Ketil Bjørnstad returns to the piano/cello duo, instrumentation which defined two of his best-loved albums, “The River” and “Epigraphs” with David Darling, back in 1996 and 1998. This new collaboration with Svante Henryson, however, tells a different story. As cellist, Henryson currently works in duos and trios with distinguished classical musicians including pianists Roland Pöntinen and Bengt Forsberg, clarinettist Martin Fröst, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and baritone Mikael Samuelson. ECM listeners, however, first heard him as a member of Jon Balke’s Magnetic North Orchestra on “Kyanos” (2001). In jazz contexts, he has also played in diverse formations with Tord Gustavsen, Marilyn Mazur, Nils Petter Molvaer, Arild Andersen and others. In rock and pop, he has collaborated with artists from Yngwie Malmsteen to Elvis Costello. In brief, he is an artistic polymath, rather like composer/improviser/author Bjørnstad himself. The music they create together – atmospheric, dark-hued, of melancholic temperament – is similarly beyond category
Night Song
Ketil Bjørnstad, Svante Henryson
- 1Night Song (Evening Version)
04:28 - 2Visitor
05:05 - 3Fall
03:26 - 4Edge
05:37 - 5Reticence
05:40 - 6Schubert Said
04:31 - 7Adoro
06:21 - 8Share
04:20 - 9Melting Ice
03:22 - 10Serene
05:57 - 11The Other
04:05 - 12Own
03:09 - 13Sheen
05:41 - 14Chain
06:14 - 15Tar
02:57 - 16Night Song (Morning Version)
05:00
Die Klänge haben Zeit und Raum für Emotion. Gedanken entfliegen, hektischer Alltag wird abgestreift. Man fühlt sich aufgehoben in meditativer Gelassenheit.
Pirmin Bossart, Kulturtipp
„Night Song“ begins with the evening version of “Night Song” and ends with the morning version of “Night Song”. The drama that takes place in between is peaceful, glorious, and gracefully played out on memorable pieces like “Reticence”, “Schubert Said”, “Share”, “Own”, “Sheen” and “Tar”. Somber but grateful, joyful but sad, happy but with regrets, sweet but with sorrowful memories, and finally acceptance of life with night’s warm embrance and our deliverance in our endless dreams for the coming morning.
Jean-Keith Fagon, Hill Rag
„Schubert Said“, so ein Titel, und Ketil Bjørnstad, der erfolgreiche Autor und Pianist, hat hingehört. […] Ohne Schubert direkt zu zitieren, lässt er sich von dessen Linearität und Harmonik leiten und hat in Svante Henryson einen kongenialen Partner, der noch Stücke mitbringt. Kontemplative Kammermusik voller Melancholie.
Stereo
Dunkel, melancholisch und kraftvoll ist die Musik, die dieses Piano-Cello-Duo geschaffen hat. Der Norweger Ketil Bjørnstad und der Schwede Svante Henryson setzen ganz auf die Macht einfacher Melodien, die durch überraschende Tongebung und lebendige Agogik eine vielfältig schillernde Eigendynamik entwickeln.
Concerto
„Night Song“ does tell a fantastic story. It is the soundtrack to the tales we create as dreams.
Greg Barbrick, Blogcritics
Ohne Schubert direkt zu zitieren, lässt er sich von dessen Linearität und Harmonik leiten und hat in Henryson einen kongenialen Partner.
Stereo / Fono Forum
Ketil Bjørnstad returns to the piano/cello duo, instrumentation which defined two of his best-loved albums, “The River” and “Epigraphs” with David Darling, back in 1996 and 1998. This new collaboration with Svante Henryson, however, tells a different story, and not only because the Swedish cellist is a player of different sensibility. The conceptual framework of “Night Song” is developed from another perspective. It’s an atmospheric recording, dark-hued, and of melancholic temperament.
Ketil Bjørnstad’s work continues to gather momentum on two fronts. Each of his ECM recordings has been widely-praised in the press, with the recent “Remembrance” album described by Germany’s Jazzpodium as “klang- und formschöne Jazz-Kammermusik", and by the UK’s Daily Express as “exquisite, intriguing and, in its quiet way, life-affirming.” As a novelist Bjørnstad is also making headlines. His book “To Music” won the “Prix des Lecteurs” award in France, shot into the best-seller lists in Germany, and was nominated for The Independent’s Foreign Fiction Prize in the UK. The prolific author, internationally translated, now rivals the prolific musician for attention and resonance. And where once Bjørnstad kept the disciplines separate, narratives are becoming interwoven and interrelated. In his liner notes for “Night Song” he references his novel “The River” (in Norwegian, “Elven”) and its central character Aksel Vinding, who shares his creator’s musical obsessions. As roles blur into each other, it becomes harder to say with certainty whether Bjørnstad is an author who plays music or a musician who also writes.
On “Night Song”, recorded in Oslo in 2009, Bjørnstad has a musical partner well-versed in chamber music but who is also an artistic polymath. Svaente Henryson’s classical credentials include four years as bassist with the Oslo Philharmonic and two years as principal bassist with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. As cellist he currently works in duos and trios with distinguished classical musicians including pianists Roland Pöntinen and Bengt Forsberg, clarinettist Martin Fröst, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and baritone Mikael Samuelson. Henryson’s also a composer of music for vocal and instrumental ensembles of all sizes and his extensive work list includes concertos for cello and bass, choral compositions, chamber pieces. Four of the compositions on “Night Song” are from his pen. ECM listeners first heard Henryson as a member of Jon Balke’s Magnetic North Orchestra on “Kyanos” (2001). In jazz contexts, he has also played in diverse formations with Tord Gustavsen, Marilyn Mazur, Nils Petter Molvaer, Arild Andersen and others. Henryson previously recorded with Ketil Bjornstad on “Seafarer’s Song” (Emarcy Records). His border-crossing forays into the worlds of pop and rock include song-writing collaboration with Elvis Costello, apperances on albums with Stevie Wonder and Ryan Adams, and a 3-year stint as bass guitarist with Yngwie Malmsteen’s hard rock band.
