Arve Henriksen — Chron + Cosmic Creation (2014)

 

 Arve Henriksen — Chron + Cosmic Creation
Location: Stranda ~ Trondheim, Norway
Album release:  17th of January 2014
Genre: Jazz, Avant–Garde, Ambient, Experimental |
Label: Rune Grammofon
Duration:      40:09 + 39:21 => 79:30
Tracks:
CD 1 — Chron:
01. Proto Earth      (4:19)
02. Hadean      (1:52)
03. Chron      (6:05)
04. Solidification      (5:46)
05. Zircon      (2:07)
06. Plume Of Ash      (2:18)
07. Magma Oscillator      (6:14)
08. Archean      (4:23)
09. First Life      (2:02)
10. Plate Tectonic      (2:30)
11. Chronozone      (2:33)
CD 2 — Cosmic Creation:
01. I      (3:43)
02. II      (3:19)
03. III      (4:30)
04. IV      (2:33)
05. V      (6:20)
06. VI      (5:17)
07. VII      (9:35)
08. VIII      (4:04)
♦♦   Chron first appeared as part of the magnificent "Solidification" box set, but has now been made available on its own due to popular demand. The double CD comes with "Cosmic Creation", another new album that in many ways can be considered "Chron"´s twin album. These are true solo albums with Arve playing all instruments, both recorded at home and in various locations, and both showing a part of Arve that is possibly most comparable to his work in Supersilent, the free form group he has been a part of since its formation in 1997. In regards to his solo albums, these two albums are probaby closest to "Strjon", showing the playful explorer manipulating recordings and instruments, mixing the acoustic and the electronic, composing and improvising, being creative and recording ideas the very minute they appear.
Website: http://www.arvehenriksen.com/
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BIOGRAPHY:
♣   Born in 1968, Arve Henriksen studied at the Trondheim Conservatory from 1987–1991, and has worked as a freelance musician since 1989.
♣   He has worked with many musicians familiar to ECM listeners, including Jon Balke (with whose Magnetic North Orchestra he has played extensively), Anders Jormin, Edward Vesala, Jon Christensen, Marilyn Mazur, Audun Kleive, Nils Petter Molvær, Misha Alperin, Arkady Shilkloper, Arild Andersen, Hilmar Jensson, Skuli Sverrisson, Stian Carstensen, Dhafer Youssef, Sidsel Endresen, Stian Westerhus, David Sylvian, Jon Hassell, Hope Sanduval, Eivind Aarset, Erik Honoré, the Cikada String Quartet, The Source and more. He has played in many different contexts, bands and projects, ranging from working with koto player Satsuki Odamura, to the rock band Motorpsycho via numerous free improvising groups with Ernst Reisiger, Sten Sandell, Peter Friis-Nilsen, Lotte Anker, Terje Isungset, Marc Ducret ,Karl Seglem et cetera. Today he is working with Supersilent and various settings including Jan Bang, Audun Kleive, Helge Norbakken and Ingar Zach.
♣   He has composed music (commision) to Bale Jazz, Vossa Jazz, "My own private furry" (dance performance) and to "FRED" (theatreperformance). He has made music for films and documentary programs. He was artist in residence at Moers Jazzfestival 2006 and he has been a part of the European Jazz Launch project 2004–2006. He was the artist in residence at Molde Jazz Festival 2009. He has received Radka Toneffs Minnepris, Norsk Jazzforums Buddy Award, Paul Acket Award at North Sea Jazz Festival and DNB and Kongsberg Jazzfestival´s Musician Award 2011. He has been nominated to Nordisk Råds musikkpris in 2009 and also nominated to European Jazz musician of the year 2009. He has a long discography counting over 110 records in total.
Arve says: „An interest in sound-making was there from the beginning of my work with the trumpet. I have spent many hours on developing a warm sound, for instance, but not only that. In my opinion, the trumpet has vast potential for tone and sound variations that we still have not heard. At one point, I think it was in 1988, Nils Petter Molvær lent me a cassette of shakuhachi flute playing. Then things changed.”
♣   Arve Henriksen began collecting recordings of Japanese music, with koto, biwa, shakuhachi and other instruments: "I let the music 'ring' and develop in my head. I was astonished by the sound of this flute..." The shakuhachi's roots in the tradition of Zen Buddhism fascinated the trumpeter, as did its "meditative and minimalistic expressive quality. "This has made me work with tone and sound making in a new direction.”
♣   But his interest doesn’t stop with this. He has been inspired by all sorts of folk music, also the Norwegian. He is now interested to work with more contemporary and composed music. He has also spent time on electronics and different treatments on the trumpet. And during the last years has also been focusing on his singing.
