Food For Thought

Where is the boundary between composed and improvised music? How many renowned improvisers use tried and trusted phrases that they have turned to so often that they have become cliches? How many classically-trained players are able to freely improvise despite never having been taught to do so? These and other similar questions are sure to be thrown up by the two albums below; one includes an improvised track that fits in alongside composed pieces while the other features a renowned improviser who has written music for himself to play alongside trained symphony orchestra players. They may not answer the questions above, but they will provide food for thought and discussion...

Judith Wegman, Jens Ruland, Robert Torche
Kon.Takte
Ezz-thetics
2024


Remarkably, this album is the fourth release on the latest Hat Hut label, First Visit. That label's first three releases were live recordings by Cecil Taylor, WHO trio, and Anthony Braxton solo, the fifth release comprising live recordings from 1964 by Albert Ayler with Don Cherry. Kon.Takte was studio recorded at Winterthur, Switzerland, on August 14th to 16th 2023. All the music was played by Judith Wegmann on piano, Jens Ruland on percussion and Robert Torche on electronics and sound design, the three having no prior experience of recording together as a trio. The end result of the recording is three tracks which run for sixty-eight-and-a-half minutes.

Just over half of the album is occupied by the trio's rendition of Karlheinz Stockhausen / Ives Ensemble's electronic piece "Kontakte" which he composed from 1958 to 1960. Although a version of that composition exists for electronic sounds alone (designated "Nr.12"), the trio opted for another version ("Nr.12½") for electronic sounds, piano and percussion. That proves to have been a sensible decision as that version sounds made for the trio and vice versa. The composition gives the players enough space for all three of them to be clearly heard and savoured, throughout.

The rest of the album is filled by two other pieces. Firstly, the opener," Spiegelung," a fourteen-minute improvisation by all three trio members, has a similar ambience and mood to "Kontacte" and so acts as a prelude or hors d'oeuvre for what is to follow. Secondly, closing the album in an appropriate way is a composition, "Geschichten der Gewait" by the Swiss sound artist and composer Antoine Chessex. The piece is dominated by Wegmann's piano which she plays continuously for the piece's nineteen-plus minutes. It is different enough to the two preceding pieces to be distinctive, yet it makes an impressive ending to a fine, very listenable album.

Marius Neset, Leif Ove Andsnes, Ingrid Neset, Louisa Tuck
Who We Are
Simax Classics
2024


Who We Are is the first recording from the duo of Marius Neset and Leif Ove Andsnes. This is rather an unexpected combination as Neset, born in 1985, is a renowned Norwegian jazz saxophonist while Andsnes, born in 1970, is a pianist and chamber musician with a sizeable discography of performances of classical compositions; like most of his classical colleagues and unlike jazz performers, Andsnes does not improvise.

Most surprisingly, all of the compositions played here were composed by Neset, two of them being multi-part works. The album was recorded at Rainbow Studios in December 2023. In addition to Neset's tenor and soprano saxophones and Andsnes' piano, the music is performed by British-born Louisa Tuck, who has been principal cellist of the Oslo Philharmonic since 2015, and the saxophonist's sister Ingrid Søfteland Neset who is the former principal flautist of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and often plays with her brother, including on his highly acclaimed five-star album Birds (Edition Records, 2013).

Beginning with the four-part title composition and ending with the knockabout three-part "Chaconne" (see YouTube below), the album maintains a balance between the four players as they play music which is primarily composed, with occasional improvised sax solos. Marius Neset is so adept that it can be nearly impossible to separate written and improvised passages; after a while it becomes irrelevant which is which, as the music is captivating throughout. This foursome will be worth looking out for in future.

Tracks and Personnel

Kon.Takte

Tracks: Spiegelung; Kontakte; Geschichten der Gewait.

Personnel: Judith Wegman: piano; Jens Ruland: percussion; Robert Torche: electronics, sound design.

Who We Are

Tracks: Who We Are Part 1—Beginning; Who We Are Part 2—Legacy; Who We Are Part 3—Uncertainty; Who We Are Part 4—Evolution; Waterfall Jig; Introduction to Prague's Ballet; Prague's Ballet; Road to Polaris Part 1; Chaconne Part 1; Chaconne Part 2; Chaconne Part 3.

Personnel: Marius Neset: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone; Leif Ove Andsnes: piano; Louisa Tuck: cello; Ingrid Neset: flute.

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