May 28 2019
Album of the Day: Erlend Apneseth Trio with Frode Haltli – “Salika, Molika”
Folk music should feel like it’s got roots. It should exude a presence that radiates history, as if the notes that comprise it have been absorbed into the bones of musicians from long ago and, over time, into those of listeners who have nurtured its lineage by humming its melody under the breath over the centuries. A folk music tune should be caked with the dust of time.
But there’s no requirement on the source of the soil or, even, the time it traverses.
The new album from the Erlend Apneseth Trio is a case in point. The sampled voices and spoken word echo the stories and narratives of the past, but the live sampling and electronics and improvisation provide an elusive time stamp, as if this is folk music whose roots won’t manifest until sometime far off in the future… and in a land not yet discovered.
Apneseth has a proven track record of utilizing his hardanger fiddle as a doorway to recapture the life of old tunes, but never before has he quite so freely moved along the timeline. Some of this alluring clash between past and future is the resulting convergence of guest Frode Haltli’s accordion and the electronic textures from baritone guitarist Stephan Meidell. There’s an awestruck beauty to the way these disparate elements fall into one another’s embrace. It’s a union further cemented by the percussion of Øyvind Hegg-Lunde, and a rhythmic voice that could express the same resonance and equanimity in any era and never seem out of place. This, too, can be said about the spoken word sampling interspersed throughout, and how these voices are rooted to their time and place, but the specifics need not ever be itemized or accounted for, because the roots of folk music run deep, and as such, are connected to everything. And that means the music, this music, Erlend Apneseth Trio’s Salika, Molika, is timeless.
Your album personnel: Erlend Apneseth (hardanger fiddle), Stephan Meidell (baritone acoustic guitar, zither, live sampling and electronics), Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums, percussion) and Frode Haltli (accordion).
Released on Hubro Music.
Music from Aal, Buskerud, Norway.
Available at: Amazon | Direct from Hubro
And be sure to check out Apneseth’s 2016 recording, Det Andre Rommet. It received a warm reception here on Bird is the Worm.
To learn more about the album, check out the official EPK…
I’ll admit it right now: Initially, I didn’t spend enough time with this recording. But these last months, I’ve been revisiting a bunch of Hubro Music releases from 2017 & 2018, and this April 2018 release from Frode Haltli is floating my boat even more than it did when first I gave it a listen one year ago. The accordionist fashions a most intriguing fusion of Nordic folk, modern jazz and chamber music, and the final image ranges anywhere between jaw dropping beauty and object of fascination. There’s a whimsy to this music that builds humor with a serious intent… a combination that has driven the avant-garde expressionism of musicians like Frank Zappa, Kamikaze Ground Crew and the Flaming Lips. Avant Folk received some year-end Best Of list consideration at the time, but as I find myself hopelessly addicted to this recording on my second go-around, I realize, had I had more time, Avant Folk would certainly have been given a slot on this site’s Best of 2018 list. It’s that good. Music from Svartskog, Norway.
The tag doom jazz gets tossed about when describing Splashgirl, and it’s not without cause. The trio’s cinematic atmospherics exhibit a dramatic flair that borders on ominous, and its tendency toward ambient drones more often than not ramps up the intensity to higher and higher levels. Their latest release Sixth Sense embraces these tendencies with even greater zeal, and the result is an immersive experience that almost forbids the act of daydreaming… even as the music displays those qualities that make conditions ripe for drifting away into deep, fanciful thoughts.
There’s no end to the fascinating patterns that emerge from a Stein Urheim project. The guitarist unleashes a kaleidoscopic array of sounds and textures and imagery. Perhaps most impressive is how distinct one project is from the next, so that even though the approach and motives may be the same, the visceral experience of the music is as different one from the next as the sound manifesting from its beating heart. On Utopian Tales, there’s a space age electronic pulse and haze that drives the affair, light years distant from the rustic folk and psychedelic ambient of previous recordings. But differences aside, it is no less riveting or lovely than its counterparts. Music from Bergen, Norway.
Feb 12 2020
Best of 2019 #12: Erlend Apneseth Trio with Frode Haltli – “Salika, Molika”
That past-future timelessness, and how it’s couched within a foundation of folk musics, it reminds me of other brilliant and adored recordings, like Down Deep from the trio of Ernst Reijseger, Harmen Fraanje, and Mola Sylla, and, similarly, Codona 3 by another trio, of Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Naná Vasconcelos. All of these recordings had a way with their melodies, where they could come head on or an indirect route and nail their target, and they each conducted an inspired rhythmic discourse, the kind where its just as likely to compel the foot to tap as trigger the brain to try to interpret what it all means. They each utilized unconventional instrumentation, and yet made it sound like something common to everyday life, as if crickets bathed in moonlight or the electric hum of the city at daybreak. These are old soul recordings. They transcend the bookends of our own personal timelines and make us feel as a part of something more eternal, entering a special place where art becomes immortality, and everyone it touches.
The musicians tapped into that source for this session, and it’s magical.
Your album personnel: Erlend Apneseth (hardanger fiddle), Stephan Meidell (baritone acoustic guitar, zither, live sampling and electronics), Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums, percussion) and Frode Haltli (accordion).
Released on Hubro Music.
Music from Aal, Buskerud, Norway.
Listen | Read more | Available at: Bandcamp – Amazon
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By davesumner • Recap: Best of 2019 • 0 • Tags: Aal Buskerud (Norway), Best Jazz of 2019, Erlend Apneseth, Frode Haltli, Hubro Music