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Ketil Bjørnstad Devotions
by Stuart Nicholson
Where the Ketil Bjørnstad gets his energy is
anybody’s guess. Dubbed Norway’s Renaissance Man for his
critically acclaimed work in music and literature, the 55
year-old pianist is currently celebrating the release of
Devotions. It’s the latest in a series of elegantly crafted
tone poems that include Grace, Before the Light,
The Nest, Seafarer’s Song, Floating and the
epic three volume solo piano set Rainbow Sessions for
Universal’s EmArcy label that have brought him an international
audience for his haunting, moving and melodically intense music.
Devotions
follows on from where 2005’s
Floating, his first album in the orthodox piano-bass-drums
configuration, left off. On it he is joined by bassist Arild
Andersen and drummer Alex Riel, but this time the trio becomes a
quartet with the addition of Wolfgang Puschnig on bass clarinet
and flutes. “I enjoyed Floating and it would have been
easy for me to make two or even three more albums as a trio,”
says Bjørnstad. “But bringing in Wolfgang Puschnig’s instruments
widens the soundscape, and after Floating I’m more
conscious about melody, what are the possibilities. So for me it
is to find a balance between a very intimate approach and
expression I want and exploring further the possibilities of
melody than ever before.”
Like so much of
Bjørnstad’s work, Devotions is like a soundtrack for a
movie yet to be written. Evoking powerful musical imagery
through the tightly woven elements of composition and
improvisation on “White (The Innocence),” “Red (The Passion),”
and “Black (The Sorrow)” – inspired by Edvard Munch’s painting
“The Dance of Life” – and pieces such as “The Moon Arising” and
“The Tree in the Courtyard,” the unifying theme of the album is
the bitter sweet memories of places and associations of time
gone by.
“For me it is
more like a short story with the titles giving a little hint of
the story line,” he says. “The private house which becomes a
private concert hall – you listen to music in this flat or in
that house. I remember my old flat in Oslo, where I was
listening to some important players and I can still see the
rooftops and the sky, and how important this small flat was for
me and my music. You are playing music during the night and the
morning comes and there is something is different in the music
and there is also the fascination with people so close to each
other in a city but not knowing anything about each other.”
Over the years
Bjørnstad says he has come to realise how important melody, its
variation and development, are to his music. “I have come to
realise what I can do, and what I can’t do, and so I concentrate
on what I can do,” he reflects. “I like there to be very
distinct melodic content, not just on the themes, but during the
improvisation as well. What has developed in the later years is
a more conscious collaboration with the recording engineer Jan
Erik Kongshaug in his famous Rainbow Studio here in Oslo and I
feel that he is able to record something very close to the
perfect piano sound. I know I can do things that will be heard,
the dynamics and the overtones will be there, so you dare to
play less notes.”
The recording
studio is where Bjørnstad defines his music, “For me the studio
situation is very important, I know many of my colleagues –
musicians – they have concerts first and then they can say,
‘Okay we go into the studio and record it.’ For me it starts in
the studio, when the music is very fresh and new, rather than
going on tour for many weeks to prepare and then go in
the studio, because I believe you loose the first magical
feelings of the music. I bring in new material and everything is
very fresh, very new and extremely vulnerable, so for me the
studio production is extremely important so I prepare a lot for
it.”
Throughout
Devotions, the elements of simplicity and purity in
Bjørnstad’s music and the way he and his musicians respond to
them are often impressive in their momentary effect. With
Puschnig’s flutes and bass clarinet adding an ethereal, floating
quality to his music, Devotions opens a fresh chapter in
Bjørnstad’s musical odyssey. Arild Andersen on bass and Alex
Riel on drums shape the music from within, with Andersen’s
haunting bowed acoustic bass providing a hint of “ambient”
shading on three titles. “There were so many surprises the way
the music was created,” reflects Bjørnstad. “With four people
the energy of wanting to try out things and go further was so
exciting.”
But ultimately
Devotions success lies with the touch, the intensity and
the transparency of Bjørnstad’s piano. Somehow he manages to
suggest a tension between the temporal art form of music making
and art itself, an aspiration of timelessness that can be found
throughout his best work. There is hard earned musical wisdom in
this music as Bjørnstad condenses powerful emotions into small
spaces. A Renaissance Man yes, where the joy of music surfaces
in his literature and the writer’s storytelling privilege
surfaces in his music.
(This text is a
press release by Universal/Emarcy, 2007) |