(Modern Creative, Ethnic Jazz, World Music) [CD] Tigran Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset, Jan Bang - Atmospheres (Double Set) - 2016, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This far-reaching double album, recorded and mixed in three days in Lugano, introduces a new group with Tigran Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang. The Norwegians had played in diverse configurations on ECM - Jan Bang on Eivind Aarset’s Dream Logic, for instance, and Bang and Aarset on Arve Henriksen’s Cartography - but with Hamasyan at the centre of the sound, bringing with him ancient folk melodies transfigured in the compositions of Komitas, other inspirations come into play. All four players are at a creative peak here, whether freely reflecting upon Armenian themes or spontaneously shaping atmospheric soundscapes together.
BACKGROUND
For this recording, Tigran Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang came together as a quartet at the invitation of Manfred Eicher, and Atmosphères captures the newly-formed group’s evocative music as it unfolded in a highly-creative session at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo in June 2014. The entire double album was recorded and mixed in one pass, the project completed in just three days, in the tradition of many improvisational ECM recordings.
The idea for the recording was triggered by a September 2013 Deutschlandfunk radio programme which included a brief excerpt from a performance at Norway’s Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, featuring pianist Tigran Hamasyan in duo with live sampling musician Jan Bang. Eicher felt there was potential to be explored here and, after talks with the players, it was decided to bring trumpeter Arve Henriksen and guitarist Eivind Aarset into the project. The Norwegian participants had previously played in diverse configurations on ECM, of course: Jan Bang on Eivind Aarset’s Dream Logic, for instance, and Bang and Aarset on Arve Henriksen’s Cartography, but with the involvement of Tigran Hamasyan, other inspirational sources were activated.
Hamasyan, in this period, was concurrently preparing material for his album of new choral arrangements of Armenian sacred music, Luys i Luso, which was recorded three months after Atmosphères. Armenian themes from Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935) are incorporated into this quartet album, too, as islands in the flow: the waves of the music slowly swell and subside around them. An experimental album of ambient allure, it can be approached at a number of levels. The listener is invited, by turns, to drift with the music, explore its sonic detail, and follow the improvisations as structural forms are revealed or new shapes created.
The band members have different responsibilities in the music. If its melodic orientation comes often from Tigran Hamasyan’s world (“Tsirani tsar”, “Garun a”, “Hoy Nazan”), Arve Henriksen picks up on the implications of the Armenian material with remarkable verve. With his uncanny ability to approximate the sound of the duduk on the trumpet, he gets inside the songs in his own way, and leads them somewhere else.
“Atmosphères” could be said to be Eivind Aarset’s particular specialization: he’s a creator of soundscapes which unfold with their own dream logic. A subtle player, too, who can almost unobtrusively establish a musical environment with sustained single notes or drones. This is happening from the first moments of “Traces I” in the present recording.
Jan Bang’s real-time sound processing (effectively a mix within the mix, as one of the music’s textural components) and his scatterings of live samples serve to thicken the plot. Because Bang is often reflecting the sounds of his co-musicians back into the ensemble for further development, his contributions are not always immediately identifiable to the listener, but they are integral to the album’s enveloping sense of mystery, its persuasive atmospheres.
Returning the music to one of its points of genesis, the Hamasyan/Henriksen/Aarset/Bang quartet plays a special album release concert at Norway’s Punkt Festival on September 3. The group continues with concerts at Oslo’s Victoria Nasjonal Jazz Scene (September 8), Paris’s Cité de la Musique (September 9), Schloß Elmau in the Bavarian Alps (September 10), and Munich’s Prinzregententheater (November 29).
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Further listening: In addition to recordings mentioned above, Arve Henriksen can also be heard this season on Sinikka Langeland’s new album, The Magical Forest, and recent ECM releases with Eivind Aarset include River Silver by Michel Benita’s group Ethics, and Surrounded By Sea by the Andy Sheppard Quartet. Other albums with compositions of Komitas include Kim Kashkashian’s Hayren: Music of Komitas and Tigran Mansurian, and Komitas by the Gurdjieff Ensemble. Sacred music of Komitas is also incorporated in Tigran Hamasyan’s Luys i Luso.
PRESS REACTIONS
Hamasyan’s folk references (notably to Komitas, Armenia’s legendary composer-priest) bring a timeless lyrical lilt to the contemporary sound of this new electro-acoustic quartet, which features the luminous trumpet sound of Arve Henriksen, guitars by Eivind Aarset and cutting-edge electronics from Jan Bang. The pairing of Hamasyan and Henriksen, meanwhile, brings an unexpectedly song-based seductiveness to an all-improv session including such hi-tech experimenters as Aarset and Bang. […] Henriksen’s opulent midrange tones and pleading ascents amid Hamasyan’s bubbling-stream ruminations; discreetly skittish dances; plugged effects mimicking horn harmonies; and occasional exhilarating free-improv – announce the arrival of an elite collective with a distinctive identity and big potential.
