Frode Haltli – Triptyk

Jazzland

For the third volume in accordionist Frode Haltli‘s Avant Folk series, he has assembled an absolute bevy of the finest Nordic players to do justice to his latest collection of genre hopping tracks, bouncing around from bop-infused rhythm drills to more abstract drifting.

His hard work of re-revitalising the accordion, putting it into a more contemporary situation, has really paid off and the six pieces chosen here veer all over the place, but nearly always with accordion centre stage and with good reason.

The jaunty pastoral intro forges into “Vorspiel”, an oddly Eastern-influenced piece with an awkward rhythm, socialising the accordion and throwing it into a folk inflected stew with Hardanger fiddle accompanying it in its inimitable way. Experimental textures are tossed around the main structure and dash in and out of the rolling groove. It is such a playful and entertaining track that finds all the players clearly enjoying themselves, scattering their influences to the wind and just allowing joy to sweep them along.

“Vorspiel” is the complete antithesis to the following track that is all dry and spiky high plains guitar. Drifting, dusty guitar brings to mind Calexico, but with a sorrowful accordion that licks its wounds in a deep mountain pass. Drawn out with gentle double bass, it has a completely different vibe and the accordion is a s sweet as a nut, giving the instrument a whole new lease of life. There is a romantic resignation to this piece, with its improv-like tumble of sounds that set us up nicely for the broad abstraction that follows.

Points of light reflect through the supremely high register of the accordion and it seems that with every turn, we see the instrument from another perspective; but this is an ensemble recording and the wild sax blast of penultimate track “Prillar” puts us in a much pushier jazz style, a modish groove smoothing out the sax’s wail.

Triptyk‘s pieces seem to run through an autumnal spectrum, sounds chilling as winter approaches, shedding leaves and taking a more hypnotic direction that also includes a Hammond blast, planting us firmly in a smoky club just before dawn, upbeat dash just a blink of an eye away. The variety is extraordinary, with the album closing with the widescreen introspective subtlety of “Du, Mi Tid” from the very other end of the spectrum, its drifting somnolence reacting to the groove-based fodder that came before. The accordion lingers like smoke in a wintery frozen vista, just grounding bass and drifting puffs of guitar for company.

This album is one of the most broad yet playful recordings in a long while. If you thought you knew what position the accordion held in music, you need to listen to this and think again. Frode is very fortunate to have such a sympathetic cast, shedding fresh light on his chosen instrument; but ultimately it is the accordion that wins and rightly so. Triptyk is something for everyone.

-Mr Olivetti-