Songbook is a unique project from Danish, free jazz alto sax
player-experimental composer-educator Laura Toxværd, featuring a real art
book with short texts, her own lyrics, and graphic notations plus two
albums with different ensembles, chosen specially for the distinct sets of
compositions. Toxværd wanted to create a unified and accessible body of
work where music, texts, lyrics and images of the graphic scores would be
mutually embedded in each other, enhancing the realization that her
notations can be seen as visual expressions of the sonic ideas and vice
versa.
Laura Toxværd - Tidens strøm (Ilk Music, 2019) ****
Tidens strøm (the flow of time in Danish) features six songs, written by
Toxværd. Her lyrics reference elements from the poem “Nyaarsmorgen” by
Danish poet and pastor Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872),
founder of Grundtvigianism, a theological movement that revitalized the
Danish Lutheran church. Toxværd mentions that she was also inspired by the
folk songs of Swedish songwriter-poet Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795) and
free jazz pioneer and sax player Albert Ayler. These songs were recorded at
a studio in December 2018 by an ensemble that its instrumentation brings to
mind the ensembles of sax player Henry Threadgill - vocalist Maria Laurette
Friis, Toxværd on alto sax, tuba player Kristian Tangvik, accordionist Kalle
Moberg and drummer Kresten Osgood.
The songs are sung in Danish (but the Songbook offers translations in English) and suggest the imaginative arrangements of Toxværd. She weaves
cleverly the elements from Nordic folk, hymn-like songs, lyrics that often
referring to dream-state visions (“What next I remember was none of a dream
/ is present full sweet like this stream of love proper. / with snowy white
wings / doves from sea of the light / painted an epic with chalk and lime
and glue”, from “Snehvide Vinger”, Snowy White Wings) with concise and
vivid descriptions of natural sceneries and the gospel-ish, free jazz
singing of Ayler. Laurette Friis charges these songs with a refined,
vulnerable delivery, Tangvik and Moberg intensify the chamber, folky
envelope and only Osgood adds subversive, free and minimalist comments
while Toxværd balances all with her passionate love cries.
Only 27 minutes long but a rare, beautiful gem.
Laura Toxværd - Drapery (Ilk Music, 2019) ***½
Drapery is a collection of nine of graphically notated compositions of
Toxværd, penned in 2019 and delivered by her on alto sax, Gustaf Ljunggren
on “various strings” and guitars, Peter Friis Nielsen on electric bass and
Marilyn Mazur on percussion and drums. Drapery was recorded in May 2019.
These compositions involve abstract paintings, broken lines of notes and
combinations of both, each with its own spirit and focus. Toxværd explains
her approach: “Sometimes I need something abstract and improvisational, and
then I like to design a graphic score where I note this to the musicians.
Other times, I see the need for something that has more to do with tones,
harmonies, and rhythms, and then I note it on music paper”.
The quartet alternates between the contemplative, yet open and often fully
emotional reading of the scores, as on the opening, title-piece or
“Fields”, “Countrysides” or “Lament” to the nervous, aggressive attacks as
on “Current”, based on a totally, chaotic, abstract score, or the fiery
free jazz piece “Elsewhere”. Toxværd opts for a clear, thoughtful tone and
collective, democratic improvisations but there are times where she
explodes and reaches brutal, Brötzmann-like onslaughts. Both kinds of
compositions stress the highly versatile, totally free coloring of Friis
Nielsen and Mazur, always eager to push Toxværd and enriching the sonic
envelope further and deeper.
0 comments:
Post a Comment