Elsa Nilsson: Liminal

If, for just 52 minutes, one needs to step away from the breach, do not hesitate to push play on Liminal.

A Brooklyn conceptualist by way of Sweden and Seattle, "Andetag" (Swedish for "breath") opens flautist/composer Elsa Nilsson's Liminal. But, all things considered, it could have been sequenced anywhere in the playlist given Nilsson's nod to late-night dance floors. Elusive, bluesy and a very danceable dance of equals, Band of Pulses—Nilsson, fellow piano arsonist Santiago Leibson, wiry bassist Marty Kenney and empath drummer Rodrigo Recabarren—bend to Nilsson's will, but not entirely, and that too quickly becomes part of the lasting beauty. 

If one can pull themselves away from their sound system long enough to imagine each of the eight tracks that make Liminal a complete work of adventure and invent, then earmark the wistful two-step "Capacity;" the probing "Mourning For Two." featuring a fierce, throughway solo by bassist Kenney; the full fledged freak out "Not Said, Not Heard;" and the free form island influence of "Transition State" for the highlight reel. Because in a nutshell, Nilsson's imagist view of things could have been subtitled Elsa's Blue Dance and still hit the nail on the head. 

Steadfast in the unerring oscillation borne to the quartet, Nilsson quickly goes about her slippery, subversive art. "Yesterday's Promise" is all the proof needed to put that theory to bed. The aforementioned "Capacity" boasts twirling electronics and overdrive. Add the enticing "1 year, 10 months, 3 days for Ahmaud Arbery"—a hopper of a number that not only doubles dares all the slide stepping, hip bending, marathon dancers out there, but whose compositional structure reflects the date, with the first part comprising 24 bars and the second 11 bars (24/11)— and "Stepping Away" to the list of mad exhibitions. 

With the scale tilted heavily in her favor, Nilsson goes for it all this time, and Liminal immediately becomes a high bar in the flautist's growing body of work. A considerable body of work that includes the still smoldering drive of the Leibson accompanied Quila Quina -40°17'38.21"N, -71°45'68.48"S (ears&eyes, 2024), the Band of Pulses powered Pulses (ears&eyes, 2023), the hypnotic reactions of  Cycles of Formation (ears&eyes, 2022); and her Esthesis Quartet 2022 debut (alongside pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Emma Dayhuff, and drummer Tina Raymond), Esthesis Quartet (Orenda Records).

In the press one-sheet, Nilsson explains that what she had in mind for  Liminal was the idea of the in-betweens, those transitional or initial stages of a process. Maybe so, and hopefully mission accomplished. But what Nilsson, known for her deep research and immersion into what concerns her most, really does is take a deep dive into the blues: those stages of transition between the in-betweens.