Bruno Råberg: Triloka: Music for Strings and Soloists

The number three has always had a symbolic and spiritual significance in many different religions and cultures—and, in his latest album Triloka (literally translated as 'Three Realms'), Swedish bassist Bruno Råberg pays his own personal homage to the trinity of...well, everything.

Inspired by South Indian carnatic music, the album immediately cuts to the chase with its enchanting title track, "Triloka," which—not too surprisingly—has a threefold structure. The entire album is written for strings only, and despite not having a complete rhythm section at hand, the music proves to be full of energy and groove in pieces such as "Chandra Soma" and "Trilogy For Strings (Part III)." In addition to South Indian music, Råberg's other musical influences include jazz improvisation and Swedish folk music. This equally appropriate ternate concept is displayed beautifully in "Sojourn For Strings," which starts within Western, diatonic harmonies and later ventures out into microtonality, where violinist Layth Sidiq takes a tasteful solo exploring Arabic sounds and colours.

The album draws to a peaceful close with the serene "August Hymnal," in Råberg's words a "tribute to the end of summer, an afterthought and at the same time an anticipation of fall." Triloka is a captivating album with an almost orchestral flair to it; at times dark and foreboding, yet at other times playful and light.