PRESS:
♣   Despite his many followers, nobody plays a trumpet quite like the plaintively expressive Norwegian Arve Henriksen, the man whose inspirations are flautists as much as they are ambient brass stars such as Nils Petter Molvaer. This new album contains 10 sublime reflections on religious sites and buildings. If it just represented diplomatic awe around holy places, it could have ended up as spiritually upmarket mood music, but Henriksen's real priorities are the untapped sonic possibilities of the trumpet, as well as ideology–free meditation. On the elegaic Adhan, he cultivates an evocative unsteadiness that makes him sound creatively buffeted by solitude, but he's harder and more incisive (as if peering from the prow of a craft on a foaming sea) on Saraswati, sad but passionate on Le Cimitiere Marin, close to the vocal purity of a chorister on Lament, and in league with the Miles Davis of Sketches of Spain on the softly pealing Bayon. 5/5. The Guardian (UK)
♣   More moody, atmospheric evocations of sacred spaces and the natural world, with Norwegian trumpeter and sound–sculptor Henriksen once again assisted by producers Jan Bang and Erik Honoré on samples and programming, with Honoré also singing on the final track, "Shelter From The Storm". So yes, we´ve been here before and "Places Of Worship" sounds more like the summation of a previous body of work than a new departure. But this may well be Henriksen´s most approachable album — certainly for people coming to him for the first time — and even the semi–commercial breakthrough he deserves. It is also absolutely sublime. 5/5. Independent on Sunday (UK)
♣   This album is full of exquisite, atmospheric, mystically evocative sounds.  Henriksen´s trumpet tone is warm, burr–edged, lambent, sometimes remarkably flute–like, his falsetto vocals are etheral and beguiling, and his lines are lyrical, delicately–crafted and full of grace. The electronic enviroments are no mere add–ons or passive backgrounds, but contribute subtly yet richly to the overall effect of the compositions. This is one of those albums which I continued to play far more than was strictly necessary for the purpose of a review... deeply affecting, ravishing beauty. 5/5. Jazz Journal (UK)
♣   Henriksen is the creator of a stunningly beautiful innovation in trumpet playing: making it sound like a breathy shakuhachi flute. Following a boxset retrospective, it´s never sounded more settled, on perhaps his most straightforwardly gorgeous set yet. Puffs of Chet Baker–style melody bloom amid rich strings, ghostly samples and his girlish voice, with an almost spoken ballad from Erik Honoré a sentimental but lovely ending. Uncut (UK)
♣   Arve Henriksen — co–founder of acclaimed avant–garde improv trio Supersilent — makes deeply atmospheric music that generally commands arrest. “Melting moments from Norway´s ambient trumpet genius” gushed Uncut magazine when Rune Granmofon released "Solidification", a vinyl box set of Henriksen´s solo work, last year... Teamed with the sampling and programming skills of Jan Bang and Erik Honoré, the results are highly distinctive; "sublime" is, understandably, one of the words most often reached for to evoke the particular qualities of his serene–but–edgy mood music, at once deeply rooted in nature and landscape but pregnant with aural modernity. Opener "Adhan" begins with birdsong and basks in deep reflective calm, before "Saraswati" introduces lusher textures and a noir–ish trippy–hoppy percussive drive. It´s an elegant, mysterious statement from a minimalist master. Jazzwise (UK)
♣   It would not be entirely indefensible to suggest that some of these tracks are a 21st–century equivalent to Bobby Hackett’s recordings with strings. (I’ll abstain from any obvious late–50s Miles Davis comparisons.) Like Hackett, Henriksen can take surface prettiness and intensify it into deeply affecting, ravishing beauty. Pigeon-holing controversies aside, this album is full of exquisite, atmospheric, mystically evocative sounds. Henriksen’s trumpet tone is warm, burr–edged, lambent, sometimes remarkably flute–like, his falsetto vocals are ethereal and beguiling, and his lines are lyrical, delicately–crafted and full of grace. Jazzjournal (UK)
