Arve Henriksen: Places Of Worship

Modern Jazz / Indie Jazz
premiera polska: 2015-06-03
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Norwegia
opakowanie: digipackowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com - ocena: * * * * *
Arve Henriksen, urodzony w 1968 roku jest najbardziej znanym norweskim trębaczem jazzowym, ale też wybitnym kompozytorem, innowatorem muzyki jazzowej, znany jest ze swojego charakterystycznego, podobnego do fletu dźwięku trąbki, inspirowanego dźwiękiem japońskiego fletu shakuhachi.
Swoimi kolejnymi płytami wyznacza nowe drogi w jazzie i muzyce samplowanej, kreując atmosferyczne pejzaże dźwiękowe, zabierając słuchaczy w niezwykłą podróż.

Płyta 'Places Of Worship' to prawdziwie wyjątkowa pozycja w jego dyskografii, eksperymenty z dźwiękiem, przestrzenią, tekstury terenowych dźwięków, w zamierzeniu artysty mają obrazować aurę różnych świętych miejsc na całym świecie. Poszczególne utwory, noszą wiele mówiące tytuły jak Adhan, Saraswati, Le Cimetiere Marin, The Sacristan, Lament, Portal, Alhambra, Bayon, Abandoned Cathedral, Shelter from the Storm. To nazwy konkretnych miejsc lub też słowne określenia metafizycznych stanów.

'Places Of Worship' to intrygujące studium kompozycji i improwizacji z wykorzystaniem instrumentów, komputerów, przystawek i sampli, ujętych w formę muzycznej modlitwy. Czasami dźwięk trąbki przywdzi na myśl modlitwę muzzeina lub też kantora ('Adhan'). Innym razem przenosimy się w świat prawosławych nabożeństw ('Lament'). Nagrany w kwartecie Arve Henriksen/Eivind Aarset/Jon Balke/Ingar Zach 'Alhambra', to z kolei synteza muzyki Żydów sefardyjskich, klasycznej muzyki arabskiej i przejmującego flamenco. Medytacyjny charakter całości podkreśla jej modlitewny charakter.

W projekcie wzięli udział m.in.: Jan Bang, Eivind Aarset, Jon Balke, Lars Danielsson, Christian Wallumrod, jest też kwartet smyczkowy i The Norwegian Wind Ensemble. Arve Henriksen stworzył muzyczną mapę, po której może poruszać się w dowolnym kierunku. Jego gra nie ma początku ani końca i tym różni się od jazzu.

Arve Henriksen, to jedno z najważniejszych nazwisk na europejskiej scenie jazzowej. Współpracował z wieloma znanymi muzykami, takimi jak John Balke & Magnetic North Orchestra, Anders Jormin, Edward Vesala, Jon Christensen, Marilyn Mazur, Audun Kleive, Nils Petter Molvar, Misha Alperin, Arkady Shilkloper, Arild Andersen, Stian Carstensen, Dhafer Youssef, Hope Sandoval, Cikada String Quartet, The Source, by wymienić tylko część z nich. Realizował się w wielu różnych zespołach i projektach, począwszy od współpracy z Satsuki Odamurą, wirtuozem japońskiego koto, aż po granie z rockowym Motorpsycho, po drodze grając w wielu grupach free improv (tu należy wymienić takie nazwiska jak Ernst Reijseger, Sten Sandell, Peter Friis Nielsen, Terje Isungset, Marc Ducret i Karl Seglem). Obecnie Arve nagrywa i występuje z Supersilent, Christian Wallumrod Ensemble i Trygve Seim Ensemble.

Oddając głos samemu muzykowi: „Zainteresowanie materią tworzenia dźwięków pojawiło się już w czasie, kiedy zaczynałem grać na trąbce. Spędziłem wiele godzin na rozwijaniu na przykład ciepłego brzmienia, ale nie tylko na tym. Moim zdaniem, trąbka ma szeroki potencjał dla różnych brzmień i wariacji
dźwiękowych, których wciąż nie odkryliśmy. Kiedyś, było to chyba w 1988 roku, Nils Petter Molvar pożyczył mi kasetę z nagraniami fletu shakuhachi. I to zmieniło wszystko”. Arve Henriksen zaczął poznawać muzykę graną na japońskich tradycyjnych instrumentach, takich jak koto, biwa, shakuhachi i innych: „Pozwalałem tej muzyce brzmieć i rozwijać się w mojej głowie. Byłem oszołomiony dźwiękiem tego fletu” Wykorzystanie shakuhachi w tradycji buddyzmu Zen zafascynowało trębacza, szczególnie jego medytacyjna i minimalistyczna jakość ekspresji: „To sprawiło, że zacząłem pracować z brzmieniem i dźwiękiem w zupełnie nowym kierunku”. Ale jego zainteresowania nie kończą się na muzyce japońskiej. Inspiruje się wieloma rodzajami muzyki ludowej, także norweskiej. Obecnie zainteresowany jest pracą na gruncie współczesnej muzyki komponowanej. Poświęca też czas na rozwijanie swoich zdolności gry na instrumentach elektronicznych oraz na różnorakie wykorzystanie trąbki. W ciągu ostatnich lat skupił się też na własnym śpiewie. W swojej karierze otrzymał wiele nagród m.in. Radka Toneffs Minnepris i Norsk Jazzforums Buddy Award.

