Follow-up to the critically-lauded “The Zoo Is Far”, of which the Irish Times wrote, “Explicitly moving away from jazz with this sextet despite the presence of musicians with jazz backgrounds, including himself, Wallumrød has reduced these elements to the peripheral, seeking, above all, a through-composed ensemble music that reflects his contacts with contemporary classical, baroque, Norwegian folk and church music. It’s exquisitely performed; the permutating blend of trumpet-violin/Hardanger fiddle/viola-cello-baroque harp and piano or harmonium, with rhythm, is uniquely beautiful.”
Fabula Suite Lugano
Christian Wallumrød Ensemble
- 1Solemn Mosquitoes
05:10 - 2Pling
07:46 - 3Drum
01:53 - 4Jumpa
03:49 - 5Dancing Deputies
03:04 - 6Quote Funebre
03:55 - 7Scarlatti Sonata
01:53 - 8Snake
03:40 - 9Knit
02:45 - 10Duo
01:50 - 11I Had A Mother Who Could Swim
02:58 - 12Blop
04:07 - 13The Gloom And The Best Man
06:12 - 14Jumpa # 2
02:33 - 15Valse Dolcissima
05:52 - 16Glissando
02:40 - 17Mosquito Curtain Call
02:06 - 18Solo
02:44
Christian Wallumrøds music can sometimes cool down to such minute, low volume transformations that it barely seems to be mobile at all. But this second album by the Norwegian pianist’s sextet not only features those signature expanses of soft percussion, Hardanger-fiddle sighs and baroque harp sounds, but also plenty of eager activity – beginning with the flurry of spooky fiddle and piano trills that kicks things off. … The immense sonic resources of these six players seem to keep on growing.
John Fordham, The Guardian
Zwischen Schalk und Poesie, zwischen Vorstoß und Rückbesinnung oszilliert die neue CD Fabula Suite Lugano des norwegischen Pianisten Christian Wallumrød. … Die Nonchalance, mit der das Ensemble seine Musikobjekte zu einer dramaturgisch gestalteten Suite so individuell und unkonventionell zusammenfügt, verblüfft. Denn durch das Überlappen der Grenzbereiche von Jazz, alter und zeitgenössischer Musik, entstehen überraschend neue Spielräume und Nischen, die sich den gängigen Einordnungskriterien schlichtweg entziehen.
Julia Schölzel, CD-Tipps / BR Klassik online
Christian Wallumrød has that rare gift of having an instantly recognisable sound. The pianist’s music is characterised by unique blend of early music, romanticism, and traditional Scandinavian folk music idioms played with the looseness of jazz and academic curiosity reminiscent of two of his major influences, John Cage and Morton Feldman. Wallumrød has managed to harmonise these contradictory elements to create a wondrously obscure new music.
David McLean, All about jazz
Auf einen gemeinsamen Nenner lässt sich die Musik des Christian Wallumrød Ensembles nicht bringen. Gerade dies macht die Aufnahme aus Lugano zu einer der originellsten Neuerscheinungen der letzten Zeit.
Thomas Rothschild, Titel-Magazin
Christian Wallumrød ist nicht eigentlich Pianist, sondern eher Ensembleleiter und Komponist, ein Anreger und Fortdenker. Und mit Jazz hat dies nicht immer etwas zu tun, eher mit zeitgenössischer Kammermusik. … Das Ganze präsentiert sich als Klangreise ins… Geheimnisvolle. Für wache Ohren geeignet!
Tilman Urbach, Fono Forum
Allein die Besetzung ist unverwechselbar: Piano/Harmonium, Trompete, Violine/Bratsche, Cello, Barockharfe und Schlagzeug. Nichts hat Eile, vielmehr ist es, als würde eine große weiße Leinwand bedächtig Strich für Strich gefüllt mit Farben und Nuancen, die sich erst im Fortgang der Ereignisse zu einem wie von innen leuchtenden Bild ergänzen. Wallumrød erweitert seine zeitgenössische Herangehensweise um Elemente schwedischer Folklore, die er in choralartigen Hymnen von berückender Schönheit hinbreitet, integriert Barockmusik, Fernost und Scarlatti. Ungewöhnlich, schön.
