release date: 19.11.2021 via Rune Grammofon
Hedvig Mollestad must surely be one of the hardest working musicians on the Norwegian music scene at the moment, with “Tempest Revisited” being her third album in a mere 18 months, all at a consistently high artistic level. Her first solo album, “Ekhidna” (2020), received a Spellemannpris (Norwegian Grammy), appeared on several jazz and rock best of the year lists and got her into Downbeat´s “25 for the future” selection.
Latest Box-set of Early Arve Henriksen works on Rune Grammofon label will be a real treat for all of those who, like myself, admire the Art of the Norwegian trumpeter. It contains 42 tracks spread into 4 albums: Towards Language – Live at Punkt, Acousmograph, Captured Under Mountainsides, Cryosphere from which only the first had been previously available as a stream. Other than that, it is the music which had never being heard before, until now when trumpeter himself revisited Rune’s archive and put all the music into the specific order.
Towards Language – Live at Punkt is a live version of the studio album of the same title which is interesting approach given the way Arve works. I know the original and I am equally a fan of the Live. Let’s start from that as I had lots of time to think about it even before this wonderful boxset hit my doors. I was listening to this a lot, as I previously did to the studio version. After all I wasn’t sure what is the original and what is after? The sense of Live had really being lost to me as both versions are brilliant, and it doesn’t really matter to me at the end which one evolved from which. Life is a transformation process, so is the art.
Acousmograph is completely different cosmos. It is a study of the borders of the instrument and in the same time self-exploring boundaries of his own artistic soul. The music which plays in his head, little studies of form and patterns as well as articulations, dubbed and electronically transformed to the level it doesn’t sound any more like a trumpet. Inspired by the Minimal Music like Cage or contemporary composers like Penderecki, Glass or Reich. I can trace momentums which later came to shape on the following studio albums, Take for example trumpet lines from the Prelude unfolding score, it came to his final shape on Cartography as an opening track Poverty And Its Opposite. Choral fragment with an Organ bardon and accompaniment on the same track comes out the transformation as an arrangement one can listen to on Arve’s Places Of Worship, the Lament. There is many moments like that which are going to become precious discoveries for the careful listeners.
Captured Under Mountainsides takes us into the territory of unlimited space, which sound and phrasing of Arve’s trumpet is calling for. Foggy and airy soundscapes spread between the mountains, volleys and meadows. With their unstrained sense of freedom. There is plenty of references to the sonic universe of Places of Worship period again. Tracks like Alhambra, Portal, Adhan, which are emerging from trumpeter’s collaboration with Jan Bang, Eivind Aarset and Eric Honore period dating around 2013.
Cryosphere, in similar fashion reworks and remixes material from concerts from first decade of the 2000 and clearly echoing material reissued on later, 2008 ECM Cartography session, with the clearest example being an opening Origin, which materialised itself into sampled version as Migration on the mentioned above album.
This is a proper feast of the Gods for die for Henriksen’s fans.
Electronic artist, vocalist, composer and performer Maja S.K. Ratkje is one of the most original figures in the modern performance world to me, scoping from a theatre of voice tradition like one that Meredith Monk had created, as well as from the Norwegian folk music which is incredibly rich. Involved in multiple contemporary projects, she works with dancers, theatre directors and film makers, still miraculously finding time for her incredibly interesting vocal studies and adequate singer carrier.
Here we have an unusual project which varies from all I know from her previous recordings for Rune. As she is notorious for challenge, here we got the music for ballet called Hunger, based on 1890 Knut Hamsun’s novel, autobiographical journey of a young author trying to survive poverty without losing the dignity and focus on his dreams.
The music is performed on a one-off organ made specially to meet the spectacle illustrative criteria and having built in strings, tubes, wind machine, percussion instruments, just to name the few and give the feeling of the complexity it brings, when it comes to the live performance during the entire season. Well worth pointing to display a uniqueness of the act.
An opening Intro called This Wondrous City is as descriptive as only conversion from prose to stage can be. I wish I could see that on the stage as the picture Maja sketches in front of your ears is full of the misery and hope in the same time. Not only the melody as such, but an audible footwork on the instrument adds to the climate of noisy and forbidding street.
The misery and the drama are both hanging in the air and the dark description of the set rapidly stays in the front of your imagination, without trace of need to force it. Her voice, sweet, deep and feminine carries an incredible deposit of humanity, especially when contrasted with a humble, wiggly and slightly out of tune sound of the organs.
Given the semi improvised nature of the accompaniment the pace the music carries must co -create an incredible image with the choreography. Hold live vocal, with every single playtime adds an extra fragility, given the sad subject of the play and the fact that no day is the same, it creates practically a unique quality to the play. I mean a physical struggle with an instrument by that as well, paralleling the fate of the main character created by dancer on the stage and being seen by the audience.
I found this recording deeply addictive and her voice so immersive that I managed to get the book and read it to feed my own imagination with pictures and at the end to support even more the imaginative character of that music with which she wrapped the story. But even for the listener who is completely unaware what he is dealing with this record will put the spell on. SO great it is.
