Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Andres Thor: Nordic Quartet

8

Andres Thor: Nordic Quartet

By

View read count
Andres Thor: Nordic Quartet
Even though it is a small country, Iceland has produced many interesting jazz musicians. Among them, pianists Sunna Gunnlaugs and Eythor Gunnarsson, saxophonist Óscar Gudjónsson and bassist Skúli Sverrisson. Add to this list guitarist Andrés Thor.

As a musician, Thor has the distinctive lyrical beauty of many of his countrymen, but he is also a cosmopolitan at heart who stretches across geographical boundaries and this is reflected on his album Nordic Quartet. His group includes Danish bassist Andreas Dreier, who has recently released the Ahmad Jamal-influenced trio album Poinciana (Losen Records, 2014). Dreier has played a lot on the Norwegian jazz scene and it's also here that Thor has found Norwegian saxophonist Anders Lønne Grønseth and Swedish drummer Erik Nylander.

"Butterfly" opens the album with a Nordic take on the bossa nova with melancholy chords, silky soprano saxophone and Nylander playing brushes while Thor builds his lines around a melodic motif that forms the core of the composition.

Part of the fascination of this album is the subtle experiments with texture and instruments. For instance, "Komodo" incorporates the mournful tones of pedal steel that add extra atmosphere to a strong ballad and "Stuttlega" starts out as a warm acoustic fingerstyle piece in the tradition of Alex de Grassi before it morphs into a jazzy pop groove anchored by Dreier's bass. "Basic," on the other hand, is an atmospheric rubato composition where Thor's playing is reminiscent of Danish guitarist Jakob Bro.

Thor paints a wide musical picture. The mood is gentle and blue, with whispery saxophone and memorable mournful melodies. If there is such a thing as an Icelandic blues this is it.

Track Listing

Butterfly; Basic; Komodo; Stuttlega; Utilforladelig; Fjólublár; Squiek; Sea; Fjarðarmáni.

Personnel

Andres Thor
guitar

Andrés Thor: guitar, pedalsteel guitar; Anders Lønne Grønseth: tenor & soprano saxophones, bass clarinet; Andreas Dreier: bass; Erik Nylander: drums & drummachine.

Album information

Title: Nordic Quartet | Year Released: 2014 | Record Label: Nordic Notes

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.