By Eyal Hareuveni
The Swedish, Gothenburg-based, free-improvising trio of Swiss-born double bass player Nina de Heney, pianist Karin Johansson and drummer Henrik Wartel has been performing steadily over the last few years. This trio describes itself as exploring the musical territories that occur through instant compositions, balancing between expressions of sounds, rhythms and textures. The trio’s debut album, Quagmire, was recorded live at Geiger sessions, Elementstudio, Gothenburg in February 2018.
All three musicians are experienced improvisers, and all have developed
their own extended techniques, unique preparations and assorted objects
that enrich their sonic universes. De Heney is known from her brilliant
solo work and duo with pianist Lisa Ullén. Johansson works with
experimental guitarist Finn Loxbo, and veteran Wartel is known from his
work with local jazz icons like trombonist Eje Thelin and vocalist Monika
Zetterlund as well as the Polish trumpeter Tomaz Stanńko, and today he
is playing with everyone, everywhere.
This trio sounds as if it has found its very own mode of operation in
the kind of muddy waters that experimental, instantly-composed
music often is. Quagmire feature three distinct improvisations. The
first, title-piece begins with a fragmented dialog between The
enigmatic bowing of de Heney and rubbing and scratching wooden, metal
and skin surfaces of Johansson and Wartel, and patiently it gravitates to a sparse and fragile pulse. De Heney injects a destabilizing
element with each stroke of the bass strings, subverting the
intensifying rhythmic pattern that Wartel attempts to solidify, while
Johansson adds cosmic, melodic touches to this tense and dense yet very
intimate interplay. The second piece, “Tideland,” still suggests a
shaky atmosphere, with de Heney leading and using the double bass as a
percussive instrument that triggers imaginative percussive envelope
from both Johansson and Wartlel, encompassing her total intuitive
rhythmic rationale with nuanced sounds. The last, “Meander Mesh,” is the
most gentle, and emotional piece here, beginning with Johansson
offering resonant ripples of the piano strings and finally treads on
quite linear course and even on solid ground. De Heney, Johansson and
Wartel succeed again to find their own complex yet mysterious pulse and
keep exposing more detailed and colorful layers.
Brilliant and beautiful.
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