Guitarist Ivar Grydeland and percussionist Ingar Zach, prime movers and catalysts for free improvised music in Norway, got in touch with Christian Wallumrød after hearing his “Sofienberg Variations” on ECM and they have since worked together in diverse combinations including, since 2004, ‘Dans les arbres’ a project completed by French clarinettist Xavier Charles. Their radical all-acoustic improvisation explores sonorities and textures that frequently sound electronic, and also often sounds ‘composed’ – with echoes of Cage and the New York School.
Dans les arbres
Xavier Charles, Ivar Grydeland, Christian Wallumrød, Ingar Zach
- 1La Somnolence
04:55 - 2L'Indifférence
08:28 - 3Le Flegme
06:17 - 4L'Engourdissement
05:27 - 5Le Détachement
06:15 - 6La Froideur
08:15 - 7L'Assoupissement
04:28 - 8La Retenue
05:21
A first listen revealed that this disc clearly belongs in the ‘unclassified’ category. With a second listen, it was obvious that it’s a most extraordinary and compelling achievement. … Two features mark it as contemporary Improv: all-acoustic exploration of sonorities and textures that often sound electronic, and the affinities of its soundworld with those of contemporary composition. …
There’s no end to the delights of this quite magical disc. The finest composition, like improvisation, ultimately relies on intuition, and these players seem to have an innate grasp of the right combination of sounds and textures. Dans les arbres must be one of the finest ECM Improv releases – indeed, releases from any label – in recent years.
Andy Hamilton, The Wire
Dort, wo andere längst aufgehört haben hinzuhören, findet diese Formation ihre Musik. Auf der Suche nach dem Essentiellen erforscht sie ihre Instrumente. John Cages präpariertes Klavier steht Pate. So entstehen feine Klangmobiles. … Gehauchte, gezupfte, angeschlagene Kleinigkeiten formen sich zu Gebilden von eigenständiger, auch eigentümlicher Komplexität.
Tilman Urbach, Fono Forum
Warten. Warten auf den nächsten Ton. Warten auf die kleinen Sensationen, die es zu hören gibt, wenn man einen Ton klingen lässt, das Anschwellen, die Schattierungen, die er durchläuft, bis er seine volle Kraft entfaltet, und das Verklingen. … Wo der konventionelle Jazz seine Energien aus der Expressivität der Solisten gewinnt, ist es hier die minimalistische Interaktion zwischen wachen und gleichberechtigten Individuen. Wenn Xavier Charles einen Ton seiner Klarinette als Orgelpunkt unter das Wechselspiel der Band legt, wenn der Gitarrist Ivar Grydeland die Klänge seines präparierten Banjos tanzen lässt, wenn Christian Wallumrød in den Innereien seines Flügels geisterhafte Harmonien findet oder Ingar Zach mit seinen Perkussionsinstrumenten wahre Klangfilme schafft, dann baut die Musik dieses Quartetts Brücken zwischen verschiedenen Kontinenten.
Stefan Hentz, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Dans les arbres geht es eindeutig um ein Abarbeiten an den Möglichkeiten von Sound und Zeit – und um die immanenten Intensitäten und Spannungen, die hieraus zu erarbeiten sind. … Die Art und Weise, wie hier subtile Klangräume konstruiert und dekonstruiert werden, wie hier „Klage“-Sounds zwischen Bienenkorb, Kuhstall, Fertigungshalle und Glockenturm morphen, garantiert – bei gehöriger Lautstärke gehört – eine geradezu körperliche Erfahrung, die sich entschieden vor alternative Tonträger schiebt.
Ulrich Kriest, Jazzthetik
“Dans les arbres” is both band name and album title of this first release from a Norwegian/French collective that has been pooling energies since 2004, while also drawing on longer-established associations. The release marks the ECM debut of guitarist Ivar Grydeland and clarinettist Xavier Charles. Percussionist Ingar Zach has contributed to projects with Jon Balke (Magnetic North’s “Diverted Travels” and “Statements” by the Batagraf group), while Christian Wallumrød, of course, has been an ECM recording artist for 12 years already, with four albums as a leader for the label, most recently “The Zoo Is Far”, which was issued in 2007.
If the benevolent inspiration of John Cage was felt already on Wallumrød’s “A Year from Easter” (2003) whose titled referenced Cage’s “A Year from Monday”, there are musical-temperamental affinities also on “Dans les Arbres”. Cage had his prepared piano... and Ivar Grydeland has his prepared banjo, whose patient metallic pulse is one of the anchoring sounds here. Rather like Cage or Morton Feldman and other indeterminate music-makers, these improvisers also seem determined to ‘let sounds be sounds’, setting the timbres and textures free, or exploring them in detail, at times with an almost scientific detachment. Theirs is a music of small revelations rather than larger gestures, with arresting sound combinations constantly emerging. Occasionally, with sruti box and clarinet establishing thick drones, it sounds more like Eastern ritual music than Western improvised music. In other moments this strictly acoustic music sounds remarkably electronic.
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