Black Ice

Wolfert Brederode Trio

EN / DE
Black Ice is a nice image for Dutch pianist Wolfert Brederode’s new trio music, with its gleaming lyricism, transparency, and hint of danger,  as well as sleek melodic invention both from the leader and from Icelandic bassist Gulli Gudmundsson.  Brederode and Gudmundsson have collaborated often over the last two decades in contexts from free improvisation to theatre music and have a keenly honed intuitive understanding.  Jasper van Hulten is a resourceful addition to the team, a tone-sensitive drummer adept at embellishing the sensitive musical language and sense of interplay.  The album, recorded at Lugano’s Studio RSI in July 2015 and produced by Manfred Eicher, is issued as the Brederode Trio goes on tour in the Netherlands…    
Black Ice ist ein schönes Sinnbild für die neue Trio-Musik von Wolfert Brederode – in Bezug auf ihre leicht schimmernde Lyrik, ihre Transparenz und den sie umgebenden Hauch von Gefahr, sowie hinsichtlich ihrer geschmeidigen melodischen Einfälle, die sowohl von Brederode selbst als auch von seinem isländischen Bassisten Gulli Gudmundsson ausgehen. Im Laufe der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte kam es häufiger zur Zusammenarbeit zwischen Brederode und Gudmundsson, die sich von Kontexten freier Improvisation bis hin zu Theatermusik erstreckte. Beide verbindet ein stark ausgeprägtes, intuitives Verständnis für einander. Zudem wird die Gruppe mit Jasper van Hulten um einen einfallsreichen, empathischen Schlagzeuger erweitert, der erfahren im Ausschmücken hochsensibel konzipierter Musik ist und über ein ausgeprägtes Gespür für das musikalische Zusammenspiel verfügt. Das Album wurde im Juli 2015 im Lugano Studio RSI aufgenommen und von Manfred Eicher produziert. Es erscheint zeitgleich mit einer anstehenden Niederlande-Tour des Wolfert Brederode Trios.
Featured Artists Recorded

July 2015, Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano

Original Release Date

01.04.2016

  • 1Elegia
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    05:16
  • 2Olive Tree
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    05:09
  • 3Bemani
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    04:05
  • 4Black Ice
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    03:34
  • 5Cocoon
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    05:41
  • 6Fall
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    05:01
  • 7Terminal
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    02:42
  • 8Conclusion
    (Gulli Gudmundsson)
    04:33
  • 9Curtains
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    04:24
  • 10Rewind
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    05:28
  • 11Bemani (var.)
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    01:22
  • 12Glass Room
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    04:25
  • 13Fall (var.)
    (Wolfert Brederode)
    01:43
Brederode, […] besinnt sich auf den schlanken, unaufgeregten Spielfluss, der viel melodische Gabe und durch subtilen Einsatz von DurMoll-Kontrasten auch solide klassische Prägung erkennen lässt. Also wirkt die Interaktion auf dieser schwarz-becoverten Platte doch alles andere als "eisig" - viel Wärme lebt vor allem, wenn Bass und Klavier um die Wette singen. Unaufdringlichkeit ist angesagt. Spektakulär sein darf man ruhig mal anderen überlassen. Dafür hat jeder Ton genug Luft zum Atmen, jede Harmonie genug Raum, um sanfte Farben zu kreieren.
Stefan Pieper, Jazzthetik
 
Wolfert Brederode und sein Trio existieren keine wertlosen Töne. Im Gegenteil: Die drei Musiker gewähren jedem Klang die nötige Zeit, um sich zu entfalten. Entsprechend ausgeglichen und besonnen wirken die acht Miniaturen auf dem neuen Album "Black lce".
Werner Stiefele, Audio
 
Die Musik des Trios konzentriert sich auf Raum, Klang und wohlgesetzte Noten, offenbart aber darüber hinaus einen ungeahnten harmonischen Reichtum und eine gewisse Rätselhaftigkeit. Faszinierend.
Martin Schuster, Concerto
 
Black Ice by Dutch pianist Wolfert Brederode's new crew: I trust that clears up any possible confusion. There's no singing either, just sleek and sinuous melodie invention from an empathetic classic piano trio.
Robert Shore, Jazzwise
 
Wichtig ist Wolfert Brederode, dass nicht alles, was ihm musikalisch in den Kopf kommt, auch zu hören ist – zumindest akustisch. „Es sollte immer genug Raum geben für den Zuhörer. Der muss in die Musik eintauchen und sich seine eigenen Gedanken machen können. Die Fantasie unseres Publikums anzuregen, ist eines unserer Ziele. Ich selbst mag es total gern, anderen beim Gestalten ihrer Musik zuzuhören: Mich reizt, wenn etwas unausgesprochen, nicht formuliert oder ausgespielt wird. Ich finde es total schön, wenn etwas einfach nur in der Luft liegt - damit kann ich weit mehr anfangen, als wenn jemand mich mit zu vielen Noten zu überwältigen versucht.“
Ssirus W. Pakzad, Jazzthing
 
Zu elegant und sanft sind die Melodien, zu widerstandslos das Zusammenspiel von luftigem
Piano, gefühlvoll-warmem Bass und sensiblen Drums. Was bleibt, ist der Eindruck klanggewordener Schönheit in einer Ästhetik der Reduktion und transparenter Sounds mit allgegenwärtigen winzigen Pausen als stilbildendem Merkmal.
Heribert Ickerott, JazzPodium
 
