Volume 22 Issue 3 - November 2016

Ice and Longboats: Ancient Music of
Scandinavia
Ake & Jens Egevad; Ensemble Marie
Balticum
Delphian DCD34181
(delphianrecords.co.uk)
!!
What would the
music of the Vikings
have sounded like?
This CD offers a
partial response to
this question and
more, as it takes the
listener on a journey
through soundscapes
of two periods: music improvised on
Something in the Air
Multi-Disc Box Sets Offer Depth As Well As Quantity
When a CD box of improvised music appears it customarily
marks a critical occasion. So it is
with these recent four-disc sets. One
celebrates an anniversary tour by nine of
London’s most accomplished improvisers.
Another collects small group interactions in
Krakow by musicians gathered to perform as
an orchestra. A third is a souvenir of concerts
celebrating Swedish saxophonist Mats
Gustafsson’s 50th birthday. Finally enough
still not to know captures extended improvisations
by pianist John Tilbury and tabletop
guitarist Keith Rowe, who have worked with
one another on and off for 40 years.
Although the other sets can be likened to North American self-serve
buffets that on the same sideboard offer an assortment of dishes, the
Rowe-Tilbury box (SOFA 548 sofamusic.no) is like a superior fishand-chips
restaurant. The fare is phenomenal, but no substitutions
are entertained. At points each musician appears to be following an
intense chess game from another room – you know concentrated cerebral
strategy is taking place, but you’re unable to observe the participants.
A good portion of the four, hour-long Tilbury-Rowe faceoffs
also involve protracted silences. Perhaps the liveliest disc is Second
Part where interactions are more audible. Like the tantalizing hints
of understated perfume before a person enters a room, Tilbury’s
single note chiming unfolds into serialism-like suggestions and more
surprising near-impressionist echoes. Perhaps fancifully reflecting his
radical-left politics, Rowe sets himself up as the disrupter, twisting
dials and shuffling objects with percussive gestures. The upshot is
desiccated textures that still reflect back on the pianist’s paced narrative.
If anything the music is Feldmanesque – like Morton Feldman.
The performances take a great amount of time to not advance that
much. Still the final section of Second Part spawns a sequence where
what sounds like heavy-object moving transforms into conga-like
slaps and cymbal-resembling pings on the guitarist’s part met by
piano bottom board rapping from the keyboardist. Tilbury’s noodling
that dwindles to a single key stroke at the end relates back to
the piece’s low-pitched introduction. A similar bagpipe-like tremolo
shuddering on Rowe’s part is matched by mallet-on-strings pop from
the piano innards during the ending of Third Part. Those cognizant
with the ingredients of improvised music will revel in the set. But
most should approach it one disc at a time.
A British pianist whose style is Tilbury’s antithesis is Pat Thomas,
whose solo CD, Nasqsh, is one of the highpoints of Making Rooms
Viking era (800-1050 AD) instruments, as
well as notated songs and instrumental items
from the early centuries of Christianity in
Scandinavia.
The second volume in Delphian Records’
groundbreaking collaboration with the
European Music Archaeology Project, Ice and
Longboats showcases the work of the versatile
Ensemble Mare Balticum, as well as the
remarkable father/son team of Åke and Jens
Egevad. The Egevads are musicians and reconstructors
of ancient instruments. They built
the wooden lurs (trumpets), frame drums,
bone flutes, hornpipe, animal horn and
Viking lyres heard on this recording.
The selections mostly alternate between
instrumental and vocal songs, with occasional
KEN WAXMAN
dramatic shifts in mood and texture between
tracks. The delicate medieval bone recorder
is contrasted with the declamatory sounds
of the lurs, and the simplicity of the bells
provides a foil to the more elaborate medieval
vocal and ensemble sections.
Standouts include the lyre duet on In the
Village: evening, the Jew’s harp solo (played
by Ute Goedecke) on Gaudet mater ecclesia
and the sublime vocals on Nobilis humilis.
The overall sound is pristine, as the music was
recorded in the historic (ca. 1100s) Oppmanna
church in Sweden. A beautiful and illuminating
recording, Ice and Longboats is a voyage
worth taking.
Barry Livingston
(Weekertoft 1-4 weekertoft.com). With
Mopomoso Tour 2013 celebrating the 21st year
of this initiative in free-form music, the others
discs in the set are vocalist Kay Grant and
clarinetist Alex Ward’s Seven Cities; violinist
Allison Blunt, violist Benedict Taylor and
bassist David Leahy’s Knottings; and Chasing
the Peripanjarda with saxophonist Evan
Parker, bassist John Edwards plus Mopomoso
founder, guitarist John Russell. Playing nine selections Thomas ranges
chameleon-like over and inside the piano producing textures ranging
from buzzing string swirls to aggressive, staccato lines that involve the
piano’s wooden components as much as its strings and keys. On for
Martin Lings Thomas’ theme balances echoing glissandi, key clicks
and a faux waltz; whereas for al Battani is a near-boogie-woogie
with flashing chords reflecting back unto one another. The letter is as
romantic in execution as ibn Arabi could be musique concrète, with
Thomas cascading harp-like arpeggios from the strings. Named for
the seven cities in which it was recorded, the Grant-Ward recital finds
the vocalist and reedist operating like conjoined twins, with fascination
lying in how many timbres each replicates from the other. With
Ward’s tone frequently altissimo and atomized, and Grant eschewing
lyricism for quickened yelps and screeches, the effect is like peering
at two near-identical drawings from which you have to intuit the
subtle differences. Like a distorted funhouse mirror, Blunt/Taylor/
Leahy create loosened-up chamber music. They use so-called classical
tunings to rub and wiggle unexpected, contradictions from
their instruments. Thickened pizzicato with mandolin-like plucks
keeps a track like Sheet Bend exciting. A sense of hairline-triggered
dynamics allows Noose to loosen from nearly inaudible to detonate
into an exercise in col legno and sul ponticello trills. Slip Knot is
like an upstairs-downstairs soundtrack as Edwardian drawing room
formality is swept aside by shrill runs which jump and split like a
jitterbug dancer. The trio’s skill is confirmed in how it manages to
impart a romantic patina while distorting themes. The latter skill is
habitual for Parker/Edwards/Russell. Like a reversible garment that’s
both familiar and flashy, each of their tracks defines in-the-moment
improv. Gunpowder, for example, never detonates into smithereens
but stretches elastically without breaking. Parker’s focused snarls and
tongue extensions transmit the theme decorated with no-nonsense
strums and smacks from Russell, as Edwards holds the road like a
racing car driver. The triple connection is such that partway through
you notice that the tempo has sped up immeasurably from a canter
to a Olympic-level race yet neither the tune’s seemingly limitless
motion nor the trio’s interaction has perceptibly altered. The Auction
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