John Derek Bishop & Khaled Habeeb: Ekkofremtid
If there’s a connecting theme to this month’s reviews then it’s surely the many different ways that memory interacts with the present and shapes the future. For Norwegian-American sound artist John Derek Bishop the idea is explicit in the album’s title, which translates as “echo future”. At its heart is the notion that the past continues to resonate inside the future, memory actively shaping his living compositions as they unfold. A master of the art of live sampling, Bishop (aka Tortusa) is a regular at Jan Bang and Erik Honoré’s annual Punkt Festival, his abilities to create sonically rich soundscapes from a wide variety of materials placing him at the forefront of new Nordic ambient jazz.
This project with Syrian oud player Khaled Habeeb immediately sounds different to previous collaborations with Nils Petter Molvær, Eivind Aarset and Inge Weatherhead Breistein, the high contrast between the protagonist’s respective sound worlds allowing the ear to readily distinguish between source, recycled and recomposed sounds. For the most part, Habeeb’s ancient lute-like instrument speaks in its natural voice, but it’s fascinating to hear it fed back into the evolving soundscapes as Bishop lifts small rhythmic cells and reharmonises entire passages. Evocative field recordings are woven into the music’s background layers with a real cinematic flourish, and the abiding impression is one of the fascinating duality between traditional Arabic sounds and contemporary electronica.
The stark contrast between Habeeb’s precise phrasing and Bishop’s barren, windswept landscapes is immediately clear on the title track. The more abstract Uncomfortable Current oscillates between folk-inflected melody and ambient drift, introducing an even greater sense of temporal and geographical displacement. Nordic tropes again brush against Eastern timbres during the 13 minutes of Nordlys Fra Østen, yet as the two musicians combine to create and sustain a coherent mood it’s clear that despite continental divides they’re speaking with one voice. An instantly likeable set that is also reassuringly slow to reveal its full charms, Ekkofremtid cements Bishop’s reputation as a trail-blazing improvising sound artist.
Discography
Ekkofremtid (Echo Future); Umettelig Fryd (Insatiable Joy); Ubehagelig Strømning (Uncomfortable Current); Før Første Farvel (Before The First Goodbye); Nordlys Fra Østen (Northern Lights From The East); Ulvetimens Sang (Song Of The Wolf Hour) (43.47)
Bishop (elec); Habeeb (oud). No dates.
Nortusa NOFXZ2601
Samuel Blaser: Rosina
If Bishop stands at the junction past, present and future, this stunning collection from Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser seeks inspiration from a past that he never knew. Although born in the French-speaking region of Romandie, Blaser recently discovered an Italian branch of his family tree, many of the occupants of which had ridden a wave of emigration to New York following financial ruin in the aftermath of World War I. It was one of these new-found Italian-American cousins who entrusted Blaser with a black and white photograph of Rosina, a grandmother he’d never met, taken in Emilia-Romagna in 1925. This set in train a deep desire to connect with his Italian roots.
The music here remains true to Blaser’s values as a fearless improviser yet is unabashedly warm and nostalgic. Fittingly it was recorded close to his New York cousins by Blaser’s longstanding US quartet, arguably a separate branch of his family in its own right. They’d convened the previous day in Paul Wickliffe’s New Jersey studio to record an album of Lossing’s compositions. With a second day booked, Blaser sensed an opportunity to work on some Italian-themed pieces, and a programme quickly took shape.
Two of the eight pieces were drawn from Alan Lomax’s 1954-55 Italian field recordings and originated in Emilia-Romagna – the opening Boara has an endearingly simple folk blues theme, Blaser and Lossing sharing a sublime call-and-response sequence, while Rosina is a loving aural counterpart to the sepia portrait which first inspired the project. The explosive Elgnij, a variant of Jingle by Blaser’s Triple Dip trio, and Adagio and Scherzo, form a mini suite, the quartet varying the pace, intensity and attack of their improvisations. Mysteriously nods obliquely to Monk’s Misterioso, while Lossing’s dark undertow on the four-square Amaaka, a favourite song of Blaser’s two sons, recalls Mal Waldron. On the final Serenata, based on a 1957 song by tenor Renato Carosone, the heavily muted Blaser makes his trombone sing as only he can, voices of old Italy echoing into the present.
Discography
Boara; Amaaka; Rosina; Elgnij; Adagio; Scherzo; Mysteriously; Serenata (57.20)
Blaser (tb) with Russ Lossing (p); Masa Kamaguchi (b); Billy Mintz (d). New Jersey, 27-28 March 2024.
Blaser Music BM019
Rymden: Today May Be Tomorrow
Each new release from Scandinavian super-trio Rymden has, until now, shown an obvious line of progression. Their remarkable debut Reflections And Odysseys (2019) established the template, combining instrumental virtuosity with turbo-charged rhythms and atmospheric compositions. Space Sailors (2020) went further still, adding heavier rock-oriented rhythms and making greater use of electronics, while 2023’s Rymden + Kork and Valleys And Mountains introduced new voices to the equation, the trio collaborating respectively with a symphony orchestra and guest soloist John Scofield.
While Today May Be Tomorrow may not bring any great quantum leaps, it has many fine qualities and may well be the trio’s first fully mature album. Consolidating strengths and honing their approach, the programme ventures into conceptual terrain similar to Bishop’s. Underlying the title is a rather sobering thought, the trio inviting us to consider whether, in an increasingly unstable and unpredictable world, we can assume that there’ll always be a tomorrow. Posing some pretty big questions about the nature of time, the suitably elastic music toys with our perceptions in some subtle and occasionally disorienting ways, leaving behind an uneasy sense of satisfaction.
Perhaps the most obvious collision of past and present is found in the group’s reworking of Berglund’s Valiant Revisited, a piece he recorded with Wesseltoft and Henrik Schwarz on the 2014 album Trialogue (Jazzland). Less pensive and significantly more polished, in Rymden’s hands it becomes an e.s.t.-style ballad and feels somehow definitive. Öström’s 10-minute title-track is renewed and reimagined even as it is played, traces of the opening theme resurfacing in the many contrasting sections which follow. Wesseltoft’s Nightfall is a rhythmic tour-de-force, dubby echoes increasing its sense of rhythmic pliancy, while the driving post-rock of Berglund’s Undercover Lover stands out in terms of both its laser-like precision and relative extroversion. Wesseltoft’s Here Now and Em impart a more classic sense of permanence, elegiac pieces built on solid foundations, while the fuzzy outlines of Õström’s wonderful finale restore the album’s prevailing air of temporal ambiguity.
Discography
Today May Be Tomorrow; Nightfall; Valiant Revisited; Five Steps From A Dream; Undercover Lover; Here Now; Em; The Goodbye Song (41.01)
Bugge Wesseltoft (p, kyb); Dan Berglund (b); Magnus Öström (d). Copenhagen, 18-21 January 2026.
Jazzland 3779830