He wished to return to a classic piano trio format, and formed a group with long time bass collaborator Gulli Gudmundsson, and drummer Jesper van Hulten. The results are lyrical, and the interaction between the trio is nothing less than superb. Gudmundsson and Brederode played in a variety of situations over the years, and they fit hand in glove with van Hulten’s always appropriate, subtle, intuitive percussion work. […] All thirteen compositions are engaging and the terrific music is spellbinding on each spin.
CJ Shearn, Jazz Views
 
Atmospheric, like Parisian rain. The notes falling on your ears like they would on your face: soft, sliding, tinged with a blue legacy. ‘Black Ice’ is the hushed work of a chamber jazz trio. Moody, meditative. Allowing the silence to play as essential a role in the composition and performance as the notes themselves. […] ECM was founded, and has long been known, for giving us music where the listener’s moods are encouraged to interact with the music, making each listening a unique and vital one-on-one experience. ‘Black Ice’ does not disappoint.
Mike Jurkovic, Elmore Magazine
 
Another intelligently distilled yet poetically open  outing from a  pianist who can traverse a beguiling line  range of seemingly  understated yet potent mood and atmosphere. Sample the rhythmically charged space and implicit cross-rhythmic tension of ‘Olive Tree’, for me the outstanding track in  a maturely conceived and most satisfying album.
Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal
 
In many ways, pianist Wolfert Brederode’s trio album ‘Black Ice’ is a quintessential ECM album. All the elements are there, from the elegant packaging to the exquisite production by Manfred Eicher. There’s a reason that ECM and Eicher, respectively, have repeatedly topped the Record Label and Producer categories in the DownBeat Critics Poll (with each doing so again in 2016). This disc illustrates the power of the ECM aesthetic, which places a high value on atmosphere and the space between the notes while also eschewing any form of grandstanding […] When a pianist crafts a melodic line of shimmering beauty, as Brederode does on ‘Olive Tree,’ Eicher wisely lets the line ‘breathe’ in an unfettered setting.
Bobby Reed, Downbeat (Editor’s Pick)
After the quartet adventures of Currents and Post Scriptum, Wolfert Brederode returns to a piano trio setting, and Black Ice makes an apt metaphor for his new music, with its gleaming lyricism, transparency, and hint of danger. “I find the combination of danger and beauty intriguing”, he says. There is sleek melodic invention both from the leader and from Icelandic bassist Gulli Gudmundsson, and Jasper van Hulten proves to be a resourceful addition to the team, a tone-sensitive drummer adept at embellishing the sensitive musical language and sense of interplay.
 
Brederode and Gudmundsson have collaborated often over the years in contexts from free improvisation to theatre music and have a keenly honed intuitive understanding. They met in the 1990s when both were studying at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and, as Wolfert notes, “immediately had a strong musical connection.” Their creative compatibility first found expression in an earlier Brederode trio, which in turn evolved into a quintet co-led by Wolfert and drummer Eric Ineke. In 2006 Brederode joined Gudmundsson’s Binary Orchid trio, completed by trumpeter Arve Henriksen. And pianist and bassist have continued their association also inside the quartet of Dutch tenorist Yuri Honing.
 
In parallel, Brederode has developed his own music, documented on his critically-acclaimed ECM albums with his quartet with Claudio Puntin, Mats Eilertsen and Samuel Rohrer, and he has continued to make important contributions to the music of singer Susanne Abbuehl.
 
Wolfert Brederode: “Though I’ve been busy playing in many formations, the experience and joy of playing in a classic jazz piano trio had never left my mind. An opportunity to try the trio formation again occurred when I was asked to assemble a group for a benefit concert in 2011.” Gudmondsson was an obvious choice, and Wolfert had appreciated the way in which Gulli played with drummer Jasper van Hulten in the rhythm section of trumpeter Eric Vloeimans’s band Gatecrash. “I really enjoyed Jasper’s subtle but sharp playing, which is also influenced by rock and pop, and his dedication to the music, whatever the context.” Their first trio concert “felt so natural and fluid. We all felt something real and beautiful took place. Then the idea to start a trio again seriously took shape. I started to write new material with this particular setting in mind and we met up and played many times, to experiment and concentrate on the direction the music should or could be taking.”
 
A few words about some of the tunes: “Glass Room” was inspired by English author Simon Mawer’s novel The Glass Room (which in turn was, in part, inspired by the cool rationality of the architecture of Mies van der Rohe). “Elegia”, says Brederode, “is a lament but is also intended to give solace. Its melody rises gradually, only to return to the piano’s deeper region near the end.” On “Fall”, heard in two variations, bass and piano move around a fractured rock rhythm until finally absorbed by the mood emanating from the drums. “Terminal” explores the eerie ambience – familiar to all travelling musicians – of airports late at night, while “Curtains” references a periodic need to withdraw from the world, and “Rewind” plays with the idea of turning back time…
 
“Mood and atmosphere are leading in this trio, the stories we tell are not always finished or concluded. As a listener I like to be given the space to let the music continue in my mind…” The aim, he says, was “to approach the songs in an unprejudiced and open way” and the process of working on the tunes in rehearsal and in the studio was one of shedding layers, peeling the music back to its essential core.