Search - Christian Wallumrod :: Year From Easter

Unclassifiable

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 06/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Probably no other label could've released this, but it's certainly not your typical ECM session. Yes, it's generally down tempo and often quite starkly beautiful, but there's a lot more dissonance and edginess than what is usually purveyed by ECM. Also, the instrumentation's a little on the bizarre side (piano, fiddle, trumpet, drums). Plus, the way the musicians play, especially drummer Per Oddvar Johansen and trumpeter Arve Henriksen, is often quite distinctive, if not downright outré. Henriksen, especially, with his very hushed and breathy approach often makes his trumpet sound more like a cello than a wind instrument. And drummer Johansen will occasionally play anything but the beat, reminding one of the role Michael Vatcher plays in Michael Moore's great band Jewels and Binoculars (not that the two groups sound anything alike).



I'm racking my brain to come up with analogs to this music, but I just can't seem to find any. So I'll have to stick with a description of what it sounds like: A little chamber jazz, some Scandinavian folk, more than a touch of minimalism, a strain of industrial/ambient, a dollop of New Music, some Charles Ives, more than a little twentieth century classical music (including, esp. some of the Christian composers like Messiaen, Part, and Tavener), and even early polyphony.



It may strike some listeners as a bit too chilly, but repeated listenings begin to reveal a good deal of warmth, despite its situatedness within a definite Nordic vibe.



Quietly adventurous, and staking out musical territory few have ever before assayed. Definitely worth checking out, if you have big ears and an open mind, but certainly not for the timid or conventionally orientated."

A Genuine Masterpiece

Fionn McGuire | Dublin, Ireland | 06/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The other reviewer gives a perfect review of this CD, but I enjoy it too much to refrain from giving my own feelings on it too.



I got familiar with Christian Wallumrod through the wonderful Trygve Seim, who played on Wallumrod's previous album, and I decided to give 'A Year from Easter' a try without having heard it. It's a session that really is unlike anything I've heard before and, naturally, it was a little difficult to truly enjoy at first, because it contains such an atonal element that takes some time to appreciate truly. But spending time getting to know this CD is a very wise choice, because there is an original beauty in it that is seldomly heard to this extent in recent years.



What this album possesses that maybe sets it apart most is the fact that the sounds are just so natural. It's not a fusion record, it's not a bop record and it's not a cool jazz record - it manages to somehow keep its influences so well hidden. This music sounds like something that just 'happened' so naturally, with the beautiful parts, and the dark and ugly parts as well, that combine so well to create beauty from every breath.



If I would have to choose a standout track, I wont hesitate to say 'Stompin' at Gagarin'. It's solo piano, extremely minimalist, and Wallumrod teases with melodies throughout the whole song. It's one of those pieces that definetely contains a Keith Jarrett influence in the way that it builds to a climax, and then the listener finds that they enjoy the build more than the 'climax', and gradually feel as if the whole piece is either a build of a climax.



And that is, possibly, the only way to sum this music up: it's always building to something, and it climaxes occasionally, and then builds again.



For the patient, open minded music fan who will appreciate anything that is truly good, just dont hesitate."

Brilliantly odd

Andrew Johnston | Bennington, Ontario | 04/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must admit that a year ago I did not like this much. It sounded too funereal and self-consciously atonal to bring much aural pleasure. But I had the good fortune of seeing Jon Balke's Magnetic North Orchestra live in Stockholm last May, and my interest in the young Nordic jazz scene was rekindled. I bought Wallumr?d's two ECM recordings and have been riveted ever since. The other reviewers are right: this is not like anything you'll have heard before under a jazz title: its quiet, eerie, extraordinarily subtle, and, in time, breathtakingly beautiful. Wallumr?d constructs his pieces with gently repetitive motifs that build in complexity and harmony, interacting tenderly with the Henriksen's trumpet and Nils ?kland's fiddle. This is highly original, deeply contempletive and always intimate music. It never swings, it never sounds like anything else, and it demands your attention. Don't put it on the stereo at a party or in your car. You have to surround yourself with it and, as another reviewer suggested, open your ears and your mind. It may just change your life."