Something about this album must have got into my blood; over the past fortnight, I’ve played it day and night, and I expect to do so for many a week to come. Off and on, the trio of Rypdal, Kjellemyr and Kleive have been together for a decade: they’ve rarely sounded tighter or better as they interpret a variety of finely honed Rypdal compositions as rewarding in overall form as they are arresting in improvised detail.
The addition of a string trio for five tracks works well: in fact, ‘addition’ is probably the wrong word, so organically do the two trios interact. Violinist Terje Tønnesen was featured on Rypdal’s excellent 1986 Undisonus for Violin and Orchestra (released 1990 on ECM 1389); like all his colleagues here, he places passages of tonal warmth and rich legato texture in stimulating contrast with moments of both staccato astringency and dancing counterpoint.
For a sample of the compositional and dynamic range on offer here, compare the lovely, loping jazz-rock of Per Ulv with the brooding intensity of the tone poem which is the title track, the tough ‘free-rock’ of Roadrunner with the ghostly ambience of Lonesome, or the bouncy humour of Dancing with the soaring meditativeness of Angel. Such a range is matched by the variety of Rypdal’s sound: witness the delicious nuances in the weight and length of tone he employs on Per Ulv, or the distance between the snarling, industrialised overtones of Air and the quintessential Nordic ‘cry’ of the intensely lyrical coda to Eye. A superb album.
Discography
The Return Of Per Ulv; It’s In the Air; (*) But On The Other Hand; (*) If Mountains Could Sing; (*) Private Eye; Foran Peisen; (*) Dancing Without Reindeers; One For The Roadrunner; (*) Blue Angel; Genie; Lonesome Guitar (48.00)
Terje Rypdal (elg); Bjørn Kjellemyr (b, elb); Audun Kleive (d); (*) plus Terje Tønnesen (vn); Lars Anders Tomter (vla); Øystein Birkeland (clo); Christian Eggen (conductor). Oslo, January and June 1994.
(ECM 1554)
