Though an exceptionally fine player, bassist Arild Andersen tends to make music that focuses on ensemble work, highlighting his talent as a composer and savvy as a bandleader. For Landloper, he hooks his double bass up to a set of effect pedals and goes it alone. Some of it’s what you might expect – ambient washes of reverb or looped arco lines over which he solos in his inimitable (i.e. bluesy and melodic) way (‘Dreamhorse’), or himself playing a melody over his own bassline (‘Mira’). […] While never shy about soloing in his bands, Andersen clearly relishes the chance to be in the spotlight, putting his magic touch to work on as strong a set of songs as he’s ever had.
Michael Toland, The Big Takeover
It is surprising to note that in a long career at the forefront of contemporary bass playing along with an extensive discography that this is Andersen’s first solo double bass recording. It is, needless to say, totally enthralling with wonderful melodies in plentiful supply and all delivered with the bassist’s marvellous tone and arranger’s touch. […] This is a superb album that does not just demonstrate Andersen’s talents as a virtuoso bass player, but serve to illustrate how, in the right hands, a solo performance on just about instrument can be a transformative process and that loops and pedals are not merely gimmicks but a useful and valid tool for making music.
Nick Lea, Jazz Views
The use of the various pedal-driven loops means that several tracks have an almost orchestral feel, with washes of sound forming the backdrop to Andersen’s virtuoso bass playing. His plucked, pizzicato playing is still astoundingly fast when it needs to be, with impeccable intonation, while his bowing is also used for live sampling that can conjure up the sound of a saxophone or a seal. Whatever he’s doing, Andersen seems able to communicate real lyricism and tenderness in a way that many co-instrumentalists fail to do
Phil Johnson, UK Jazz News
Über die gesamte Spielzeit hält Andersen die Spannung seines Vortrags hoch, fesselt mit jeder Note und entzückt seine Zuhörer:innen mit seinen zahlreichen kleinen Verspieltheiten. ‘Landloper’ ist das beeindruckende Zeugnis eines großen Geschichtenerzählers mit vier Saiten.
Sebastian Meißner, Sounds And Books
Andersen recorded Landloper live in the intimate setting of Oslo’s Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, where he transformed his solo performance into something more expansive through his use of effects pedals and an Echoplex loop machine. Although performing alone, he creates rich sonic landscapes by spontaneously layering his bass lines, using loops created live during the performance to build complex harmonies and rhythmic patterns. […] The album concludes with an artfully-constructed medley, opening with Coleman’s ‘Lonely Woman’ from ‘The Shape of Jazz to Come’ (Atlantic, 1959). Andersen’s fluid warm interpretation draws listeners into the composition before he transitions seamlessly to Haden’s ‘Song for Che.’ Throughout the album, this true bass master demonstrates his superb ability to articulate rhythms and harmonic hues in an intimate soundscape, making this an immersive pleasure.
Neil Duggan, All About Jazz
The level of the wide-ranging yet integrated programme, where Andersen consistently gets to the essence of things, and the surpassing quality of his singing sound and intonation, rhythmic flurries and melodic phrasing are such as to invite an immediate replay of the recital.
Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal
This is a fine solo outing by veteran ECM label bassist Andersen, recorded live in front of a very well-behaved, attentive audience at Oslo’s Victoria National Jazz Scene. Andersen uses electronic loops generated live to fill out the sound of his instrument, captured gorgeously with all its depth and resonance intact. It’s a short but sweet recital, full of growling low notes and clever interpretations.
Andrew Everard, Hifi News
‘Landloper’ is, perhaps surprisingly, his first ever solo album for the label, and as ever with the Norwegian bassist, it is characteristically broad in its musical scope and creative range. The album was recorded in 2020, primarily at Oslo’s Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, and the choice of repertoire reflects well Andersen’s musical journey. Alongside original compositions, new light is cast upon some free jazz classics, traditional folk music, and plenty more besides. Throughout the whole album, Andersen’s masterful playing is at the forefront, as melodic and lyrical as we have come to expect from this brilliant and ever-youthful musician. There’s a wonderful atmosphere to the recording, heightened by his real-time creation of electronic loops that bring an added dimension to solo playing as well as fresh opportunities for improvisational interaction. […] ‘Landloper’ delivers in so many ways. Skill, intelligence, knowledge, wisdom and emotion all combine, with Anderson’s solo outing hitting the sweet spot. A mesmerising album of discovery from the legendary bassist.