Ulrich Steinmetzger, Saarbrücker Zeitung
Sounding like a jazz ensemble improvising on Messiaen’s Quartet For The End Of Time, it’s no place for a newcomer, but those fascinated by where jazz and modern classical are taking music should take a journey into this deep, dark forest.
Andrew Male, Mojo
The Norwegian pianist and composer Christian Wallumrød has long explored unexpected and self-devised intersections of improvisation, Scandinavian folk and classical music, and with this latest salvo his creations have never sounded more bewitching and elusive. Between the wonderfully peculiar instrumentation of this sextet – which reflects those three discreet musical worlds… and malleable arrangements that brilliantly use deeply varied timbral combinations, the luminescent sound of the group is practically enough to dazzle the ears for hours.
Peter Margasak, DownBeat
From Swedish folk to Morton Feldman: An interview with Christian Wallumrød
In which way has “Fabula Suite” benefited from your experience with the sextet after ”The Zoo is Far” was released two and a half years ago?
That’s hard to pinpoint, but in fact we’ve been playing and rehearsing on a regular basis and I’ve constantly thought about the material for the new programme. Quite obviously, I’ve taken advantage of my knowledge of the individual players and of the possibilities this group offers with regard to sound, blend and expressiveness. Moreover it was most fascinating to observe how fantastically trumpet player Eivind Lønning (who replaced Arve Henriksen) has integrated himself into the ensemble.
Your compositions seem to allude to most diverse styles: baroque music, traditions from the North and from Asia, contemporary composition of course and many more. Nevertheless all these sounds are amalgamated in your uniquely individual tone. How do you actually compose your music?
I listen to many different things and get very attracted to music from quite heterogeneous backgrounds. Sometimes I even try to imitate a certain effect but of course I know I have to keep my distance, so things tend to take a very different direction. Very often, I start by considering ranges, timbres and playing techniques in a rather cloudy manner and then combine them with small musical cells. They might contain a certain sonority, a constellation of harmony, or a rhythmic pattern. “Quote funèbre” for instance is based on two or three isolated chords from the music of Olivier Messiaen and Morton Feldman. I developped them into small harmonic events which were then commented on by Gjermund Larsen’s improvised lines. “Jumpa” goes back to an improvised cell, however, it has reminded some of its earliest listeners of the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully. My association goes more in the direction of Swedish folk music. The Scarlatti is a rather literal transcription of the first part of the famous b-minor sonata K 87. In any of these cases, my prime concern is to characterize any musical event as clearly and sharply as possible.
To which extent do the rehearsals affect your ideas?
There is no standard procedure. “Solemn mosquitoes”, the initial piece on the CD with its descending chains of trills started as a solo piano improvisation which I had recorded at home and later transcribed for the forces of our ensemble. Very often we try to play something out of a certain idea and, as the notation would be much too complicated, the piece develops into sections of rather irregular lenghts and with thoroughly modified textures. For me as a composer it’s particularly important to find out how these ideas can be elaborated to larger forms.
The titles of the individual pieces can be by turns evocative and cryptic, but very often they seem to evolve out of purely onomatopoetic associations.
I guess ‘associations’ is a key-word here… “Snake” had this look of a snake on the score, while the score for “Knit” gave me the knitting receipt association. The title for “I had a mother who could swim” goes back to our sojourn in Lugano during the recording in June. While bathing in the beautiful lake I started thinking of Nina Simone’s version of the song "Nobody's Fault but Mine" (which was first recorded by blues-gospel guitarist Blind Willie Johnson and famously covered by Led Zeppelin.); you might say it’s some sort of a greeting.
“Fabula Suite” consists of 18 tracks of quite different length. Was it difficult to find an appropriate dramaturgy?
Mandred Eicher and I always work together with the order of the pieces. In this situation parts of the suite were already in a quite fixed order when we came to Lugano – sequences that had worked very well in rehearsal and concert. But the whole opening sequence was put together by Manfred Eicher during the mix, – to quite astounding results, I think. We would never have thought of starting the record with “Solemn Mosquitoes” but this piece proved to be an ideal opener.