Described as “a cultural prodigy” by The Guardian’s John Fordham, Ketil Bjørnstad studied piano in Oslo, London and Paris, and was set for a career in classical music before exposure to jazz changed his priorities. Although he did not come to ECM until 1993 with “Water Stories” he was involved with the label’s musicians from the early 1970s; his 1973 debut album featuring Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen as rhythm section. From the outset he was also active as journalist and author. From 1972-1998, he was music and literature critic for Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten. He published his first book of poems in 1972 and his first novel in 1974. Many books have followed since then and translations have appeared in Danish, Swedish, German, Dutch, Finnish, English, French, Czech, Polish, Korean, Russian, Bengali, Greek and Turkish.
His ECM albums are “Water Stores” (1993, with Terje Rypdal, Bjørn Kjellemyr, Jon Christensen, Per Hillestad), “The Sea” (1994, with Rypdal, Christensen, David Darling), “The River” (1996, with Darling), “The Sea II” (1996, with Rypdal, Darling, Christensen), “Epigraphs” (1998, with Darling), “Life In Leipzig” (2005, with Rypdal), “The Light” (2007, with Randi Stene, Lars Anders Tomter), and “Remembrance” (2009, with Christensen, Tore Brunborg).
Bjørnstad’s ECM recordings have been incorporated in the soundtracks of numerous films, including several by Jean-Luc Godard: “Notre Musique”, “The Old Place”, “Histoire(s) du Cinéma”, “JLG/JLG”, “Forever Mozart”, and “Eloge de L’amour”.
Ketil Bjørnstad’s work continues to gather momentum on two fronts. Each of his ECM recordings has been widely-praised in the press, with the recent “Remembrance” album described by Germany’s Jazzpodium as “klang- und formschöne Jazz-Kammermusik", and by the UK’s Daily Express as “exquisite, intriguing and, in its quiet way, life-affirming.” As a novelist Bjørnstad is also making headlines. His book “To Music” won the “Prix des Lecteurs” award in France, shot into the best-seller lists in Germany, and was nominated for The Independent’s Foreign Fiction Prize in the UK. The prolific author, internationally translated, now rivals the prolific musician for attention and resonance. And where once Bjørnstad kept the disciplines separate, narratives are becoming interwoven and interrelated. In his liner notes for “Night Song” he references his novel “The River” (in Norwegian, “Elven”) and its central character Aksel Vinding, who shares his creator’s musical obsessions. As roles blur into each other, it becomes harder to say with certainty whether Bjørnstad is an author who plays music or a musician who also writes.
On “Night Song”, recorded in Oslo in 2009, Bjørnstad has a musical partner well-versed in chamber music but who is also an artistic polymath. Svaente Henryson’s classical credentials include four years as bassist with the Oslo Philharmonic and two years as principal bassist with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. As cellist he currently works in duos and trios with distinguished classical musicians including pianists Roland Pöntinen and Bengt Forsberg, clarinettist Martin Fröst, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and baritone Mikael Samuelson. Henryson’s also a composer of music for vocal and instrumental ensembles of all sizes and his extensive work list includes concertos for cello and bass, choral compositions, chamber pieces. Four of the compositions on “Night Song” are from his pen. ECM listeners first heard Henryson as a member of Jon Balke’s Magnetic North Orchestra on “Kyanos” (2001). In jazz contexts, he has also played in diverse formations with Tord Gustavsen, Marilyn Mazur, Nils Petter Molvaer, Arild Andersen and others. Henryson previously recorded with Ketil Bjornstad on “Seafarer’s Song” (Emarcy Records). His border-crossing forays into the worlds of pop and rock include song-writing collaboration with Elvis Costello, apperances on albums with Stevie Wonder and Ryan Adams, and a 3-year stint as bass guitarist with Yngwie Malmsteen’s hard rock band.
Described as “a cultural prodigy” by The Guardian’s John Fordham, Ketil Bjørnstad studied piano in Oslo, London and Paris, and was set for a career in classical music before exposure to jazz changed his priorities. Although he did not come to ECM until 1993 with “Water Stories” he was involved with the label’s musicians from the early 1970s; his 1973 debut album featuring Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen as rhythm section. From the outset he was also active as journalist and author. From 1972-1998, he was music and literature critic for Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten. He published his first book of poems in 1972 and his first novel in 1974. Many books have followed since then and translations have appeared in Danish, Swedish, German, Dutch, Finnish, English, French, Czech, Polish, Korean, Russian, Bengali, Greek and Turkish.
His ECM albums are “Water Stores” (1993, with Terje Rypdal, Bjørn Kjellemyr, Jon Christensen, Per Hillestad), “The Sea” (1994, with Rypdal, Christensen, David Darling), “The River” (1996, with Darling), “The Sea II” (1996, with Rypdal, Darling, Christensen), “Epigraphs” (1998, with Darling), “Life In Leipzig” (2005, with Rypdal), “The Light” (2007, with Randi Stene, Lars Anders Tomter), and “Remembrance” (2009, with Christensen, Tore Brunborg).
Bjørnstad’s ECM recordings have been incorporated in the soundtracks of numerous films, including several by Jean-Luc Godard: “Notre Musique”, “The Old Place”, “Histoire(s) du Cinéma”, “JLG/JLG”, “Forever Mozart”, and “Eloge de L’amour”.