Był nominowany do Nordisk Rads Musikkpris w 2009 r. i do European Jazz Musician of the Year 2009. Był artystą rezydentnym na Molde Jazz Festival 2009. Jego dyskografia liczy ponad 100 płyt.
autor: Witek Leśniak
Editor's info:
With Places Of Worship Arve Henriksen moves into the front rank of world class musicians. The Norwegian trumpet player has made his mark over many years, not only as the horn player with the consistently challenging and long lived group Supersilent, but also as the purveyor of exquisite and distinctive solo work that stretches to four solo albums since 2001, three of which are released on Rune Grammofon. Deeply rooted in the sublime geology of his Norwegian homeland, Henriksen’s music has developed into something beautifully at one with natural habitats and reflecting the hybrid, cosmopolitan environments of the twenty-first century. On Places Of Worship, he inhabits the space between these two worlds, in a series of tone poems and mood pieces located around religious buildings and ruins. These still, silent quarters and abandoned houses of the holy can be where we experience our deepest moments of reflection, silence and occasionally fear. Making the aura of these places audible, Henriksen’s haunted horn and idiosyncratic treble vocals carry an air of treading on forbidden territory, stirring up the dust of forgotten spirits. As well as suggesting the creaking timbers and salty tang of North African ports (‘Alhambra’) and the whiff of Gallic scirocco (‘Le Cimitiere Marin’), it stirs fond memories of fellow musical souls, both alive and dead: the Miles Davis of Sketches Of Spain and Aura, the Fourth World exotica of Jon Hassell.

allaboutjazz.com - ocena: * * * * 1/2
In a career that, from an international perspective, began with Norwegian noise improv group Supersilent's debut, 1-3 (Rune Grammofon, 1997), trumpeter Arve Henriksen's ascendant trajectory has gone from strength to strength, milestone to milestone. It's been a long wait for Places of Worship, the follow-up to his leader debut for ECM Records, Cartography (2008), but it's not as if Henriksen hasn't been busy.

Still, six years is a long time. In its own gentle way, Cartography signaled a paradigm shift for Henriksen, following his first three recordings as a leader for Rune Grammofon, beginning with 2001's Sakuteiki and culminating on 2007's Strjon. Henriksen began collaborating with producers Jan Bang and Erik Honore-co-Artistic Directors of Punkt, the live remix festival now celebrating its ninth year in Kristiansand, with Henriksen a regular participant—in a reverse-engineered approach to writing, with compositions stemming from extant material: some real-time, some sampled, some improvised, some composed.

With Bang and Honoré back and Henriksen returning to Rune Grammofon, Places of Worship represents the next logical step for their appealing combination of cutting-edge futurism and timeless traditionalism. Elements of Norwegian folk music imbue these ten relatively short pieces as much as classical references, and an improvisational approach that uses Jon Hassell's Fourth World music as one of its many cornerstones. Organic sounds are both juxtaposed and combined with textures only possible through technology, while Henriksen's performance—on trumpet, where embouchure and extended techniques result in still recognizable timbral breadth, and in his equally inimitable falsetto singing—remains steeped in lyricism of almost painful beauty, his melancholic melodies feeling somehow familiar while being completely and utterly his own.

Despite the use of orchestral samples on "Adhan," which unfolds like a rose in the early morning light after Henriksen's a capella trumpet intro, layered over a field recording, and the synth bass-driven groove of "Saraswati," a gentle spirituality underscores the aptly titled Places of Worship. Usual suspects like Eivind Aarset show up in real (the brooding "Alhambra") and sampled (the ethereal "Abandoned Cathedral") form, but Place of Worship's biggest surprise may be "Shelter from the Storm," a love song written, played (with the exception of Henriksen's horn) and, most significantly, sung, with dark vulnerability, by Honoré.

Clearly, Honoré should sing more often. He may be nearing 50, but like Henriksen, Bang and the rest of Places of Worship's participants, surprise seems endemic to his work, but especially in recent years where, thanks to the success of Punkt, there seems to be yet another paradigm shift taking place on the Norwegian scene.

Places of Worship is the inevitable consequence of Punkt's expanding network and relentless experimentalism. If Henriksen's nascent vision was already well-formed on Sakuteiki, it's Punkt's laboratory-like nature that has ultimately led to where Henriksen is today. Henriksen's voice may dominate Cartography and, now, the equally superb Places of Worship, but a selfless desire to work with others to expound and expand now persistently defines and redefines that vision. More evolution than revolution, Places of Worship continues Henriksen, Bang and Honoré's sculpting of some of the most hauntingly beautiful, innately spiritual and extraordinarily captivating music coming from their distant, Northern European home.
By JOHN KELMA


popmatters.com - ocena: 8/10
The world’s new favorite trumpet player returns to Rune Grammofon with Places of Worship. Followed by experimental ambient, modern classical, and jazz communities alike, this Norwegian shaman of sound bridges the gaps of styles and forms with his unmistakably unique control of the instrument. Arve Henriksen doesn’t simply play the trumpet, the brass is merely an extension of his breath. This observation is confirmed by many Norwegian honors, including the Buddyprisen, Radka Toneff Memorial Award and Kongsberg Jazz Award. Among his numerous collaborations, most notably as a member of the Supersilent supergroup (which features Helge Sten, aka Deathprod, and Stale Storlokken), it is his solo works that I am mostly drawn to, three of which have already appeared on the Oslo based Rune Grammofon.

