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Ketil Bjornstad: Before the Light

By GLENN ASTARITA
December 13, 2002
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Pianist/composer Ketil Bjornstad is primarily known for his new age, chamber jazz type outings on the ECM record label. This superbly recorded production is framed upon an imaginary soundtrack – composed for a film story, concerning love and so forth, as described within the liners. Bjornstad composed all these works and performs with guitarist Eivind Aarset, violaist Nora Taksdal and synth ace Kjetil Bjerkestrand.

And as those familiar with Bjornstad’s music would surmise, many of these pieces are based upon quaintly rendered themes and wistful melodies. However, textural synths, percussion grooves and Aarset’s often soaring electric guitar lines counterbalance the leader’s predominately ethereal arrangements. Some of the harmonies and melodies are revisited or reworked throughout the program, amid hearty doses of calming passages and airy treatments. Bjornstad and Taksdal render somber lines during their sobering duet work on “Cookie’s Face No.1.” Yet Bjornstad and Bjerkestrand also integrate low-key, scratch turntable fare and expansive synth swashes into “Underground” and other pieces. Overall, a truly amiable affair consisting of contrasting tone poems and delicately constructed fabrics of sound.

November Music

Track Listing: 1.Before the Light No.1 2.Alai

Personnel: Eivind Aarset: guitars

Title: Before the Light | Year Released: 2002 | Record Label: November Music

About Ketil Bjornstad

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Album Reviews

A Passion for John Donne by Neri Pollastri
Ketil Bjornstad: Sunrise (A cantata on texts by Edvard Munch) by John Kelman
La Notte by Hrayr Attarian
Early Piano Music by John Kelman
Night Song by John Kelman
Remembrance by Dan McClenaghan
Remembrance by John Kelman
Life in Leipzig by Budd Kopman
Life in Leipzig by John Kelman
Before the Light by Glenn Astarita
Epigraphs by Glenn Astarita

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Jazz Story

Jazz combines creativity from the mind, heart, and the gut. It flourishes through structure and uses melody and rhythm to bridge the musician's creativity and the listener's imagination. I try to appreciate all forms of music and styles of jazz but find myself drawn to the “hot music” of the twenties through the early thirties, including its many contemporary incarnations
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Jazz combines creativity from the mind, heart, and the gut. It flourishes through structure and uses melody and rhythm to bridge the musician's creativity and the listener's imagination. I try to appreciate all forms of music and styles of jazz but find myself drawn to the “hot music” of the twenties through the early thirties, including its many contemporary incarnations. Obscure and forgotten musicians of that period also interest me. I also enjoy Baroque and Classical music; much of that repertoire actually shares jazz's emphasis on improvisation, creating tension over an underlying ground rhythm, and exciting formal variation.
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By Andrew J. Sammut
Member since: 2010

Ketil Bjornstad: Before the Light

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