THE SOURCE
The Source
ECM
Norwegian musical cooperative is how many
writers have defined The Source, and the description has
its aptness—the group of musicians at the core of
the group have collaborated with musicians from a large
variety of traditions, including rai vocalists, DJs, rappers,
rock musicians, and the Cikada String Quartet. But the group
is, at its ‘source’ a quartet, and it is as
a quartet that they are presented on their latest ECM release,
The Source. Saxophonist Trygve Seim, trombonist
Oyvind Braakke, bassist Mats Eilertsen, and drummer Per
Oddvar Johansen are steeped in American jazz traditions
as well as European classicism and folks music. But they
present free jazz in a manner that makes it seem almost
reachable to those whose musical tastes are not averse to
that which requires a bit of work on the listener’s
part to ‘get it.’ In many respects, it seems
slightly incomprehensible that free jazz and the more experimental
side of indie rock music have not moved closer together
in the last ten years or so. Both seem more disposed toward
music that follows its own logical flow rather than relying
on a more straightjacketed popular musical form.
” conveys none of that influence, being
a tightly controlled composition that builds its own logical
tension during its six minute tenure. That’s followed
by the only Seim composition here, “Un Fingo Andalou,”
which recalls the folksy-tipsy quality of Albert Ayler’s
best compositions. That’s certainly here, but one
wonders whether Seim’s conception of this sound isn’t
filtered through Garbarek and other ECM artists with which
he grew up. That probably doesn’t matter, and it says
a lot about the way that music is filtered through the listener’s
experiences, and as such can never mean the same thing to
barely even a handful of people, including the musicians
themselves.
The performances themselves are highly nuanced
and make the most of the textures available to the group
with regard to their instrumentation. Seim and Braakke are
almost telepathic, playing counterpoint around each other
and just as easily collapsing into a unison unit. Meanwhile,
Johansen’s drums are restless and spirited, providing
the energy impact of a supercollider without ever becoming
bombastic. Eilertsen is adept at dropping in and out at
the right times, making the bass an additional texture and
even melodic voice rather than allowing it to fade into
the woodwork by virtue of its omnipresence. The group achieves
the right balance between a wistful melancholy and energetic
joy, and the melodic element of the compositions and improvisations
here should not be given short shrift.
Though much of the group’s work is kinetic
and even a bit nervous in nature, they can relax into a
ballad with uncanny ease. Two examples are Braakke’s
“Prelude to a Boy” and the Johansen composition
“Mmball,” both of which make use of voicings
and arrangement techniques that allow Seim and Braakke to
suggest a much larger horn section than merely tenor and
trombone.
This is music that is both well-thought out
compositionally and well played in the moment by a group
of musicians who can add freely to what is being played
because they listen to each other so superbly and also because
they understand each other’s playing so deeply. All
of which is a roundabout way of saying that The Source
is filled with beautiful, large-screen, restless, poetic,
kinetic music that isn’t done justice by verbal description,
either of the actual sounds of the music or of the theory
behind it. I don’t want to give the impression that
the music heard here doesn’t challenge the listener—it
does, and in fact an engaged listener is essential to its
success. But those listeners willing to give up control
of the structure of what they are hearing and allow themselves
to be carried away and buffeted on the tide of the sounds
created by Seim and company will be well rewarded. And ultimately,
this is not music that is so ‘out there.’ There’s
enough variation of style here that nearly every listener
can find something to hang onto to provide him or her a
way ‘in’ to the music. It could be the Latin’60s
Blue Note aesthetic of “Tribute,” the near-groove
of “Life So Far,” or the outright funk of “Mail
Me or Leave Me” (hey, guys, thanks for NOT naming
this one ‘Email Me or Leave Me’).
The Source is one of the most intelligent,
interesting, and new-sounding releases of 2006—and
also one of the best.
