What are you listening to? (VOL VI)

Lars Danielsson - Tarantella. I love the trumpet of Mathias Eick.

owl city

quote:

Originally posted by Mward2205:
...were the only Chesky Records titles posted here which is amazing considering the very high quality of music and sound.

Chesky is a great label and I have yet to find a disc with poor sound quality, I shall do better and post some more going forward.

quote:

Originally posted by markah:
I love the trumpet of Mathias Eick.

I agree with you - he has a wonderful warm tone

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by markah:
I love the trumpet of Mathias Eick.

I agree with you - he has a wonderful warm tone

Nice pic, Adrian. One of yours?

Definitely one to check out live if/when I get the chance.

quote:

Originally posted by markah:

Nice pic, Adrian. One of yours?

Definitely one to check out live if/when I get the chance.

Thanks - yep taken by me in tiny theatre in Oxford. Audience of 100. Front row seat, so could take a few pics causing no annoyance to anyone It was a lovely night out with Mrs L.

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
Thanks - yep taken by me in tiny theatre in Oxford. Audience of 100. Front row seat

Nice!

Great pics Adrian!

Love the version of "Theme in Search of a Movie" on this one; far better than the regular version:

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

How is it, Adrian? I have mine on pre-order for the UK release next week.

quote:

Originally posted by markah:
How is it, Adrian? I have mine on pre-order for the UK release next week.

Very good - mostly mellow, ambient, electronics, trumpet - Arve Henriksen style. There is one upbeat track on it which to me spoils the atmosphere a little. Perfect sunny winter day music. I look forward to seeing him end of February

Review from All about Jazz

It's been four years since Norwegian trumpeter/Nu Jazz progenitor Nils Petter Molvær released a studio album (excepting Re-Vision (Sula, 2008), a collection of film music). When he performed at Punkt '07 in Kristiansand, Norway, it was one of his final performances with his longstanding group of guitarist Eivind Aarset, live sampler Jan Bang, turntablist DJ Strangefruit and drummer Rune Arnesen. Aarset and Bang return on Hamada, but it's a significant change for Molvær, representing a number of directional shifts and a sharp contrast to er (Sula, 2005).
Molvær's music is cinematic in scope; soundtracks to the imagination, his albums are best experienced as an integrated whole, although there are standout features throughout these ten original tracks. "Exhumation" opens with a lone trumpet; a plaintive and darkly lyrical call enhanced by just a touch of reverb. Segueing into "Sabkah"—where soft percussion and Aarset's tremolo'd guitar recall Ry Cooder's folkloric soundtrack to Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) in spirit, if not in specificity—the mood gradually becomes more atmospheric, leading into the ethereal "Icy Altitude." Gentle, with the unique, non-guitaristic soundscapes for which Aarset has become known, its paradox of ambient beauty and spare melancholy does nothing to prepare for the harsher realms of "Friction."

One of two tracks to feature a full group—drummer Audun Kleive creating a busy pulse far distanced from the techno/hip hop rhythms of earlier Molvær releases—"Friction" speaks with aggression and anger new to the trumpeter's canon. Heavily processed trumpet blends with sharply distorted, noise-laden guitar textures to create an anarchism that settles down, with great respite, into "Monocline," where Jan Bang's field recordings of children and other processed sounds from the street lead into a Gamelan-like passage, as Molvær's economical melodies provide a clear focus for the rich aural landscape around him.

"Soft Moon Shine" builds inevitably, with Aarset's bass lines and the overall textures recalling trumpeter Jon Hassell's dark, sensual space on Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street (ECM, 2009). Molvær's debt to Hassell has never been so clear; still, Molvær's distinctive tone—processed or not—and innate melodicism remain unmistakable.

"Cruel Attitude" best represents Hamada's paradigm shift. With Kleive's thundering pulse, bassist Audun Erlien's throbbing bass and Aarset's chaotic waves of sound working in concert with Molvær's equally hard-hitting and aggravated lines, it descends into a maelstrom of sound before settling into a near-anthemic coda with unexpected progressive rock overtones, reminiscent of King Crimson's "Coda: I Have a Dream," from The ConstruKction of Light (DGM Live, 2000). Another solo track leads to the more atmospheric "Anticline," reprising elements from "Monocline" to end the album on a more tranquil and optimistic note.

Hamada sounds unlike anything Molvær has done before, though it would be impossible for him to have achieved it without traveling the path he has since the groundbreaking Khmer (ECM, 1997). Stunning growth and unexpected directional shifts make Hamada one of Molvær's most moving and challenging records to date.

Nil Petter Molvaer - NP3

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by markah:
How is it, Adrian? I have mine on pre-order for the UK release next week.

Very good - mostly mellow, ambient, electronics, trumpet - Arve Henriksen style. There is one upbeat track on it which to me spoils the atmosphere a little. Perfect sunny winter day music. I look forward to seeing him end of February

Sounds interesting and obviously different to the two albums I already have ("Khmer" & "Solid Ether"). Seeing him on 25th February.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Adrian,
Did you see him in concert on the tv at the weekend?
Stu

Missed it. What channel was it?

My local record store made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
You mean they had it in stock and you could not leave it there.

Well, that's part of it, but they sold it to me as well at half the amazon going price. I love it when you can support your local store and it's a win win.

On vinyl:-




The Tom Petty Oxford 1980, was good, it's on BBC iPlayer if anyone is interested

Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage

Handel - Water Music
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Conductor: Nicholas McGegan