♣   Noted Norwegian trumpeter, the enigmatic Arve Henriksen — whose horn, with its breathy sonorities, possesses an eerie flutelike tone — follows up his recent, critically–lauded, 7LP career retrospective "Solidification" (reviewed in RC 412) — with arguably his most impressive opus yet, "Places of Worship". By turns hauntingly beautiful and achingly desolate, Henriksen´s brooding celestial soundscapes are inspired by ecclesiastical themes and invoke a sense of awe, humility and wonder. Record Collector (UK)
♣   Mixing field recordings with minimalist trumpet, Supersilent´s Arve Henriksen conjures bleak beguiling landscapes on "Places Of Worship". Subtle guest appearances manifest and fade like ghosts in the ambient ruins, while Henriksen´s taut musical tracery is delivered with sparse, elegant, haiku — like precision conjuring intimate reverie amd melancholia. It´s an astonishing, exquisite, intense record. Prog (UK)
Following his astonishing box set "Solidification", the Norwegian trumpeter takes a side–step into Fourth World Hassell–esque exotica: trumpet tone poems backed by soothing chorales, electric bass and ECMbient textures. Mojo (UK)
♣   If the jazz trumpet is usually the instrument of party–night rabble–rousing, then Henriksen’s contemplative voice is the polar, or at least Norwegian, opposite. On his fifth solo album, using a sound like a Japanese flute, he conjures meditative tone poems inspired by religious buildings and ruins. From the dreamy trip–hop of Saraswati to the classical drama of Portal these are tunes of rare delicacy. The Times (UK)
...Fellow Norwegian cross–genre trumpeter and Supersilent founder Arve Henriksen’s Place of Worshipcollects a striking series of tone poems inspired by buildings which instantly embraces. It is beautiful. The Artsdesk (UK)
♣   A series of 10 tone-poems or meditations on otherworldly places — religious or poetic — "Places Of Worship" seeks to describe extraordinary space in the way Miles Davis did with "Sketches Of Spain" or Jon Hassell continues to do today. This is achieved with economy: with Henriksen´s trumpet and occasional wordless singing, Erik Honoré´s understated synth bass and samples from Jan Bang. It all adds up to a probing electro–acoustic atmosphere that hovers around ideas and spaces, looking for ways to unlock secrets. Henriksen is not in the game for easy sounds; there are sections on the track "Alhambra" where odd electric hisses open uneasy fissures in the layers created by trumpet and acoustic guitar, while "Abandoned Cathedral" is hauntes and melancholic. New Internationalist (UK)
♣   Elektro-akustische Musik ist das bevorzugte Terrain des norwegischen Trompeters Arve Henriksen, das er mit Formationen wie Supersilent und Food seit Jahren erkundet. Seine „Places of Worship“ wirken nahezu wie ein Solo–Projekt; denn Samples und Synthesizer von Jan Bang und Eric Honoré verschwinden weitgehend im  klagend–schmutzigen Trompetensound. Durchweg in schleppenden Tempi bewegt sich diese ergreifend–schöne Novembermusik, gewidmet Kirchen, Friedhöfen und verlassenen Sakralbauten. Jazzpodium (DE)
♣   Nun hat Arve Henriksen, der norwegische Trompetenflüsterer und entrückte Sänger, das Sakrale unmittelbar im CD–Titel. Zehn konkrete religiöse Orte zelebriert er herauf und bannt sie in berückende Klangbilder mit alten Gefährten wie Jan Bang, Erik Honoré oder Eivind Aarset. Es herrschen Besinnlichkeit, Einkehr und Würde in diesen klangschönen Anbetungen von etwas Höherem. Henriksens Trompetenton zwischen Hauchen und Flüstern schwingt sich empor vor Schwaden elektronischen Wohlklangs. Nichts hat Eile hier, alles ist aufgeladen mit überweltlicher Emotionalität, die sich ruhig entfaltet wie in sphärischen Traumschleifen. Die Erlesenheit dieser fragilen Klänge ist ebenso anrührend wie in sich schlüssig. Leipziger Volkszeitung (DE)
♣   ...Der Besucher darf sich auf einen atmosphärischen und seelenvollen, von kleinen, feinen Brüchen durchzogenen Soundtrip eines Musikers freuen, der jenseits von festgezurrten Genregrenzen längst seine ganz eigene Klangsprache auf seinem Instrument gefunden hat. Zeitungshaus Bauer (DE)
♣   ...Zusammen ergibt das eine sehr erhabene, in Teilen sogar sakrale Musik, die aber weder nach Esoterik noch nach Gotteshaus klingt. Musik in der man tief und angenehm versinken kann. Sound and Image (DE)