Mike Gates, UK Vibe
Despite being an early adopter of effects pedals and solo soundscapes, ‘Landloper’ is his first solo bass album. […] The Mingus influence (which Andersen picked up as a teenager, hearing the great man play in Oslo on 12 April 1964), comes through on his weighty pizzicato plucking that cuts through the ambient layers. His musical sensitivity extends to the repertoire too, which includes a medley of Albert Ayler’s ‘Ghosts’, a traditional Norwegian song, ‘Old Stev’, and his original ‘Landloper’ – the latter’s looped phases suddenly going double time and launching the bassist into some frenetic soloing. A gorgeous take on ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’ lets each note hang weightlessly, the added underlying harmonic chordal movement impressive on the unwieldy double bass. […] the closing salute to Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden, on a medley of ‘Lonely Woman / Song For Che’, sings off this solo bass masterclass with atmospheric gravitas.
Mike Flynn, Jazzwise
Bei seinem Live-Rezital in der Nasjonal Jazzscene Victoria in Oslo 2020 verwendete er Geräte, mit denen er sich in Echtzeit durch bestimmte Einstellungen dialogisch konfigurieren konnte. […] Überhaupt präsentiert er als Solist exquisite melodische Qualitäten, so bei ‘Ghosts’ von Albert Ayler, die in Echokammern schwirren, dann kontemplativ zu einem Folkmotiv mutieren und schließlich im erdigen ‘Landloper’-Blues unterwegs sind. Alle Szenen sind dezent arrangiert, respektieren die ‘Lonely Woman’ von Ornette Coleman, die sich zum intensiven ‘Song For Che’ von Charlie Haden wandelt […] Ein wunderbares Album!
Hans-Dieter Grünefeld, Grand GTRs
It is his first solo outing. He augments his acoustic bass instrument with real-time digital looping. […] Andersen plays tunes by himself, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, and from the Great American and Norwegian folk songbooks. Familiar tunes feel like echoes across a vast fjord. The effects add the glistening of early morning dew under sonorous pizzicato. […] The concerts end with a pairing of Coleman’s 1959 classic ‘Lonely Woman’ and Haden’s ‘Song For Che’, an understated masterstroke.
Andrey Henkin, Stereophile
Passano gli anni, non passa l’attitudine dell’anziano maestro del contrabbasso Arild Andersen a prendersi i rischi e gli azzardi del caso, se c’è in ballo la creazione di musica potente e giocata sull’improvvisazione. Qui, con l’ausilio di sagge porzioni di elettronica e il contrabbasso solo è dal vivo ad Oslo, nel 2020. Nel silenzio attento, un’epifania radiosa di suono gonfio d’armonici in cui perdersi e ritrovare, ‘Ghosts’ di Ayler, ‘Lonely Woman’ di Coleman, ‘Song for Che’ di Haden e tanto altro.
Guido Festinese, Il Manifesto
Es war der Pianist Paul Bley, der Arild Andersen in den frühen 1970er-Jahren darauf brachte, den Sound seines Kontrabasses elektronisch zu manipulieren. Die langsam gereiften Früchte dieser Auseinandersetzung, die einst mit dem Einsatz eines einfachen Echo-Effekts begann, präsentiert Andersen nun nicht lange vor seinem 80. Geburtstag auf dem ersten Solo-Album in seiner 60-jährigen Karriere. Die Aufnahme beginnt elegisch mit dem daheim aufgenommenen ‘Peace Universal’, in dem der Norweger über wabernde Soundscapes eines Orchesters aus Bässen klagendes Saitenschluchzen und tröstende Melodien legt. Die restlichen Stücke auf ‘Landloper’ entstanden bei einem Konzert im Osloer Club Victoria Nasjonal jazzscene und zeigen, wie Andersen in Echtzeit mithilfe seines Loop-Geräts und eines Signal-Prozessors assoziative Klangräume erschafft. […] Dass der Einsatz elektronischer Hilfsmittel niemals zum Selbstzweck verkommt, liegt auch an dem betörend-gesanglichen Ton, den der Skandinavier sein Eigen nennt. Damit verwandelt er liedhafte Eigenkompositionen wie ‘Mira’ oder die Anverwandlungen von Ornette Colemans ‘Lonely Woman’ und Charlie Hadens ‘Song For Ché’ in berührende Rückblicke auf ein bewegtes Musikerleben. Und beim Standard ‘A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square’ lässt uns Andersen ganz ohne Effekte, nur mit der Kraft seiner Hände und akkordischen Doublestops, direkt in seine Seele blicken. Man ist tieftönend berührt.
Josef Engels, Rondo
