Øyvind Skarbø, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Kris Davis, Ole Morten Vagan: Inland Empire

Avant Jazz / Free Improvisation / Avant-Garde
premiera polska: 2020-08-03
opakowanie: kartonowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com * * * *:
Kris Davis, kanadyjska pianistka i kompozytorka, od 2001 roku mieszka i tworzy w Nowym Jorku. W ciągu tych niespełna 20 lat współpracowała z Timem Berne'm, Billem Frisellem, Nelsem Cline'm, Markiem Ribotem, Johnem Zornem, Henry'm Threadgillem, Tony'm Malaby'm, Craigiem Tabornem, Tyshawnem Soreyem, Erikiem Revisem czy Mary Halvorson.

Na "Inland Empire" spotykamy ją z zaciągiem kapitalnych skandynawskich improwizatorów, a wiemy przecież, że tam bije jedno z najbardziej szczobrodliwych źródeł kreatywnego jazzu.
Szwedzki saksofonista i klarnecista Fredrik Ljungkvist znany jest z formacji Atomic i Territory Band Kena Vandermarka. Nagrywał z Wadada Leo Smithem, Marilyn Crispell, Fire! Orchestra i wieloma skandynawskimi muzykami.
Sekcję rytmiczną tworzą Norwegowie - kontrabasista Ole Morten Vagan i drummer Oyvind Skarbo.
Trójka Skandynawów wielokrotnie już ze sobą pracowała, słychać to w każdym momencie płyty. Wraz z Kris Davis perfekcyjnie realizują koncepcję improwizacji podporządkowanej kompozycji. Ich "opowieść" rozszerza się jakby i rozrasta w różnych kierunkach - od kameralnych, solistycznych momentów, poprzez przejmujące dialogi, gdy muzycy bez wysiłku buszują po katalogu interakcyjnych rozwiązań, po zespołową, polifoniczną improwizację, pełną zadziorów i nieoczekiwanych fabularnych zakrętów. Bezwzględna kreatywność i ogniste improwizacje czwórki muzyków dają porywający efekt końcowy.
autor: Mariusz Zawiślak
Copyright © 1996-2020 Multikulti Project. All rights reserved
Editor's info:
This is the happy result of the international partnership of one of America’s top pianists today, Kris Davis, with three of the most in demand musicians on the Scandinavian creative jazz scene, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Ole Morten Vagan and Oyvind Skarbo, who is also the producer and the mixer. In the Inland Empire, compositions by all members are treated democratically with only the bare minimum of bureacracy. The music is halfway between the written and the improvised, influenced by contemporary classical music, various avant-jazz and more, justifying the name of this album and – from now on – also of the quartet.
This means there’s balanced measures of elegance and refinement, and what they themselves call «anarchistic outbursts», bringing together equality of functions and freedom of collective and individual expression. “Inland Empire” is the realization of an old aspiration few times achieved, contradicting the notion that Equality and Freedom can’t live together. This in itself would make this recording special, but there’s more, much more: Something that only the music itself can tell you.

allaboutjazz.com * * * *
Rising star American pianist Kris Davis aligns with A-list Scandinavian progressive jazz artists for a semi-structured program that, among numerous positives, highlights the ensemble's persuasive interactions amid a capacious soundstage, spanning sublime progressions, angular unison choruses and geometrical paradigm shifts. But the musicians unrelenting creativity and thoughtful improvisations spark a winning formula not always easily attainable in these unions, where spontaneous breakouts and plot redevelopments yield significant rewards.

"Truffle Pigs and Katmandu Stray Dogs" is a prime example of this band's ability to sustain continual interest. Here, Davis' cascading phraseology and reverse engineering processes ride atop drummer Oyvind Skarbo's nudging brush work and polyrhythmic flurries that steer the pianist into a series of flailing arpeggios and pulsating block chords, upping the ante for intersecting currents and Fredrik Ljungkvist 's molten sax lines. Moreover, the soloists go toe-to-toe via undulating sub- motifs, toggling between playful camaraderie and pugnacious escapades, as the frontline swaps leading roles throughout. However, they do strip the big sound down to its basics, partly due to bassist Ole Morten Vagan's speedy maneuverings and close-handed plucking in line with Davis' murmuring patterns.

Poignant dialogues also come into play during many sections as the artists effortlessly cavort through split-second and longer-term inventions, while also paying attention to detail. Whereas "Surf Curl" is a bustling and patchy piece, sprinkled with the pianist's terse voicings atop the rhythm section's sudden rush of energy. And the final track, "Fighter," is devised with the saxophonist's off-key ruminations and the bassist's storming impetus along with other densely populated storylines, although the musicians take a well-deserved breather during the bridge. Indeed, it's a rewarding listen fueled by a constant state of excitement and the instrumentalists' unimpeded synergetic forces.
By GLENN ASTARITA


freejazzblog.org * * * *
Inland Empire finds a top group of Scandinavian players in collaboration with Canadian pianist Kris Davis, a staple of the New York jazz scene. Bassist Ole Morten Vagan may be familiar to listeners as the leader of Motif, an acoustic fusion outfit devoted to Vagan’s own songbook. Fellow Norwegian Oyvind Skarbo is the force behind the clamorously eclectic Skarbo Skulekorps, in which he both drums and sings. Finally, Swedish reedist Fredrik Ljungkvist has been one of the most confident voices in European jazz for decades, closely associated with the supergroup Atomic since 1999.

