Simon Toldam: Alt er Luft

There was a time when it was avant-garde to play loud and fast, but in a world that is already moving at full speed without looking back, the new avant-garde is to take it slow and reinstate the value of contemplation. It is hard to stretch time, and many movies have succumbed to fast cutting, but music is an art form that still offers the opportunity to experience time in slow motion.

Pianist Simon Toldam is a prime example of a musician who has taken the exploration of time to the limit. His solo album Fem Stykker Med Tid (ILK, 2024) is his most radical investigation into time and it sometimes boils the music down to the resonance of a single piano chord. It is the air around the music, just as much as the notes themselves that create the compositions.

Toldam has now taken the findings from his solo album and translated them into the form of the trio. It is not a new constellation, but a time-tested unit. Toldam, bassist Nils Davidsen and drummer Knut Finsrud first documented their interplay on the acclaimed Sunshine Sunshine or Green as Grass (ILK, 2012) and have since refined their language. It seemed like the release of Omhu (ILK, 2019) was the culmination of a new kind of slow music, but Alt er luft (ILK, 2024) proves that there is still plenty of potential in exploring the space between the notes.

In a way, John Cage already determined the end point of the journey when he composed his piece of complete silence, "4'33." Toldam's trio is still far from that destination, but sometimes close to it. Fortunately, this music is not only about the beauty of silence, but just as much an infatuation with sound, and that includes the echo of other music. For instance, the chords and bass response on "Vi" ("We") sound like they namecheck Bill Evans' "Gloria's Step," but in a deconstructed whisper that merely hints at the source.

It is music that is distanced from the standard tradition and yet impossible without it. The melodies and themes are there, but sometimes so transparent they almost disappear. It is tentative music, but that does not mean that a lot of things cannot happen in a piece. "Går" ("Walks") is such a rare thing as meditative free jazz where the intense conversation of the instruments results in a strange kind of quiet chaos. On the other hand, the pure beauty of sound is explored on "Blad" ("Leaf") where the bass is played with bow, and Toldam makes the piano sound like gentle construction work with a hammer on a wall made of ice.

Alt er luft is an album that benefits from repeated listening. There is so much to unpack in the music that it makes sense that the trio does not make a record every second year. For now, the music needs time to unfold, but the album also underlines that the trio is still in a phase of exploration. No matter what happens next, Alt er luft is an important step in the evolution of the Simon Toldam Trio.

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