Dagobert Böhm: Within A Dream

German guitarist inhabits a space between Windham Hill and ECM but with shades too of Joe Sample and Charlie Hunter

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Even if you haven’t previously heard of Mannheim-born guitarist Dagobert Böhm (b.1959), there’s a good chance some of his music will be in your collection. As founder and producer at Ozella Music, Böhm provides a platform to a family of artists that includes Helge Lien, Karl Seglem and Kari Ikonen. Within A Dream is only his third Ozella release as a performer since 1999, indicative perhaps of the heavy demands of running a successful record label, and more pertinently his long-running battles against serious illness.

All but three of the tracks on this collection are studio duos with long-time collaborator Carsten Mentzel (aka Stardelay), who along with his beloved Rhodes plays an impressive array of instruments. It starts out in a pastoral vein, the plein-air impressionism of The Sea having acoustic guitar, piano and grainy synth textures intersecting with balletic grace. Glyk, the first of three tracks featuring saxophonist Seglem, was apparently inspired by a night of wining and dining in Berlin, and it inhabits a decidedly more urban sound world redolent of Manu Katché’s recent bands.

The suitably dreamy title-track turns on the gentle ebb and flow of Böhm’s warm guitar and Mentzel’s brooding keyboards. It’s a strong piece, and certainly worthy of Böhm’s nicely weighted solo reprise on Dream Within A Dream. In A Meditative Mood also appears in solo and duo guises, the latter shrouded in the ghostly halo of Mentzel’s theremin-like effects. The unashamedly upbeat Lucky Me (Feeling Good) simply oozes optimism. Inspired by Randy Crawford and Joe Sample, it surely owes something to Böhm’s newfound perspectives on mortality. Yet for me the standout track is the considerably darker Lone Station, a piece from Böhm’s 1987 album Acoustic Moods. Mining a rich seam of Americana, it features the sublimely atmospheric Dobro and pedal steel of Hem and Guðjónsson. The set close with a sequence of tightly drawn miniatures: Far Away and Stars are by turns reflective and sentimental, while the all too brief Twinkle Twinkle riffs on a tough groove Charlie Hunter would be proud of.

Beautifully recorded with state-of-the-art 24-bit technology, Within A Dream A is a lovingly crafted sonic mood board pitched somewhere between the ever-alluring sound worlds of Windham Hill and ECM.

Discography
The Sea; Glyk; Within A Dream; In A Meditative Mood (Guitar); Lucky Me (Feeling Good); Dream Within A Dream; Lone Station; In A Meditative Mood; Far Away; Stars; Twinkle Twinkle (44.00)
Böhm (g, elg); Carsten Mentzel (p, elp, elb, elg, kyb); Karl Seglem (ts) on 2,5 & 7; Knut Hem (Dobro) on 7; Ómar Guðjónsson (pedal steel, d) on 7. Hamborn, Germany. No dates.
Ozella Music OZ090CD