“Deeply calm, thoughtful and spiritual, yet also vibrantly alive with plenty of brief bluesy inflections and both hymnal and folkish overtones, it’s music which constantly conjures the sort of soulful space in which time is allowed to breathe.” That’s how I characterised Swiss saxophonist and bandleader Nicole Johänntgen’s initial Solo release when reviewing it in 2019.
The bluesy inflections of Solo are absent but otherwise, Solo II builds on the characteristics outlined above. Some might wish to call it “jazz from the Swiss mountains” or “European ambient jazz” but whatever the simplistic label might be, in essence here is spare yet richly resonant music of high poetic order, its sustained meditations unfolding from – and reaching into – somewhere special, deep in the psyche.
Employing alto, soprano and baritone (and, on The Unknown, voice) Johänntgen exploits the acoustics of Cappella di San Gottardo to unerringly unforced and organic effect. Every detail of her control of breath, line and dynamics, rhythmic inflection, tone and texture unfolds in a poetics as sensuously vivid as it is transformative and transcendent.
In general terms, Solo II builds upon the terrain which, years ago, Jan Garbarek did so much to open up: hear Gotthard Momentum. But there can be no doubt that here, Johänntgen has largely made that terrain her own, through the telling beauty of her distinctive sound and the poetic intelligence of her tender phrasing: through her anima.
Not only is Johänntgen a most courageous explorer of the saxophone’s potential; she is also a shaper of worlds as personal as they are transpersonal, as original as they are archetypal: remark the floating, hovering upper-register figures of the opening Les Nuages Filent or the patient rubato quest limned by baritone sax and voice on the relatively brief yet utterly compelling The Unknown. Totally recommended.
Discography
Les Nuages Filent; Finesse; Eulenblick; Frühlingserwachen; Längizyti; Echo Of The Mountains; Gotthard Momentum; Innehalten; Bergluft; The Unknown (52.10)
Johänntgen (as, ss, bar, v). Cappella di San Gottardo, Switzerland, 11 August 2021.
Selmabird Records LC83741
