Agnar Aspaas Quintet: November Songs (Losen Records LOS316-2)
Those outside of Norway may be unfamiliar with bassist Agnar Aspaas (b.1955), and if they’ve heard of him at all it might be in the context of his parallel career as a top forensic psychiatrist (Aspaas co-authored a crucial assessment of Anders Breivik which declared the mass killer sane while committing his murderous acts). Despite having been active in music for more than four decades November Song is his first album as a leader, its title more a nod to his relatively late blossoming as a headlining artist than to anything inherently wintry within the music.
Firmly rooted in the American jazz of the 50s, Aspaas’s multi-generational quintet plays with a relaxed, soulful swing redolent of the classic Blue Notes of Stanley Turrentine, Dexter Gordon and Hank Mobley. Joining him in the Oslo studio are long-term musical partner Magne Arnesen (p) and relative newcomers Erlend Vangen Kongtorp (ts), Magnus Aannestad Oseth (t) and Magnus Stefaniassen Eide (d). All of the compositions in the well-balanced programme are the leader’s, and with so much of the music having an autobiographical slant the album might well be described as a self-portrait in sound.
The Sideman references Aspaas’s many decades in the service of others, its stop-start structure suggestive of the unpredictable nature of the work. Yet Arnesen’s flashing solo and the ineluctable joy as Oseth and Kongtorp trade licks leave little doubt as to why Aspaas has chosen this path. Thai Song 1 & 2 were inspired by a TV documentary exposing horrifying child abuse and are suitably sombre, a dark diptych which is counterbalanced by several pieces dedicated to his grandchildren (the modal swing of Jo-Johnnie-June is particularly strong). If November Song turns out to be Aspaas’s swan song as a leader then it’s a fitting coda to a life well-lived, though I suspect there’s a lot more material in his locker just waiting to be dusted off.
Rasmus Kjær: Underlake (Hobby Horse Records HH28)
Danish keyboard player and composer Rasmus Kjær Larsen (b.1982) is another artist whose international profile might be higher, not helped I suspect by his occasional elusiveness as an artist. After early success with trip-hop collective Under Byen (2007-9) Kjær recorded the wonderfully expansive Broken Bow in 2012 with Jonas Westergaard and Kresten Osgood, followed in 2016 by Orgelimprovisationer, an album of solo church organ. Switching gears once again in 2019 he debuted his synth-pop project Turist, while this stunning collection of high-wire chamber improv was hatched in 2023 during a productive year living near to Lake Geneva.
Focusing solely on piano, Kjær is joined by saxophonist Nicolas Masson, one of the best of ECM’s recent signings, and drummer and producer Noê Franklé. The music is described as an exploration of the impact of water on human life, and the proximity of Lake Geneva had a significant hand in shaping its darkly atmospheric and utterly immersive qualities. All but two tracks – the freely improvised Adrift and the ballad Ondine In Silhouette – were composed using a seven-tone mode, and while it initially sounds a little austere it doesn’t take long for the music to exert a vice-like grip.
Almost Weightless is largely constructed of long notes and telling silences, Kjær’s thoughtful interjections suggesting the influence of Morton Feldman. Slow Swell has a cascading Motianesque theme, Masson’s combustible tenor restrained by a more benign latency. The stark melodic lines of Adrift recall Jan Garbarek’s haunting late 70s ballads, Masson straining the upper register as Kjær channels the atonalism of Paul Bley. Flood Signal introduces a sense of impending danger, Masson again in sublime form as he weaves around Kjær’s pirouetting motif. The saxophonist turns to clarinet on Unidentified Submerged Object, where the outstanding Franklé plays with remarkable economy, and although the hymnal Ondine is by some stretch the most structured piece of the set, it nevertheless retains a wonderfully free-flowing feel. Predicting Kjær’s next moves might be a thankless task, but with Underlake his trio has undoubtedly created some of the most thoughtful improvised music of the year.
Jørgen Træen & Stein Urheim: Galant Galakse (Action Jazz ACJZ010)
Hot on the heels of A Ripple Song, a collection of bucolic soundscapes with quartet Avian Art, guitarist Stein Urheim renews his partnership with powerhouse producer Jørgen Træen to venture into rather different musical terrain. The pair first collaborated as a duo on 2021’s mind-bending Krympende Klode (Hubro), a riotous collision of analogue electronics, samples and traditional instruments. Genre boundaries melted away in a joyous celebration of sound and it was recognised in Norway with the award of a prestigious Edvard (Greig) Prize.
While Krympende Klode comprised shorter tracks, Galant Galakse contains just two sonic bricolages which each unfold over significantly longer durations. Pønskepause opens with a swarm of abstract electronics, the soft familiar plink of steel guitar strings transformed into something altogether otherworldly. Changes of pace and direction come and go with such regularity that the piece is almost impossible to describe, but it’s real edge-of-the-seat stuff. At around 7.30 the pair slip from futuristic sci-fi into a nostalgic folk waltz which, after several minutes adrift in the cosmos, mutates into a crude Kosmische synth vamp. The closing section juxtaposes Urheim’s bluesy licks with a recycled Jaga Jazzist loop, a reminder of Træen’s credentials as one of Europe’s most sought after producers.
Urpust sees the duo swelling to a trio with guest Henry Kaiser (elg), though the approach remains every bit as whimsical and eclectic. A heavy illbient beat emerges at 4:30, one of very few conventionally rhythmical passages. Lest we settle into any kind of groove the beats soon give way to some grandiose post-fusion riffing and shredding, while the final six minutes are a blissful return to the worlds of Raymond Scott and Delia Derbyshire that dominated the duo’s debut. With each twist of the kaleidoscope Træen and Urheim create unimaginably beautiful and chaotic patterns, and despite the ridiculously high bar Galant Galakse is every bit the equal of its predecessor.
