One of this year's absolute best albums has to be Arve Henirksen's Strjon, released on the peerless Rune Grammofon label. Arve Henriksen is a Norwegian jazz trumpeter whose tone is absolutely unique - breathy sighs give way to the occasional burst of brilliant purity, tortured moans lie alongside pretty delicacy. I can't recommend enough the experience of listening to this outside at night on headphones, and all the way through. It is an album absolutely in tune with the natural world, the creaking seismic fact of the physical earth alongside the foggy unknowns of spirit and fate. Played amongst the elements it really blooms.
"Black Mountain" opens the album after a short introduction and is atypical of Henriksen, but is certainly one of the highlights. Electrical bursts and tones invade the space with terrifying unpredictability, while underneath it all rides a mother of a bassline, like a minimal techno record found staggering weakly around after days alone in the tundra. In a perfect world Carl Craig would slap a pitch-black 4/4 beat behind this for the ultimate in introspective dance music...
"Green Water" is more familiar territory, a meandering trumpet line soaring over traditional piano and synth washes laid deep in the mix, plus gamelan stabs that coalesce to form a clanging groove, before dissipating into the mist again.
"Wind And Bow" is a stunning close-up of Henriksen's trumpet, the most intimate track on the album. Headphones an absolute must for this one to pick up every smeared note and tremor.
These are just to give a flavour of the different types of sounds on this record, and like I said, it really bears listening to in one sitting; its progression from oppressive dislocation through tentative curiousity and quiet understanding to ultimate sublimation into the elements is moving and wholly satisfying.
Arve Henriksen - Black Mountain
Arve Henriksen - Green Water
Arve Henriksen - Wind And Bow
And yes, he's playing an "ice horn" in that photo. Brilliant.
No comments:
Post a Comment