Occultus Tramitis

When it comes to jazz music I like to be in a certain mood for it. Usually that mood is when I'm at a jazz bar/club where the lights are low, seats are couches, and the air filled with a vibe of everyone being cool. That's the preferred way I should say that I like to listen to jazz but most of the time it's really me sitting at home wanting to have some funky music on that I can play while reading or writing without me being distracted. With Occultus Tramitis I was just on the verge of being able to listen to it while I was reading without being distracted but there were a lot of times that I had to stop reading because of what I was hearing.
Occultus Tramitis is the second album for Antoine Fafard, a composer and bass player who plays his jazz in a not so typical way. It's because of this not so typical way of playing that had me distracted while I was doing some reading on Antonie Fafard and the album, his music was getting more attention than me learning about his music. These jazz songs are played with a upbeat, quick tempo that strays from the horn style that I'm used to. The songs have a core sound of being a jazz song but there's also rock being put into the body of the songs to give them a quicker beat. I liked this sound and it was one that I'm not used to hearing when listening to jazz music.
Because of this rock sound being used with the jazz sound, Occultus Tramitis was a enjoyable album to listen to. Each of the songs have a nice beat, the instruments are played well, and best of all the energy being put into the beats make the songs catchy. With no vocals in the songs it's tough to just sit down and listen to the album all at once or it would normally be tough with a jazz album but this one not so much. I did find at times that some of the songs would have similar sounds and the tracks would blend together where I didn't notice they had changed. Even though I do like the way the instruments are played and how they are fit together it's having the similar sound that hurts this album the most. There needed to be some changed in the tempos so that the album would have a changing and growing sound instead of one consistent sound. Still, it's a fun album, especially for a jazz album, Antonie Fafard has a good ear for making a fun song but he just needs to change his sound at times.