For
over ten years, saxophonist Trygve Seim has been an active musicians
on the underground Scandinavian jazz scene. In 1993, while attending
the Trondheim Music Conservatory, Seim formed The Source with
trombonist Øyvind Brække and drummer Per Oddvar
Johansen. Based on a totally democratic structure, the band
has no real leader, and periodically expands to include string
ensemble the Cikada Quartet, trumpeter Arve Henriksen and bassist
Finn Guttormsen, Seim, Brække and Oddvar Johansen remaining
at the epicentre of the formation.
The trio have regularly confronted their influences, ranging
from Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis to Karlheinz Stockhausen
and John Cage, with rock, club culture and world music. After
three albums released in Norway, Seim released his critically
acclaimed debut as a leader, Different Rivers, in 2001
on German label ECM, winning the German Critics Award for album
of the year in the process. The Source & Different Cikadas
sees The Source expanding again to incorporate accordion player
Frode Haltli, who became part of Seim’s own band following
the release of Different River, and pianist Christian
Wallumrød.
Although most of the music is composed by Seim, Brække
or Oddvar Johansen, the ultimate democracy that is The Source
means that each musician involved will have a chance to develop
his own vision of the pieces. The Cikada Quartet’s improvisational
skills as a formation, combined with the experimentations of
the rest of the band bring a tensed unity to the fifteen compositions
on offer here. Although the main foundation remains undeniably
jazz, in its traditionalist meaning, The Source’s organic
evolutions also encompass contemporary classical (Organismus
Vitalis, a piece made up of seven lines destined to be
played indifferently by any of the musician, and which, on the
version recorded, evokes as much Jan Garbarek as Arvo Pärt),
and world music, as on Flipper, a band’s favourite
since 1994, on which Seim swaps his usual saxophone for a “clarophone”,
a tenor sax fitted with a bass clarinet mouthpiece, to imitate
the Armenian duduk, or Sen Kjellertango, which, as its name
indicates, is based on a tango structure.
The exchanges between musicians are incredibly dense and complex,
and yet, sound fluid, thanks to the deployment of talents present.
A somewhat diverse record in textures and variations, The
Source & Other Cikadas is very homogene and consistent
all the way through, the band demonstrating a great maturity
in the way each musician interacts with the others, intelligently
adding to the work while respecting individual spaces at the
same time.
4/5 |
