Anders Lønne Grønseth: Multiverse

Built and fully realized in its moment of fruition, Norwegian saxophonist and bass clarinetist Anders Lønne Grønseth's Multiverse lays waste to the tired notion that music from the Scandinavian hinterlands has to bear the mark of chilly emotion.

The musical flow and invention heard so immediately on Multiverse is a restless wonder, resulting in rhythmic and harmonic inversions that follow their own time. This may be disorienting to some at first but further listening has it all falling beautifully into place as the music embraces and elaborates upon a true collective positive. Because at the center of Grønseth's multi-influenced musicality is a growing calm, and around that the music ripens.

Multiverse is the theory of infinite universes all going about their business simultaneously. This allows Grønseth's spirited co-conspirators, Espen Berg's floating, genre-free piano, Audun Ellingsen's talkative bass, trumpeter Hayden Powell's whispers, laments, and muse, and drummer Einar Scheving's Jack DeJohnette-inspired language to construct a web-like maze of complimentary, as well as opposing counter melodies that are as weightless as the shifting evening light. And though it's tempting to highlight any of the six Grønseth originals as standout listens, Multiverse deserves to be taken as the whole it was created to be. Such is the thrilling results of artistic freedom.