Perhaps nothing is more striking and enchanting than the opening of the album, titled “Adhan” (the Islamic call to worship, with the root of the word derived from the Arabic ‘adhina’, which means ‘to listen’). Set among a field recording of chirping birds and barely audible and very distant voices of the muezzin, we find Henriksen echo the motifs of the prayer with an instrument whose ambiance is lost among the wind. Suddenly the trumpet gets submerged in beautiful reverb, the strings come in along with orchestral arrangement, and we are fully enveloped by captivating textures. This is where we drown.

Deriving inspiration from various locations of worship, Henriksen composes ten tone poems set around religious buildings, holy places, and abandoned ruins. Although the music does not carry any particular religious connotation, it nevertheless touches on moments of reflection, introspection, and even the sudden fear of the unknown. This exalted sound exudes haunting beauty, spiritual sensitivity, and apparitions of those that have already left. “Making the aura of these places audible, Henriksen’s haunted horn and idiosyncratic treble vocals carry an air of treading on forbidden territory, stirring up the dust of forgotten spirits.”

Another dazzling element of the album is the reminder of Henriksen’s distinctive soprano voice, which could be easily mistaken for that of a woman’s. It is particularly arresting on “Lament”, where it soars above falsetto range, resembling a flute-like melody with breathy overtones. If words did not contribute to the concept, one would easily draw an immediate parallel of tonal fluctuations between the trumpet and his voice. The moody pieces at times enter a shadow territory of dark ambiance (just as I like it), evoking specters, phantoms and ghosts of temples, churches and mosques, indubitably carrying the history, magnetism and energy of human praise, solitude and angst among these sacred places of worship.

The recording features additional appearances and samples from Jan Bang, Eivind Aarset and the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, most notable of which is the charming singing by Erik Honoré, on the very last track, titled “Shelter from the Storm”. Places of Worship is highly recommended for fans of Miles Davis, Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Triosk and Fennesz. Be sure to also check out Henriksen’s past releases, Sakuteiki (2001), Chiaroscuro (2004), and Strjon (2007), all available directly from Rune Grammofon. For a quick tour of the label, be sure to track down the limited edition 4x10” box set of favorite various selections celebrating 150 releases by the label, titled Sailing to Byzantium.
by HC


The Guardian - ocena: * * * * *
Despite his many followers, nobody plays a trumpet quite like the plaintively expressive Norwegian Arve Henriksen, the man whose inspirations are flautists as much as they are ambient brass stars such as Nils Petter Molvaer. This new album contains 10 sublime reflections on religious sites and buildings. If it just represented diplomatic awe around holy places, it could have ended up as spiritually upmarket mood music, but Henriksen's real priorities are the untapped sonic possibilities of the trumpet, as well as ideology-free meditation. On the elegaic Adhan, he cultivates an evocative unsteadiness that makes him sound creatively buffeted by solitude, but he's harder and more incisive (as if peering from the prow of a craft on a foaming sea) on Saraswati, sad but passionate on Le Cimitiere Marin, close to the vocal purity of a chorister on Lament, and in league with the Miles Davis of Sketches of Spain on the softly pealing Bayon.
by John Fordham

muzycy:
Arve Henriksen: trumpets, field recordings (1), voice (5, 9), Jan Bang: samples (1-4, 6, 8, 9), programming (6, 9), live sampling (7), Erik Honoré: samples (1, 2, 4, 5), synth bass (1, 4, 6, 8), synthesizers (2, 3, 4), drum programming (2, 3), live sampling (7), vocal (10), instruments (10), Lars Danielsson: double bass (3), Stahlquartett (Jan Heinke: violin, Alexander Fülle: violin, Michael Antoni: viola, Peter Andreas: cello): string quartet (3), Eivind Aarset: guitars (7, 8), sampled guitar (9), Jon Balke: piano (7), sampled piano (9), Ingar Zach: percussion (7), Christian Wallumrod: sampled piano (3), The Norwegian Wind Ensemble: sampled wind instruments (8), Peter Tornquist: sampled excerpts from "Alba" (8), Rolf Wallin: sampled crystal chord (9)

utwory:
Adhan
Saraswati
Le Cimetiere Marin
The Sacristan
Lament
Portal
Alhambra
Bayon
Abandoned Cathedral
Shelter from the Storm
total time - 40:05
wydano: 06.09.13
more info: www.runegrammofon.com
more info2: www.arvehenriksen.com