Hubro Music

Feb 12 2020

Best of 2019 #12: Erlend Apneseth Trio with Frode Haltli – “Salika, Molika”

 

Earlier this year, I gave a pretty thorough breakdown of what this album is about and why it’s so damn compelling.  The Erlend Apneseth Trio with Frode Haltli created something timeless, music that has deep roots and eyes to the stars and beyond.  But now having spent nearly a year with this recording, and had the time to experience it at first listen, grow increasingly enamored with it, analyze it objectively for a write-up, and then get to where it settled in as one of my go-to albums when I just wanted some music to fill up the space in my house and my life, it’s gotten to where Salika, Molika elicits more abstruse reactions and oblique connections.

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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Jan 22 2020

Best of 2019 #54: Trond Kallevag Hansen – “Bedehus & Hawaii”

 

There are so many different reasons a particular album will connect with me, and often, it’s more than one reason.  It’s a joy to attempt to convey those emotions and thoughts in the written form, to bring the imagery in my head, heart, and soul to life on the page.  But occasionally I encounter an album that is so damn beautiful in some ineffable way that all I want to do is simply type the words this is pure beauty over and over again.  This is pure beauty this is pure beauty this is pure beauty this is pure beauty.  Guitarist Trond Kallevåg Hansen has crafted an album that captures the Nordic countryside and the Pacific ocean shore, and he’s joined by musicians who have a talent at doing the same, especially fellow guitarist Geir Sundstøl, who, also, creates music of pure beauty and has left me equally captivated.  2019 has had its share of gorgeous recordings see the light of day, but perhaps none more oso than Bedehus & Hawaii.  This is pure beauty.  Sometimes that’s all that can be said, and really, there is nothing more that needs saying.

Your album personnel:  Trond Kallevåg Hansen (guitar, electronics and field recordings), Ivar Myrset Asheim (drums and percussion), Alexander Hoholm (double bass), Geir Sundstøl (guitar, pedal steel, marxophone, optigan, xylophone) and Adrian Løseth Waade (violin).

Released on Hubro Music.

Music from Oslo, Norway.

I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Amazon – Bandcamp

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Jan 19 2020

Best of 2019 #66: Mats Eilertsen – “Reveries and Revelations”

 

Mats Eilertsen has been responsible for all kinds of fascinating music, so it’s no small thing to say that Reveries and Revelations is arguably his most compelling work to date.  It’s a series of de facto duo sessions performed in isolation.  The bassist recorded pieces in his own home studio, and then sent the music to a handful of collaborators to perform their own music along to it.  In turn, they sent that music back to him, and thus began the final stage of putting it all together into something of a sonic collage.  Eilertsen retains the minimalist aspect of the music, and never lets the recreation become something illogical or untraceable back to the solitary nature of this music.  And yet, he generates a large presence with these pieces, something that transcends the first blush impression of introspection and peaceful tones.  It is not unlike how sparse noises seem to roar out from the quiet black of night… almost as if silence is the best reflective surface for huge sounds to incubate.  There’s also an intimacy to this music, and seems to belie the claim that the musicians were miles apart when making their contributions to the final product.  All of it comes together for one of the most compelling works of 2019.

Your album personnel:  Mats Eilertsen (double bass, electric bass, acoustic bass guitar, guitar, harmonium, keyboard), and guests: Geir Sundstøl (guitar, national guitar, banjo), Eivind Aarset (guitar), Thomas Strønen (drums, percussion, electronics), Per Oddvar Johansen (snare drum) and Arve Henriksen (trumpet).

Released on Hubro Music.

Music from Oslo, Norway.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Jan 16 2020

These are videos that I like: Mats Eilertsen “Tundra”

 

One of my favorite albums of 2019 was Reveries & Revelations by Mats Eilertsen.  It’s got plenty of tranquility for when I need something soothing late at night or first thing in the morning, but it’s got just the right amount of edge and liveliness to sit down with the album smack dab in the middle of the day.  And it’s on one my favorite labels, Hubro Music, which specializes in the this kind of music, along with the kind of music that is so strange and yet so melodic and eludes any attempt to classify it with our better known genre tags.

This video is from the album track “Tundra,” put together courtesy of Jenny Berger Myhre.

You can expect to be reading more about this album as we ramp up for the Best of 2019 reveal (which, by the way, starts tomorrow night with the introduction!)

Listen to more of the music on the artist’s Soundcloud page.

If you don’t want to wait for my Best of 2019 list and just want to purchase the album right this instant (and you should), it’s available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Dec 31 2019

Now up: Best Jazz on Bandcamp in 2019

 

And here we go.

It was pretty much an impossible task to cobble together a Best of 2019 list for Bandcamp, limited, as I was, to just 15 slots.  Too many great recordings in 2019, too few opportunities to train a spotlight on them.  Rather than do a typical ranking, I went with the approach of presenting a cohesive picture of the modern jazz landscape, a snapshot of its diversity and how that leads to new and exciting forms of expression… including many that leave the 1950’s bop sound far behind.

Some of these albums will be familiar to you from the monthly recommendations columns to already hit The Bandcamp Daily, but there are also a few that will be new to this column.  2019 was the best year ever, and this list is just a fraction of the evidence supporting that claim.

And on that note, let’s begin.

Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.

Check out past recommendations by running through my contributor archives.

Have fun going through the list!

Cheers.

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