♣   Er gehört zu den Erneuerern auf der Jazztrompete. Manche behaupten gar, Arve Henriksen mache heute die Musik, die Miles Davis gespielt hätte, würde er noch leben. Sicher, eine gewagte Aussage, die sich letztlich aber auch nicht widerlegen lässt. Doch Henriksen steht tatsächlich in der Tradition des großen Miles — ohne ihn auch nur einen Millimeter zu kopieren. Der Norweger hat seinen eigenen Ansatz, einen unverwechselbaren, individuellen Sound. Zwei Töne von ihm und man überlegt: Jon Hassell oder Arve Henriksen? Der dritte Ton bringt dann die Lösung. Er ist in seinem Spiel vom Mainstream soweit entfernt, wie der Tiger von der Arktis. Hören wir seine Musik, folgen wir den Spuren eines ewig Suchenden, eines Wanderers zwischen den stilistischen  Welten — der immer fündig wird. Ein Magier, ein Ästhet, der statt mit jubilierendem Blech durch atemberaubende Stille aufwühlt. Der mit seinen pulsierenden Klangflächen den hellichten Tag zur geheimnisvollen Nacht gestaltet. Seine von Jan Bang in tiefem blau getönten Elektroniks, die dunkel treibenden Bassfiguren, die verwaschenen Harmonien, alles atmet eine fast schon kosmische Weite. Zwar im Hier und Jetzt angelegt, doch in seiner Würde zeitlos berührend. KultKomplott (DE)
♣   Ist es doch Musik für eine Welt, die noch ganz andere Möglichkeiten hätte, wenn sie sich denn richtig stimmen ließe. Henriksen zu Seite für sein Nada Brahma stehen, nicht zum ersten Mal, Jan Bang mit Samples und Erik Honoré mit Samples & Synth Bass. Gelegentlich ist der Sound zusätzlich mit weiteren Samples und/oder den Klang — farben des Stahlquartetts, Lars Danielssons Bass, Jon Balkes Piano oder Ingar Zachs Percussion gefärbt. Durchwegs aber so Ton in Ton, dass ganz andere Momente heraus- stechen. Etwa wenn Henriksen bei 'Lament' und 'Abandoned Cathedral' (mit hoher Kopfstimme) als Domspatz singt. Neben diesem christlichen Hauch, der auch durch 'The Sa — cristan' weht, rühren 'Adhān' und das von Eivind Aarsets spanischer Gitarre beblinkte 'Alhambra' an die Saiten des islamischen al–Andalus, während in 'Saraswati' einer hinduistischen Göttin gedacht wird und bei 'Bayon' mit mysteriösem Bläserklang dem verwitterten Lächeln des Bodhisattva. 'Shelter from the Storm' ist zuletzt ein von Erik Honoré zu ganz simpler Pianobegleitung gesungenes Gebet oder Glaubensbekenntnis, dessen Gottheit einfach 'Du' heißt. You are my signature, the hand that writes my future, the hid — den epitaph, the words beyond my reach... Dennoch kann man diesen Ton, den Henriksen den Überlieferungen von Jon Hassell und von Miles Davis, wo dieser am modalsten gestimmt war, bei Sketches of Spain etwa oder In A Silent Way, entnommen hat, nur dann gläubig oder fromm nennen, wenn man darunter eine elegische Unbestimmtheit versteht. Etwas, das wie von unter Wasser her klingt, wie es 'Le Cimetière Marin' andeutet. Vom Trompetenton, porös wie Papier, geht ein matter Glanz aus, eine scheinbar nur schwache Kraft, aber doch eine hartnäckige und eindringliche. Umhallt wird er von Phantomgesängen, von Vogelstimme oder Wasserglucksen, einem dunstigen Summen, umwölkten Piano — noten, bei 'Portal' von Strings und gedämpften Tablabeats. Nein, Religion wie wir sie ken — nen, ist da nur noch eine ferne Erinnerung. Bad Alchemy (DE)
♣   Die Aura religiöser Gebäude und Ruinen, in denen Menschen ihre tiefsten Momente von innerer Einkehr, Reflektion und auch Furcht erleben, hat der norwegische Ausnahmetrompeter hier versucht, hörbar zu machen. Klingt esoterisch? Keinesfalls, denn mit seinem idiosynkratischen, speziell verfremdeten Ton und seinen Geräuschund Klangmalereien, erweitert durch schwebende Choräle, elekrischen Bass und ECM–hafte Texturen, beschreitet Henriksen neue Wege, auf denen zuvor John Hassell mit seiner Fourt–World–Exotica und Miles Davis zu Zeiten von „Sketches Of Spain“ die Wegmarken gesetzt haben. GIG (DE)
♣   En forsterket modenhet har satt seg i Henriksens nysgjerrige betraktninger. Tonen har en alderdommerlig tyngde. Den virker skjør og sikker i ett og samme støt, og akkompagnementet har et befriende islett av originalitet. 5/6. Aftenposten (NO)
♣   Dette, hans sjette soloalbum, forener den strenge Rune G–estetikken med det drømmeaktig vakre ECM–uttrykket. Han har utviklet en luftig, lyrisk tone i trompeten, sart men likevel kraftfull, rik i all sin enkelhet, kanskje den mest gjenkjennelige tonen i norsk siden Jan Garbarek... dette er en ny sterk plate fra en av landets mest interessante musikere. 5/6. Dagsavisen (NO)
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Arve Henriksen — Chron + Cosmic Creation (2014)

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