Пластинка


Ketil Bjørnstad - Water Stories (1993)

Первая пластинка норвежского пианиста на ECM, отрывающая серию его "водных" альбомов. Кроме Бьёрнстада в записи участвовали Terje Rypdal, Jon Christensen, басист Bjørn Kjellemyr и - во второй части - барабанщик Per Hillestad. Мне, пожалуй, больше всего нравится работа Кристенсена.

VBR, 84 Мб



Out of the Swing of the Sea

Water Stories is the ECM debut of Norwegian pianist/composer Ketil Bjørnstad, and new evidence of the strength and originality of the best of the music of the North. ("Music is a substitute for sunlight," Paul Bley once said. "That's why, the further North you go, the more intense the music becomes.") Bjørnstad's stark-yet-robust compositions goad the participating musicians to impassioned, even tempestuous playing. Jon Christensen energizes the space he is given, and Terje Rypdal, in particular, rises to the occasion with shattering, emotion-drenched solos, unquestionably some of his strongest playing on record. This is fitting, in the grand scheme of things, for the guitarist was indirectly responsible for Bjørnstad's involvement in improvised music in the first place. Thirty years ago, Ketil Bjørnstad had other goals in mind.
Born in 1952, Bjørnstad was classically-trained, studying in London, Paris, and in his native Oslo. In 1969, he made his debut as a soloist with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, playing Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 3. A long series of solo performances and concerts with Norwegian orchestras followed. Bjørnstad was part of "a very strong milieu. There were many
gifted Norwegian pianists. We discussed our plans together. 1 had felt, very early on, that I wanted most of all to be a composer. But then I found myself in conflict with the aesthetics of modern music."
The Stockhausen/Boulez avant-garde was still in the ascendant. Bjørnstad admired much of that music but felt apart from it. Then he heard Miles Davis's In A Silent Way. "an enormous experience for me". Repercussions from this and from listening to Rypdal's pre-ECM album Bleak House convinced him of the viability of other ways of listening and playing. He left the classical world behind.
"I sensed that the challenge of free, improvised music was greater than that of classical music and felt a strong yearning in that direction. This feeling clashed with the role of intermediary you have to adopt as a classical performer."
The pianist closely monitored ECM's inroads into Scandinavian music in the early 1970s, attended clubs, began to work with jazz players. "It was a very exciting time but I never felt like a jazz musician myself. I've never taken up the challenge of learning all the standards, and I'm not particularly well-informed about older forms of jazz. I started with Miles and worked back to the early 60s. Thelonious Monk is really the only one of the older jazz musicians whose work I've studied quite thoroughly. And Coltrane of course — his music is very important to me." This much can be readily discerned from Water Stories: the spirit of the Coltrane of "Welcome" or "After The Rain" (more "water" music), hovers around some of the session — there is a comparable sense of concentrated expressiveness, a comparable building and release of tensions.
Bjørnstad first appeared on record in 1973 with a quartet that included ECM stalwarts Jon Christensen and Arild Andersen. He has since released around thirty recordings, including five albums of solo piano, several thematically unified "concept" albums, co-productions with rock musicians, musical settings of the writings of Knut Hamsun and John Donne, and much more ...
Aside from his musical activities, he is equally prolific as a writer, having published eighteen books in Norway: fourteen novels, two collections of poetry, and two books of essays, and he continues to contribute to the newspapers as a reviewer of literature and music. "I don't have a schedule as such, but the books tend to get written in the winter. November to February is a good period for this ..."
Water Stories, a 12-part work, was originally commissioned for the 1992 Rosendal Music Festival, and the premier performance featured Rypdal as soloist. "Rosendal," Bjørnstad notes, "lies on the wild Western coast of Norway, where the weather and the light change constantly in a never-ending process. Water is omnipresent there — in the fjord, as part of the ocean, in the mountains in the form of the mighty glacier Folgefonni, and in the creeks and rivers that run to the sea. The dimensions of this landscape and Terje's world of sounds and timbres as guitar player became the starting point for this music." The nature of the music, however, was substantially modified in the studio, for which Bjørnstad credits the contribution of producer Manfred Eicher: "His input was very important for the project. I played differently, and many new ideas emerged in the course of the recording process."
Water Stories also marks a first ECM appearance for drummer Per Hillestad who plays on the second half of the work, subtitled "Approaching The Sea". Essentially a rock drummer, whose credits in-
clude tours with Norwegian pop icons A-ha (!), Hillestad nonetheless has, as Bjørnstad puts it, "very good ears. He's very creative."
Jon Christensen's creativity hardly requires further testimony. Still, it is easy to endorse Terje Mosnes' contention that the "grace and assurance" of the drummer's playing (and, one could add, the drama) is exceptional even by his own standards. Bassist Bjørn Kjellemyr, familiar through his work with Rypdal's Chasers band, also makes a very strong showing.
Rypdal himself seems freed by Bjørn-stad's structures, employed to raise the emotional ante and to prevent the music from settling into prettiness, an inspiring-ly disruptive presence. Curiously, Water Stories marks the first occasion that the guitarist has ever played in a small group with an acoustic piano. The combination begs further exploration ...

Steve Lake research: Terje Mosnes

(Post a new comment)

	0lega 2006-05-16 08:25 am UTC (link)
	спасибо (Reply to this)

	mislets 2006-05-17 05:02 pm UTC (link)
	не могу понять как пользоваться указанным ресурсом, но у меня есть вот этот альбом: http://www.cdonpc.ru/album/29681/Floating/ Все очень мелодично:) (Reply to this)(Thread)

	kmartynov 2006-05-17 05:07 pm UTC (link)
	Спасибо, я тоже недавно его выкладывал. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mislets 2006-05-17 05:24 pm UTC (link)
	:) Бывает, значит я не попал на выкладку:) но все равно здоровский альбом, душевно этот Кетил играет и бас молодец:) (Reply to this)(Parent)