Strikingly then, Inland Empire gathers four accomplished bandleaders in a flexible collective. This common calibre accounts for the consistent texture of this recording, to which each player contributes original music. This spirit of equality is formalized in the presentation, as these pieces appear melded in sequence, a continuous suite of multiple sources. Solos and duos function intelligently as bridges throughout, formalizing the ethos of collective improvisation at the level of the setlist.

Only the title track is credited to the entire group, an opening invocation that develops in free time with little trepidation. As the performance swells, Ljungkvist splits off from the group with a repetitive, ascending figure, colliding Vagan’s tune, ‘Truffle Pigs and Katmandu Stray Dogs.’ Somewhere between the mutant blues of Monk, thickened by dissonance, and the Scandinavian legacy of Coleman’s harmolodics, the undulating head is gratifyingly familiar in its strangeness. Davis’ staccato chords make a plane in the center of the group’s stuttering interplay, which parts before a patter of notes in the bass clef. Vagan’s transitional solo is woody and cantankerous, ascending the neck only to plummet in percussive punctuation.

‘Jag Vet Inte,’ composed by Ljungkvist, approaches the cerebral airiness and instrumental palette of Jimmy Giuffre’s iconic second trio, not least for its feature of the clarinet, and the initial absence of the rhythm section. After two minutes of rapid conversation between Davis and Ljungkvist, the duo settle onto a simple unison theme, a melody of wide intervals, stated in single notes on the piano. Nearly three and a half minutes into the recording, the rhythm section arrives—a patter of brushes beneath a heavy walking bassline, and the piece concludes with a gorgeously restrained drum solo by Skarbo, in which one hears virtual cicadas.

‘Surf Curl,’ Davis’ composition, begins in hesitancy, as a scattering of short notes. Davis hammers single keys with two hands, as though handling mallets, while Skarbo bustles ahead. At the apex, Ljungkvist unleashes a barrage of rapidly tongued single notes above Davis’ heavy-handed octaves, which continue through a terminal diminuendo. Skarbo’s ‘Hindsight Bias’ is the ballad, if that honour may be assigned to one track on an album of contrasts, though its melancholy theme mounts to an agitated breakaway by Ljungkvist, whose piece, ‘Fighter,’ closes the album on a declarative note.

As a demonstration of dynamic range and group identity, Inland Empire is a wholly foreseeable success, far more unified and tonally consistent than most groups with four distinct composers. One can only hope that they convene again, and soon.
By Cam Scott


Dusted Magazine
Small ensemble jazz has followed a familiar core quartet format for the better part of a century. Additions and subtractions abound, but the equation of horn + piano + bass + drums still stands as prevailing configuration. Inland Empire evinces this instrumentation through a guileless presentation. Facts as proclaimed are few, but pertinent. Drummer Oyvind Skarbo’s byline occupies the pole position on the cover, suggesting that he may have had the principal part in organizing the fall 2016 session. Details as to dates, composition credits, track titles and expressions of gratitude are depicted efficiently and without undue elaboration. Much like the economy of the assembled quartet, the music is meant to speak for itself.

Pianist Kris Davis is sole stateside resident in the group. Reedist Fredrick Ljungkvist hails from Sweden, while Skarbo and bassist Ole Morten Vagen are Norwegian. The band opens with the title piece, a brief collective improvisation that’s at once moody and porous in its atmospheric layering of limpid clarinet with incremental shadings from the other instruments that gain weight without feeling weighted down. Five more compositions tally with two from Ljungkvist and one apiece from the others. Vagen’s “Truffle Pigs and Katmandu Stray Dogs” lives up to the colorful imagery of its title, saving a knuckle-busting solo by the composer for closer. Stacked, bristling statements flow out of a stairstep sequence from Davis as Vagen drops bulbous bass bombs and Skarbo skitters restlessly across his cymbals.

Ljungkvist’s “Jag Vet Inte” trades tension and drama for playful, textured exploration. Clarinet and piano make tandem forays first, twirling around each other in a tightening and loosening braid that’s so detailed and integrative that the eventual entrance of bass and drums almost feels like an inelegant intrusion. Piano drops out leaving Vagen and Skarbo to quickly correct that initial perception by erecting a pliable framework around Ljungvist’s aerial acrobatics. Davis’ “Surf Curl” and Skarbo’s “Hindsight Bias” continue the illusion of a seamless suite, moving from staccato bundled transmissions to open-ended tenor saxophone and bowed metal driven blues. “Fighter” caps the set as a suitably pugilistic anthem mixing muscle-flexing menace and darkly churning volume with moments of more measured but no less incessant grace.
by Derek Taylor

muzycy:
Fredrik Ljungkvist tenor saxophone, clarinet
Kris Davis piano
Ole Morten Vagan double bass
Oyvind Skarbo drums

utwory:
1. Inland Empire
2. Truffle Pigs and Katmandu Stray Dogs
3. Jag Vet Inte
4. Surf Curl
5. Hindsight Bias
6. Fighter

wydano: 2020-04
nagrano: Recorded live September 26, 2016 at Haugesund Billedgalleri, Haugesund, Norway by Hans-Olav Molde

more info: www.cleanfeed-records.com