The annual Punkt festival, held in the southern Norwegian city of Kristiansand since 2005, occupies a unique space at the cutting edge of contemporary music. Spontaneous composition, real-time improvisation, live sampling and electronic sound art seamlessly intersect, and its influence now extends across the increasingly genre-fluid fields of contemporary Scandinavian jazz.
The Bow Maker is the first release from festival co-founders Jan Bang and Erik Honoré on a new label imprint, and they have ambitious plans to issue new and archive material. It’s co-credited to Japan-born and UK-domiciled composer Dai Fujikura, who plays synthesizer and provides the orchestral samples on Implanted Memories. Bang samples a stellar cast of invited collaborators who each bring their distinctive personalities to bear.
Opening with echoes of Japan, Night Pole Rivers falls into two distinct halves. Henriksen’s breathy trumpet mimics a bamboo flute, cast adrift in a sparse landscape of gongs, shamisen and taiko. The second segment opens into icier ambient vistas, Aarset’s percussive stabs and soft glissandi punctuated by ghostly piano motifs.
Raitinen’s woody cello is prominent on the stunning title track, and as Bang weaves it into his musical fabric, it’s the very essence of Punkt. Elsewhere there’s an intriguing opportunity to compare and contrast Henriksen and Molvaer. The latter’s clean Milesian tones on Seven Inches Of Rain recasts the classic Gil Evans collaborations in a stark contemporary light.
Henriksen’s Hassell-esque approach clearly shares a common lineage, but his wistful solo on Country Life carries a greater sense of fragility. He’s more assertive on Satellite Sister, the closest we come to a conventional song form, where a string of unexpected musical elisions maintains the overall air of suspense.
Intricately layered and full of delicate internal movements, The Bow Maker launches this welcome new imprint in five-star style.
Discography
Night Poles River; The Bow Maker; Nearly Invisible; Seven Inches Of Rain; Country Life; Implanted Memories; Flashing Images Of Temple Spirits; Satellite Sister (36.00)
Jan Bang (elec); Dai Fujikura (ky) with Arve Henriksen (t, v) on 1, 3, 5, 8; Nils Petter Molvær (t, elec) on 4, 7; Eivind Aarset (elg, elec) on 1, 3, 4, 5, 8; Kati Raitinen (clo) on 2; Tamami Tono (sho) on 3; Matthew Barley (clo) on 6; Rune Arnesen (d) on 6. Punkt Studio, Kristiansand, no dates.
Punkt Editions / Jazzland Recordings 37794520