How did you experience the venerable Lugano radio studio?
The room is very favorable for communication in an ensemble like ours because you have this clear sound on the podium. One feels very comfortable because the space has got a certain intimacy. In order to find out how a particular blend of instruments could work best, we tried many different sitting positions. It all turned out really nicely; we are very pleased with the sound of this record…
Interview: Anselm Cybinski
In which way has “Fabula Suite” benefited from your experience with the sextet after ”The Zoo is Far” was released two and a half years ago?
That’s hard to pinpoint, but in fact we’ve been playing and rehearsing on a regular basis and I’ve constantly thought about the material for the new programme. Quite obviously, I’ve taken advantage of my knowledge of the individual players and of the possibilities this group offers with regard to sound, blend and expressiveness. Moreover it was most fascinating to observe how fantastically trumpet player Eivind Lønning (who replaced Arve Henriksen) has integrated himself into the ensemble.
Your compositions seem to allude to most diverse styles: baroque music, traditions from the North and from Asia, contemporary composition of course and many more. Nevertheless all these sounds are amalgamated in your uniquely individual tone. How do you actually compose your music?
I listen to many different things and get very attracted to music from quite heterogeneous backgrounds. Sometimes I even try to imitate a certain effect but of course I know I have to keep my distance, so things tend to take a very different direction. Very often, I start by considering ranges, timbres and playing techniques in a rather cloudy manner and then combine them with small musical cells. They might contain a certain sonority, a constellation of harmony, or a rhythmic pattern. “Quote funèbre” for instance is based on two or three isolated chords from the music of Olivier Messiaen and Morton Feldman. I developped them into small harmonic events which were then commented on by Gjermund Larsen’s improvised lines. “Jumpa” goes back to an improvised cell, however, it has reminded some of its earliest listeners of the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully. My association goes more in the direction of Swedish folk music. The Scarlatti is a rather literal transcription of the first part of the famous b-minor sonata K 87. In any of these cases, my prime concern is to characterize any musical event as clearly and sharply as possible.
To which extent do the rehearsals affect your ideas?
There is no standard procedure. “Solemn mosquitoes”, the initial piece on the CD with its descending chains of trills started as a solo piano improvisation which I had recorded at home and later transcribed for the forces of our ensemble. Very often we try to play something out of a certain idea and, as the notation would be much too complicated, the piece develops into sections of rather irregular lenghts and with thoroughly modified textures. For me as a composer it’s particularly important to find out how these ideas can be elaborated to larger forms.
The titles of the individual pieces can be by turns evocative and cryptic, but very often they seem to evolve out of purely onomatopoetic associations.
I guess ‘associations’ is a key-word here… “Snake” had this look of a snake on the score, while the score for “Knit” gave me the knitting receipt association. The title for “I had a mother who could swim” goes back to our sojourn in Lugano during the recording in June. While bathing in the beautiful lake I started thinking of Nina Simone’s version of the song "Nobody's Fault but Mine" (which was first recorded by blues-gospel guitarist Blind Willie Johnson and famously covered by Led Zeppelin.); you might say it’s some sort of a greeting.
“Fabula Suite” consists of 18 tracks of quite different length. Was it difficult to find an appropriate dramaturgy?
Mandred Eicher and I always work together with the order of the pieces. In this situation parts of the suite were already in a quite fixed order when we came to Lugano – sequences that had worked very well in rehearsal and concert. But the whole opening sequence was put together by Manfred Eicher during the mix, – to quite astounding results, I think. We would never have thought of starting the record with “Solemn Mosquitoes” but this piece proved to be an ideal opener.
How did you experience the venerable Lugano radio studio?
The room is very favorable for communication in an ensemble like ours because you have this clear sound on the podium. One feels very comfortable because the space has got a certain intimacy. In order to find out how a particular blend of instruments could work best, we tried many different sitting positions. It all turned out really nicely; we are very pleased with the sound of this record…
Interview: Anselm Cybinski
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