Golden Xplosion (Edition Records)
Marius Neset
Released April 25, 2011
The Guardian Five-Star Review
Jazzwise Top 10 Releases of 2011
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=dP4RxIQTkq8&list=OLAK5uy_mh0a92Zt1zEzAS5jABp8gBPY0_bsoctww
Spotify:
About:
In April 2011 Marius Neset released Golden Xplosion, an album that led to the saxophonist and composer becoming one of the most talked about newcomers on the European jazz scene in recent years. At just 25 years old, he was described by Terje Mosnes in Norway’s Dagbladet as “the most talented Norwegian saxophonist since Jan Garbarek in the 1960s”, but it is the maturity in both his writing and playing, combined with the extraordinary energy and commitment he puts into every performance which really impresses.
Track Listing:
1. Introducing: Golden Xplosion (Marius Neset) 2:00
2. Gold Xplosion (Marius Neset) 5:26
3. City on Fire (Marius Neset) 7:42
4. Sane (Marius Neset) 3:47
5. Old Poison (XL) (Marius Neset) 2:18
6. Shame Us (Anton Eger / Marius Neset) 6:31
7. Saxophone Intermezzo (Marius Neset) 2:57
8. The Real YSJ (Marius Neset) 2:42
9. Saxophone Intermezzo II (Daniel Davidsen / Marius Neset) 2:22
10. Angel of the North (Marius Neset) 8:20
11. Epilogue (Marius Neset) 3:26
Personnel:
Marius Neset saxophones
Django Bates keyboards, piano
Jasper Høiby double bass
Anton Eger drums
Produced by Marius Neset
Recorded by August Wanngren at The Village, Copenhagen, April 2012
Mixed by August Wanngren in We Know Music Studios
Mastered by Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering
Album artwork by Dave Stapleton
Review:
There are plenty of credible heirs to the sax legacy of the late Michael Brecker, but most mimic Brecker’s hurtling virtuosity without adding much colour of their own. Marius Neset, the 25-year-old Norwegian saxophonist who surfaced in the UK last year with Django Bates (his teacher and mentor at Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory), not only combines Brecker’s power and Jan Garbarek’s tonal delicacy, but has a vision that makes all 11 originals on this sensational album feel indispensable, and indispensably connected to each other. Bonuses include an inspired Bates on piano and synths, and the formidable Phronesis rhythm section of bassist Jasper Høiby and drummer Anton Eger. The title track begins as a contrapuntal tenor-sax soliloquy that becomes a funky clamour when the band arrives; the breakneck-bop theme of City on Fire demonstrates the group’s breathtaking tightness; the multiphonic Saxophone Intermezzo is a majestic hymn; and the lyrical, cruising Angel of the North is like a sax-led Pat Metheny band. On this evidence, Neset is on his way to being one of the biggest new draws on the circuit.
John Fordham (The Guardian)
