Beiggja – Morning

Hubro

Beiggja is a gathering of four of the Nordic jazz scene’s luminaries, with Kika Sprangers on sax, Kjetil Mulelid on piano, Mats Eilertsen on bass and Per Oddvar Johansen on percussion; some names familiar to regular Freq readers. Isolating themselves in a forest studio, they allowed their natural creativity to unfold.

The album makes a dreamy, smoky start and evokes that time of morning before the birds have started singing. The sax is a wavering wisp with the bass chuckling and the piano all subtle suggestions. The vibe is thoughtful, but also a little playful and the scene outside of the window is darkened streets, while inside a couple moves entwined as percussion rolls and reverberates. Where the piano leads, it feels as though it is trying to recall summertime, but hearts are aching too much. The piano scatters like leaves with the percussive momentum not allowing anything to settle.

The soporific sensation of having seen the night out and awaiting the dawn runs throughout, but what prevents it from descending into something too snoozy is the sense of texture that comes from the percussion. Per keeps the others bubbling, looking for new expressions with a constant river-like flow that is listenable in its own right; but when paired with the fluidity of Mats’s bass and the interplay of Kika and Kjetil it becomes something delightful. Where some of the pieces are slower it allows the percussion to fill the gaps, but this doesn’t lessen the equality between the four players.

Where the piano may add drama, so the bowed bass will bring melancholy and the combination has a sense of momentum, of discovering new things. You can genuinely feel them pulling together towards a whole, each knowing exactly what is needed and playing for the thrill rather than considering whether it is a saleable commodity. So there are points where the piano becomes more textural, entwining with cymbals, its gentle hammering raising the pressure; while at others, everybody strips right back almost to room tone, causing a variation in moods that is dreamlike as if the grasp on reality is not quite strong enough.

It is definitely music for sharing as they intersperse the the livelier pieces with those that ache with a delicate romance, but the way the whole range of shades is filled in is quite a feat and one that makes the album very easy to return to. As a one-off it works perfectly; a chance meeting destined to live in the memory.

-Mr Olivetti-