Arve Henriksen - Solidification (2012) [Rune Grammofon's Boxset # RLP 2137]

"Solidification" is a quite stunning 7LP box that includes Arve Henriksen's Rune Grammofon albums "Sakuteiki", "Chiaroscuro" and "Strjon", all with added bonus tracks, as well as a brand new album called "Chron", his first since his ECM album "Cartography". If that isn't enough the package includes two DVDs with all 56 tracks as Hi-Res files in original master quality (24/44 or 24/96 has placed on DVD).

Arve Henriksen is probably Norway's most versatile musician of his generation, always on the move, always searching and exploring possible and seemingly impossible paths. From the Rune Grammofon catalogue he will be known through the three solo albums, eleven releases as a founder member of groundbreaking improvising group Supersilent and four with Food (two of them on RG). He was a member of Christian Wallumrød Ensemble and has played and recorded with a large number of Norwegian and international musicians, most notably David Sylvian and Dhafer Youssef. In 2008 he released the album ”Cartography” on ECM.

Arve Henriksen's first solo CD takes its title from an 11th century Japanese treatise on garden planning. Knowing the care these people put in the conception of their gardens to achieve a perfect level of beauty and balance, one expects something more zen than usual from the Supersilent trumpeter. Well, there are no disappointments in sight. Sakuteiki turns out to be the delicate origami flower its title promised. Recorded in various churches selected for their acoustical properties, the pieces all favor sparse arrangements, acoustic sounds, and an esthetic of open space. The trumpet wails at the stone walls, the slow-decay echo filling the room. At other times Henriksen concentrates on valve or breathing noises. What is more surprising is the very distinctive shakuhachi inflections he produces with his instrument. On a few pieces, particularly during the first half of the album, he also performs on harmonium and church organ. Not a trained keyboardist, his crude tracks provide some atmosphere, but they don't match up to the solo trumpet pieces. Compared to Supersilent's busy group improvisations, this music is a haven. Put in parallel to Axel Dörner and Franz Hautzinger's explorations of the trumpet's microsonic possibilities, it feels warm, compelling, even soothing. On first listen, Sakuteiki could be dismissed as being too easy – a lazy listener could even interpret it as a form of jazz/new age fusion. But a closer inspection reveals how much each musical gesture is the result of a minute organization to create easy-flowing pieces that bring together avant-garde research and centuries-old wisdom. Recommended.

Tracklist:

01 - Sanmon - Main Entrance
02 - Viewing Infinite Space
03 - Inside Tea-house
04 - Peaceful - Close To Cherry Trees
05 - Procession Passing
06 - Evening Call
07 - Breathing
08 - Beauty Of Bamboos
09 - Tsukubai - Washbasin
10 - Planting Trees Creating Beauty
11 - "Stones Should Never Be Placed Carelessly"
12 - White Gravel
13 - Shrine
14 - Paths Around The Pond
15 - Children In My Garden
16 - Sanmyaku [Bonus Track]
17 - Bonsai Ritual [Bonus Track]

Arve Henriksen's follow-up to his first solo CD, Sakuteiki, Chiaroscuro sees him exploring the same ethereal pastures, this time accompanied by sampling artist Jan Bang and percussionist Audun Kleive. As a result, the album has of course a fuller, busier sound, although the increment is discreet. Slightly closer in style to the softer moments of Supersilent, the album remains nonetheless the recognizable successor of Sakuteiki. Henriksen's trumpet is the heart and soul of the music, uttering simple slow-paced themes and lonesome calls. The artist sings wordless melodies, his falsetto voice becoming an extension of the trumpet, instead of the other way around. Samples and percussion seem to proceed from within the horn's sound palette and expand it outward. The resulting music is imbued with a fragile kind of beauty that is deeply moving and surprisingly immediate, given that the listener is minimally open-minded. Points of comparison would include Miles Davis at his most spaced out, Bill Dixon, and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's disarming solo CD Ko Ko Ko Ke. Highlights include the cinematic "Opening Image," "Blue Silk" (the longest and most developed piece), and "Time Lapse," a rare moment where the trio asserts its presence, backward samples and drumming equally sharing the stereo field with the trumpet. Henriksen's music is unique, its lack of pretension and its effortless aesthetic research leaving an unforgettable trace in the listener's mind.

Tracklist:

01 - Opening Image
02 - Bird´s-eye-view
03 - Chiaro
04 - Holography
05 - Blue Silk
06 - Parallel Action
07 - Circled Take
08 - Scuro
09 - Time Lapse
10 - Ending Image
11 - Short Frame [Bonus Track]
12 - Jump Cut [Bonus Track]
13 - Clear but Obscure [Bonus Track]

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Arve Henriksen - Solidification (2012) [Rune Grammofon's Boxset # RLP 2137]

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If Arve Henriksen's latest album had appeared on ECM, nobody would bat an eye, but Strjon's release on Rune Grammofon is no surprise either, and not only because of the Norwegian trumpeter/keyboardist's previous efforts on that label. In its own low-key way, Rune Grammofon has assumed a strong position as a home of experimental work that touches on various permutations of the electronic avant-garde in Scandinavia, and Strjon, Henriksen's third release for the label, continues this reputation. The music is a combination of old and new, drawing in part on Henriksen's initial recordings as a teenager in the town of Stryn, but then re-recorded and reworked more recently by the trumpeter and two collaborators, keyboardist Stale Storløkken and guitarist Helge Sten. The resultant mix has both obvious roots perhaps reflective of the younger Henriksen's listening – Miles Davis and Chet Baker are partial role models to be sure, though hardly the sole reference points – and more involved collages at play, as can be heard in the unsettled chopped-up loops of "Black Mountain." Here, flecks of Henriksen's trumpet become the fragmentary basis for a crumbled rhythm overlaid first by elegant string synths and then heavy Kraut/prog keyboard snarls. Elsewhere, everything from church organ hymns ("Ancient and Accepted Rite," which as a title for such a piece can't be beat) to dark ambient chill (the title track, a cold rise and fall of droning sound that could easily be a Mick Harris piece in miniature) appears. The whole album is a testimony to controlled and careful elegance without simply being an undifferentiated wash of sound, but on a song like "Green Water," where Henriksen's trumpet softly moves over an irregular electronic rhythm that's part gamelan gone utterly minimal, part Ryuichi Sakamoto circa 1984, it's simply breathtaking.

Tracklist:

01 - Evocation
02 - Black Mountain
03 - Ascent
04 - Leaf And Rock
05 - Ancient And Accepted Rite
06 - Twin Lake
07 - Green Water
08 - Alpine Pyramid
09 - Wind And Bow
10 - Strjon
11 - Glacier Descent
12 - In The Light
13 - Triangularity [Bonus Track]
14 - Metals [Bonus Track]
15 - Home [Bonus Track]

The Norwegian trumpeter/producer/singer Arve Henriksen who makes his instrument sound like a Japanese flute is honoured with an impressive box-set: seven vinyl albums and two DVDs representing his complete recordings for the label. A brand-new album, "Chron", is also included and it´s a slightly nervier experience than the sublime "Strjon" (2007), one of the best albums of the past decade and moer.

Tracklist:

01 - Proto-Earth
02 - Hadean
03 - Chron
04 - Solidification
05 - Zircon
06 - Plume of Ash
07 - Magma Oscillator
08 - Archean
09 - First Life
10 - Plate Tectonic
11 - Chronozone


Thanks to the Original customer!