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Øyvind Braekke: Wilderness
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Best known for his work with fellow countrymen Trygve Seim, Per Oddvar Johansen and Mats Eilertsen on ECM's The Source (ECM 2006), trombonist Øyvind Braekke belongs among Norway's hidden treasures as far as arrangers and composers go. On Wilderness he displays delicate oversight at arranging six voices so that each instrument conveys a unique purpose. From intimate dialogues to orchestral proportions, the sextet covers a large spectrum sonically as well as compositionally—delivering a diversified yet conceptually determined set of exciting ...
Continue ReadingSiril Malmedal Hauge & Jacob Young: Last Things
by Geno Thackara
Personal, thoughtful, starkly minimal and yet sublimely atmospheric—this is the kind of session that's terribly easy to overlook, but if it tried to grab your attention, that would really defeat the purpose. The appeal of Last Things is in its disarming straight-from-the-heart intimacy. Simple but never simplistic, it offers the aural equivalent of late-night relaxation amid soft warm lights. Though Siril Malmedal Hauge croons that there is “no time to lose at all" on the alluring smoky opener, ...
Continue ReadingJacob Young: Forever Young
by John Kelman
While all groups aim for the kind of collective chemistry that can make, for example, five people speak with a single voice, how they get there can vary significantly. In some cases there's instantaneous chemistry; in other cases, it comes from pre-existing relationships amongst various permutations and combinations of its members; in still other instances it is something that simply develops over time. On Forever Young, guitarist Jacob Young leverages both the relationships that have come before amongst the members ...
Continue ReadingYoung / Powell / Vespestad: Anthem
by John Kelman
Public perception can often be misleading. Those only familiar with Jacob Young's ECM recordings, including the sublime Evening Falls (2004), inevitably think of him as a painstakingly lyrical guitarist, informed by Jim Hall's economical forward- thinking and penchant for the sound of a warm, organic hollowbody or steely acoustic instrument. But that's only part of the story. Prior to recording for ECM, Young released three albums on Norway's NORCD and Curling Legs labels, positing a closer affiliation to the American ...
Continue ReadingJacob Young: Sideways
by Martin Gladu
"Everything in nature is reborn within the circle of life, and shines with new brightness, hope and promises." These words, by writer/illustrator Flavia Weedn, find echo in Lillehammer, Norway-born Jacob Young's “Near South End," a spirit-lifting composition featured on Sideways, his second effort for ECM.Cold-water streams start running anew, licking away slick patches of silvery, translucent ice. Damp dead leaves of summer past moisten the earth, and leave in the cool breeze that blows foreheads bare, an odoriferous ...
Continue ReadingJacob Young: Sideways
by John Kelman
Born of an American father and Norwegian mother, Jacob Young's 2004 ECM debut, Evening Falls, may have introduced him to a more global audience, but he'd already been active on the Norwegian scene for a decade, releasing three albums for smaller independent labels. Still, with a strong quintet that is now back for Sideways, the guitarist seemed to make a quantum leap, with a clearer and more mature musical vision. Young's compositional economy and spare playing have ...
Continue ReadingJacob Young: Sideways
by Budd Kopman
The enigmatically beautiful Sideways is the second ECM release from Norwegian/American (not Norwegian-American) guitarist and composer Jacob Young, coming four years after Evening Falls (ECM, 2004). While Evening Falls might have been a prime example of the ECM sound/aesthetic, Sideways ups the ante, demonstrating Young's very strong control over the elements of his music, while never allowing the resultant sound to give away its secrets. Sideways is the ultimate paradox, as all kinds of ...
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