Sphere (ECM)
Bob Stenson Trio
Released March 17, 2023
Jazzwise Top 10 Albums of the Year 2023
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About:
The current incarnation of Bobo Stenson’s Trio, with Anders Jormin on bass and percussionist Jon Fält, has been active for almost two decades now, during the course of which they’ve recorded four albums – including this new one. The first, Cantando (2008), further investigated Bobo’s fluent ability to cover a wide range of influences and idioms, seamlessly integrating the new configuration into his personal sound from the start. The record prompted The Guardian to say, “few contemporary jazz groups sustain an atmosphere as evocatively as Swedish pianist Stenson’s trio, or conjure so many moods across a variety of material from Ornette Coleman to Alban Berg”. Praise continued with follow-up Indicum (2012), The New York Times noting that Bobo “is rightly heralded for his subtleties of touch and mood”, and then again with Contra La Indecision in 2018, which BBC Music Magazine called a “beautiful session”, proving ”that there is still much to be explored and revealed within this format.” More revelations and proof of the trio’s distinguished art are ever-present on Sphere.
“We don’t have a way of playing ‘ready-made’,” Bobo explains. “Things crystallise in the moment and we adjust to that. And that’s the quintessence. That’s the joy of playing together, to never do the same thing twice and to be determined about that.” From that confident joy and openness for the spontaneity of the moment is borne a particularly emotive brew on Sphere, with the pianist, bassist and drummer conjuring a poignant, pensive atmosphere through soft-spoken interplay with gentle yet agile emphases. In the trio’s approach to improvisation lies a heightened sense of experience and command. Anders concurs with Bobo when he says, “as an improvising artist, you have to learn time and time again that you can’t ever be entirely sure of something. You have to embrace that uncertainty, and be confidant about that embrace.”
Like the three previous albums, Sphere was recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, and the room’s distinctive acoustics play into the trio’s sound, intensifying the searching nature of their communication. Going into the studio with “more songs than usually”, as Jon Fält points out, the trio boiled down the material to a concentrated investigation into originals and music inspired by compositions from Scandinavian composers Alfred Janson, Per Nørgård Sven-Erik Bäck and Jean Sibelius. Anders: “Once we go into the studio we have more material than we believe will end up on the album, because we are improvising, so you never know. It’s also a collaboration with Manfred Eicher, who is of course a very creative artist himself, so the way we play is also developed together with Manfred. ”
The result of the prolific partnership between the trio and producer is marked by serene motions, a light touch and swift action, with part of the repertory being carved from 20th – 21st century compositions, transfigured and molded into colourful explorations of pace, rhythm and timbre. Danish composer Per Nørgård’s “You shall plant a tree” – originally set to words by the poet Piet Hein – bears hymnal cadences and appears twice, bringing the album full circle. The trio also refashions two pieces by Swedish composer Sven-Erik Bäck, bringing an ambient quality of acoustic discovery to “Spring” and turning “Communion psalm” into a platform for attentive rubato interplay, each player mindful of the space between them. Among the originals in the programme are “Unquestioned Answer” – a stirring tribute to modernist composer Charles Yves – and “The red flower”, which offers a rare window into the group’s gentle approach to swing. In return, “Kingdom of Coldness” gives rise to some of Bobo’s most fluent lines, framed in bountiful interplay. As for “Ky and beautiful madame Ky”, a piece that borrows from the late Norwegian composer Alfred Janson, Bobo remarks how “normally we played it in a different way than how we recorded it. Manfred had lot of ideas about what we could do with the song and remodelled it with us. It brought something very new into the mix. But that’s what he does. He brings out the musicians’ best qualities. He feels what they are capable of doing in the moment, and then he captures that.” Lastly, Jean Sibelius’s “Valsette op. 40/1” through the trio’s lens is an exercise in deconstruction, where the subject doesn’t reveal itself until the very last bars, still in disguise.
Track Listing:
1. You shall plant a tree (Per Nørgård) 04:37
2. Unquestioned answer – Charles Ives in memoriam (Anders Jormin) 06:00
3. Spring (Sven-Erik Bäck) 04:07
4. Kingdom of coldness (Anders Jormin) 07:38
5. Communion psalm (Sven-Erik Bäck) 05:37
6. The red flower (Jung-Hee Woo) 06:16
7. Ky and beautiful madame Ky (Alfred Janson) 04:51
8. Valsette op. 40/1 (Jean Sibelius) 05:07
9. You shall plant a tree (var.) (Per Nørgård) 04:01
Personnel:
Bobo Stenson: piano
Anders Jormin: double bass
Jon Fält: drums
Recorded April 2022, Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, by Stefano Amerio
Cover Photo: Woong Chul An
Design: Sascha Kleis
Produced by Manfred Eicher
Review:
It seems impossible that it is 52 years since “Underwear”, Bobo Stenson’s debut album on ECM, appeared, marking the beginning of is collaboration with producer Manfred Eicher that continues to the present. The current trio, with Jormin and Fält, has been recording for the label since “Cantando”, in 2008. This session – made at Lugano’s Italian-Swiss radio studio – catches the immediacy of a group that approaches every session afresh, yet demonstrates years of shared understanding of one another’s playing. Eicher also continues to believe in the album as an overall form, building records with his artists that tell a story from track to track. This is a fine example, from the delicate opening piano phrases of ‘You Shall Plant a Tree’, to the echo-like reprise of the piece at the close of the disc.
Unlike 2018’s “Contra la Indecision”, their previous album, “Sphere” has relatively few originals by the band, just two new pieces and one arrangement by Jormin, including a tribute to Charles Ives. Instead, thematic and harmonic ideas are mainly drawn from the works of various Scandinavian classical composers, including (from across the Baltic) a very abstract reworking of Sibelius’ ‘Valsette’ (opus 40, no.1). The eventual arrival of the full theme is ushered in by arco bass harmonics, a scattering of percussion, and ghostly, delicate fragments of the familiar melody passing between the piano and bass. This typifies a powerful introspective album that draws us into a world of intense mutual concentration, with many moments of astonishing lyrical beauty. At its core is a ravishing reworking of Sven-Erik Bäck’s ‘Communion Psalm’, its opening right-hand piano figures catching the essence of choral phrasing, before a deft bass solo ushers in some of the trio’s best collective work on the album.
Alyn Shipton (Jazzwise)
