With Convergence, his second solo album, Swedish-born bassist Björn Meyer further develops music on the blueprint established with his recording Provenance (2017), making use of the technical potential of the bass guitar to establish striking sonorities and grained textures while also being acutely aware of the acoustic space in which his sounds emerge. In its review of Björn’s previous solo statement, London Jazz News found the bassist demonstrating “that melodic high-jinks and emotional intensity aren’t just for those who inhabit the treble stave. Meyer’s bass sings.” Here the bass player’s atmospheric explorations conjure images in the mind. His technical innovations appear expanded in a programme of songful quality. In brief it feels complete in itself, more than a document of instrumental prowess.
Meyer’s musical material is realized in real time, played ‘live’ in the studio, with effects and delays and reverbs – colours of the modern bassist’s palette – integrated in the moment. The pieces heard on Convergence came together gradually: “In the first few tours after the release of Provenance I played mostly material from that album. However, new inspirations, ideas and ‘accidents’ started finding their ways into the performances. In a quite slow but steady way these new directions stayed with me, developed over time, and grew up to become a fully new repertoire. Experiences gathered in the last few years of more intense solo playing have converged into this album. The many solo performances have also allowed me to go deeper in my research of the six-string electric bass. New playing techniques, sounds and ways of improvising and composing for and with this instrument have found direct ways into my musical practice, and not only in a solo context.”
This journey to the heart of the bass guitar has sometimes involved oblique approaches and ‘preparations’ akin to Cagean experimental tradition. On the improvisation called “Rewired”, for instance, Meyer uses magnets and metal bars to change the vibration of the strings, going further on “Magnétique” whose muted and metallic sound is achieved “thanks to a special construction of magnets, a spring, and some drops of superglue.” The tapping style deployed on “Magnétique”, moreover, makes it seem almost like a percussion piece, suggestive of the cross-rhythms of mbira music. Meyer is continually exploring the possibilities of his instrument, whether emphasising that this is a bass guitar – see the elegant polymetric plucking of “Gravity” – or setting free broad swaths of ambient sound as on “Drift”. Each piece becomes an episode in an unfolding narrative.
“At some point in the mixing and sequencing process Manfred Eicher made a boldly wonderful suggestion to rearrange the tracks, and made ‘Convergence’ the opening track. That decision set in motion a very strong dramaturgical flow that ends beautifully with ‘Nesodden’,” Meyer notes. “It became a story that could best be told in this way, one that I find sparks imagination and is full of surprises while still allowing for contemplation.”
Convergence is launched with a release concert on January 24 in the context of the Sparks and Vision Festival in Regensburg, Germany.
*
Born in 1965 in Stockholm, Björn Meyer began his musical life playing piano and trombone, transitioning to the electric bass at 18. Active on the international music scene since 1989, and based in Switzerland since 1996, he has collaborated with artists and ensembles across multiple genres, and received awards including the Canton Bern Music Prize and the Swiss Music Prize.
He has worked extensively with Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem and appears on Brahem’s albums The Astounding Eyes of Rita and Souvenance. Other ECM appearances include recordings with Nik Bärtsch; Meyer’s bass was effectively a lead voice in Bärtsch’s Ronin group for a decade, as documented on albums including Stoa, Holon, and Llyria.
Björn Meyer continues to lead the intercultural ensemble Garden of Silence, a project begun with the late harpist Asita Hamidi in 2009. For 30 years he has also been a member of Swedish contemporary folk trio Bazar Blå. Further biographical and other details at https://www.bjornmeyer.com/
Convergence was recorded at Bavaria Musikstudios, Munich, in September 2024, and produced by Manfred Eicher.