Henriksen’s latest project started as a commissioned work for the city of Hull, UK and it is sort of a tribute to Scandinavia and England’s long lasting inter-sea relationship. Given the fact that two long time collaborators and probably the most intriguing Norwegian guitarist are part of the project brings back memories of fantastic sessions like Chiaroscuro or Place or Worship, which I both do admire and quite often am listening too.
On English side the Hull based sound artist Jez Riley French contributes with electronic tissue which contains filed recordings and samples, further looped into the composition. On top of it there is also Choir and Orchestra of the Opera North who supplies some Symphonic lines and the Vocalises co-building this unusual project.
When it comes to some uncommon projects nobody would fit better with their challenging personalities like those three extraordinary musicians. Therefore, the stamp of these personalities is quite feel-able to anybody familiar with their Art, like myself.
The mood is very mystic and highly spiritual. Addition of the Orchestra and Choir reminds the same pillars of communication which the trumpeter already created during his long-time collaboration with Trio Mediaeval, but compositions are even more lacy then usual even by Arve’s standards. The fact that the music came to fit the purpose might be responsible for it. Either then that it contains all what makes Henriksen’s music as we know it. The dialogue between the past and the present handled with an incredible sensitivity and almost intuitive shifts between moods, styles and cultural backgrounds.
In fact,the trumpeter’s flawlessness is clearly making these boarders disappear or at least blending to the point that it becomes more and more difficult to trace an inspirations and origins, but without losing and easiness of his message.
That is something that makes you think about the parallel nature of the human experience, despite of distance, climate or believing. Patterns alone and human desire to express that, no matter how originally one feels it, on the end the emotional intelligence is always putting an equal mark between them.
Listening to this music is like a flight over the misty river with a key of cranes, in the fresh air, straight into a day which is just awaking in some warming rays of the morning Sun. You do not know yet what it is going to bring you, but the openness of the space and calmness of the sounds surrounding you in this spectacle are sort of assuring that it is going to be a wonderful day. It must have been a wonderful experience to walk over the Humber Bridge, wearing headphones with that music in your head. No surprise that project had been rewarded with an overwhelming popularity and one more iconic work in already exceptional artists’ portfolio.
These is the sixth record of the trio on fire consisting of Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin. Two years passed exactly since I reviewed their previous She Sleeps Lp. Two years is a kind of interval which marks the gap to the anterior Without Noticing.
What we have here defers vastly from almost nocturnal approach on predecessor album. Saying that one must accept that nocturnal from the Fire! is something different that the usual definition would suggest. I am finding The Hands to be a musical poem to me. Seriously. I know that the heavy sound of the trio, particularly the bass lines and lament – scream of Matt’s saxes are often compared to Black Sabath alike guitar riffs, but it is not the case here. The longer I am listening to it the more I am confident with that.
First of all are tittles of the tunes, which are making a poem as such if read in row, just follow:
The Hands
When Her Lips Collapsed
Touches Me With The Tips Of Wonder
Washing Your Heart In Filth
Up. And Down.
To Shave The Leaves. In Red. In Black.
I Guard Her To Rest. Declaring Silence.
When I played them in random order the meaning collapses, there is no poetry anymore. Sounds don’t match words as they did before. Back in order and all clicks back. The tensions and realises fit again. The mood paints the drama as it was intended by those who composed them. Then I checked who did it and mystery solved itself alone. There is a clear note on the back cover saying that all tittles had been inspired by Kenneth Patchen. There we are. I love to trust own senses and encourage you to do the same. They will never betray you. The rest can always be found.
Album starts with tittle The Hands. Rough and clumsy, with almost neurotic lines reminding me The Joy Division. Repetitive character of heavy riffs supplied bringing strong visual images.
Following second track starts with some onomatopoeic intro bringing words which sound collapsed and impossible to understand, therefore the feeling matches the tittle perfectly. Heavy trip continuous with the bass’ dark steps and baritone’s cascades od sounds which are coming like cascades of thoughts inside of the head, impossible to articulate, but all meaning.
Opening sax lines on Touches Me bring the realise and nostalgic reflection. Bass hardly goes to the surface, it rather pulses like a blood in your vines. Once you focus on that you know you are still alive. Andreas finishes the picture with firm brushes and ride frames. Voices of gulls in the background are bringing marine feeling to the sketch and giving a sense of identity to the background of the story.
Each line brings his own image and his own change of mood. Dare experiment with them and you start to feel the meaning of the poem. The main theme is there and it keeps coming along the heavy lines, reminding me a bit a Tonbruket sonic universe a bit. No surprise here giving a background and mixed heritages. The pace in the music matches clearly the intonation of the words. And meaning of the words keep moving too, once the accents had been moved. The closing piece I guard her to the rest. Declaring silence clears the subject with wonderfully lyrical sax lines, making an obviosity of final departure in such a gentle way that there is really nothing to say after.
As I said, I loved She Sleeps and keep listening to it , but The Hands is no shorter congenial.
