Bass player and composer Vilhelm Bromander‘s list of groups and affiliates is as long as my arm, and due to his presence and standing in the experimental jazz scene has managed to draw quite an impressive collection of collaborators around him for his latest adventure, a spiritually minded thirteen-piece that drifts effortlessly through three very different scenarios, highlighting the joy and melancholy inherent in the chosen instruments.
Scoring a turn from dhrupad singer Marianne Svasek is quite the coup and her introduction is a low and mysterious muezzin call, drifting and rootless, accompanied by tanpura drone that revolves and evolves in equal measure. The slow, sinuous rhythm is strangely alluring, circling subtly, drawing a slow build from the other musicians, various ingredients gradually appearing draped in dust, led by a mournful violin that produces a full engagement.
Swirling and insistent, it picks up the listener and propels them as if on the shoulders of a welcoming crowd, finally delivered into the warm embrace of spiritual sax and fluttering vibes. The sax simmers but is warm and engaging, skronky yet pleasing; while the trumpet is a more urgent beast, drawing the wash of drums in its wake. It is something to rebel against as the other textures build and increase tension into an emotional trawl that finally recedes to a glimmer.The wails of sax and scattered vibes contain a playful urgency, pushing and pulling insistently, dragging boulders of percussion onto far-flung precipices, overlooking fields desperate for rain. Solos are solitary searches, painful yet prepared, the recurring theme temporarily buried, only to re-emerge with renewed wonder. It leaves the final track to offer up something more pastoral, a country-tinged feel, the high sweep of violin skirting cornfields while the bass clarinet imbues the piece with another level of humanity, an echoing grasp of some fundamental impulse that is matched by the accompanying bob and weave.
Although this piece is shorter, more succinct, each of the three sketches has a very different feel, alighting in very different places and divulging personal observations. The background clamour as the final piece dissipates is steadying somehow and it is sad to hear it vanish, in the way you miss a sudden summer shower; and before you know it, we are at the end.The calibre of personnel makes this album such a pleasure to lose yourself in and although it is the first outing for the group, we can only hope it leads to more adventures.
-Mr Olivetti-
