice. There was a lot of other personal chaos going on around the recording of the album, and it might just be reflected in the intensity of this music.
The original band members all shared backgrounds in rock and metal, but also were inspired by progressive jazz artists like Alice Coltrane. It makes for some highly entertaining explorations, even as the members work their way through some heavy emotions. They lead off with two somber and portentous tracks, the introductory “Not To Be” and the elegiac “Requiem for Bolla” a plodding funeral march that would make good closing credits music for a Norwegian film about a haunted lighthouse, say. Bassist Trond comes to the fore with some catchy lines on this one.
But I first dropped the needle, so to speak, on the third track “Texas of Sweden” because what a great title. And man, what a tour de force of electric jazz fusion. Over the 10 minute run time, Ståle Storløkken absolutely destroys the Rhodes in a lengthy and deep solo, upstaging even Gisle’s soaring and cresting tenor ride. This one’s heavy yet melodic, and the rhythm section, particularly drummer Lofthus, never lets up.
The Sabbath influence isn’t subtle on “No Safe Harbour,” with its Leslie cabinet guitar effect rumbling behind a wailing soprano sax (doing its best screaming guitar solo imitation), deeply sludgey bass and apocalyptic drum outrage throughout. After a shimmering fairy tale intro with a shimmering synth and a languid tenor sax ostinato, on “For Ugly Duckling” Lofthus lays down a briefly swinging groove before Even and Gisle start an intertwining duet that slowly gains in tension and urgency, then fades out leaving you wanting more.
Their tribute to their former colleague, simply titled “Bernt,” sets out as a fairly straight ahead sort of saxophone fusion track, with Storløkken vamping as Even soars on guitar and the bass and drums go wild. It works into a bona fide rave up complete with wailing sax, roaring guitar power chordage, and I don’t know how they get that kind of sounds out of a keyboard.
Things wind down on the final two numbers. “Broken Hearts and Broken Bones” is a quiet meditation on the vicissitudes of life, with some of what sounds like pedal steel guitar added to the mix, and some quiet Jon Lord organ licks. “All’s Well That Ends” starts off somewhat the same before pausing and then launching into a bluesy stomp of a group improv.
In case you can’t tell, I really enjoy this one. Fans of Zappa’s instrumental work, or Mahavishnu Orchestra crossed with some early metal and heavy rock, should find a lot to like here too.
(Is It Jazz?, 2026)
