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CD Reviews: ARVE HENRIKSEN : Chiaroscuro (Rune Grammofon. RCD2037)
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Posted by: Adminon Sunday, September 26, 2004 - 12:26 PM |
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By Paul Donnelly
Norwegian trumpeter/composer/singer Henriksen released one of the most memorable cds of 2001with his ‘Sakuteiki’, a beautiful exploration of the trumpet in a variety of locations, revealing tones and timbres more usually associated with the shakuhachi. Now a new project finds him in similarly meditative mood on recordings taken from concert situations around Norway. This time he is in the company of drummer Audun Kleive and sampler Jan Bang and the judicious use of electronics and percussion brings another dimension to Henriksen’s luminous trumpet and startlingly clear vocalising.
Henriksen occasionally reminds me of Jon Hassell, especially on ‘Bird’s Eye View ’, which features Kleive’s rattling percussion along with the trumpeter’s slightly slurred and breathy phrasing. But most often he sounds like no one else working with this instrument, as evidenced on ‘Circled Take’, a mostly unaccompanied solo with some embellishments from Bang. Here the trumpet, Henriksen’s breath and voice combine giving utterance to a mournful, elegiac sound redolent of the Japanese flute in part but more eerie and chilling. A fragment of disembodied choir rises spectrally in the background to add a further haunted resonance.
A couple of the most moving compositions, ‘Chiaro’ and ‘Blue Silk’ feature his voice in all its glorious purity, recorded in some unspecified but acoustically magnificent setting. The spare electronics complement his faultless delivery, notes falling with clarity, sometimes fragility, against the softly shifting trance of the sampled backdrop. On ‘Blue Silk’ his trumpet also briefly accompanies his vocal, creating a subtle crystalline duet.
Like some of the work recently released by his fellow improviser, Helge Sten (aka Deathprod), Henriksen assembles inviting landscapes that often brim with shimmering colours drawing the listener into hitherto unseen worlds. He is taking the art of trumpet and vocal improvising into new realms while retaining the jazz ethos of re-shaping what has gone before and breathing fresh life into it. This must be one of the most refreshing releases of the year.
Paul Donnelly
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