John Fordham, The Guardian
Within ‘Atmosphères’ there is a sense of moving from the antiquity of Komitas to creative improvisation, neither completely independent of the other. Because the album successfully exists in two worlds, it has broad appeal and in equal measure for those with an affinity for either. Aarset and Bang's contributions may not always be distinct on first listen but the guitarist provides a denser layer to the music while Bang adds a minimalist variation of orchestration.
Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz
Die armenischen Folk-Themen und glasklaren Linien des Pianisten Tigran Hamasyan verweben sich auf diesem meisterlichen Album mit den freien Interaktionen von Jazz. Trompeter Arve Henriksen, E-Gitarrist Eivind Aarset und Jan Bang (Samples) generieren eine elektro-akustische Welt mit Verwehungen und Verdichtungen.
Pirmin Bossart, Kulturtipp
‘Atmosphères’ ist, obwohl auch von sakraler Musik inspiriert, ein durch und durch diesseitiges Musik-Konzept. Niemand will hier nostalgisch in vergangenen Welten und Zeiten schwelgen. Hamasyan begegnet der Tradition mit dem Gestus der kunstvollen Erinnerung, Henriksen mit dem der fragenden Annäherung, Aarset und Bang mit dem einer reflektierenden, technisch anspruchsvollen Anreicherung.
Hans-Jürgen Linke, Jazzthetik
Trois jours durant, grâce à la volonté toujours aussi affirmée du producteur Manfred Eicher de continuer à façonner ‘le plus beau son après le silence’, quatre improvisateurs hors-normes ont laissé la musique s’inventer sur l’instant. […] Autur du piano mineral de Tigran se love le chant hanté de la trompette cottoneuse d’ Arve Henriksen, l’un de plus singuliers stylistes de l’instrument apparus ces vingt deniers années, tandis qu’ Eivind Aarset laisse échapper de sa guitare des nuages de sons, textures translucides don’t l’apport est essentiel.
Noadya Arnoux, Jazz Magazine
In the tradition of many improvisational ECM recordings the entire double album was completed in just three days, recorded and mixed in one pass. This is playing and listening at a high level, by four musicians with a unified vision, despite never having played together before in this combination. The Armenian music brings a unique flavor to the proceedings, making for improvisation with a difference.
Mark Sullivan, All About Jazz
Nichts in dieser spröde-schönen Musik muss eifern. Viel hat sie besonders durch Eivind Aarset und Jan Bang mit Mitteln modernster elektronischer Klangmodulation zu tun, mit denen sie offene Felder durchschreitet und sich dabei auf ganz eigene Weise bedacht und sensibel entfaltet. Das ist neu und herausfordernd, weil es weit entfernt von gängigen Mustern Neuland betritt.
Ulrich Steinmetzger, Leipziger Volkszeitung
The present double album is fine example of four musicians creating a greater whole with spontaneous creation, and transcending the roles of their instruments. […] The layers of this album are a particular joy to hear in a good pair of headphones as Bang and Aarset’s pillows of density permeate the sound stage. Arve Henriksen’s trumpet is anything but as he approximates the sound of the reeded duduk, handling Armenian modes with ease, in these ambient journeys. […] One of the year’s strongest releases, and an absolute treat for open minded listeners who view music as a boundary less art form.
C.J. Shearn, Jazz Views
Ein zeitgenössisches Jazzalbum, da es aus freien Improvisationen entstand, aus einer inspirierten Begegnung über Grenzen hinweg zudem, zwischen dem Norden und dem Mittleren Osten. Eine Begegnung vier eigenwilliger Musiker, die oft im Zusammenspiel mit anderen ihre wahren Starken offenbaren, mal spröde, sperrig, unnahbar, dann wieder von melodischer Poesie getragen. Beide CDs – mehr noch die erste – verlangen ein aufmerksames Zuhören, so flüchtig und schwer zu fassen sind diese kollektiven Improvisationen, klanglich sehr fein und von hoher Dynamik, manche Passagen sehr leise und eigentlich nur auf einer guten Anlage oder über Kopfhörer angemessen zu genießen.
Ingo J. Biermann, NordischeMusik.de
The 15 tracks, related by moods and materials, completely ignore conventions of classical, jazz, electronic or indigenous folk music, offering instead technologically enabled cross-cultural fantasies that progress through gradual accretion of gestures and timbral contrasts. Compositions by the 20th-century Armenian monk and musicologist Komitas are referenced but dissolve in the otherwise open, improvisatory format. Everything relies on minor modes, restrained lyricism and the players’ spontaneous interactions. […] most pieces evoke a sense of awe at majestic if elusive forces, and acceptance of them.
Howard Mandel, Downbeat
C’est le patron d’ECM en personne, Manfred Eicher, qui a eu l’idée de réunir d’abord le pianiste Tigran Hamasyan et le musicien èlectro Jan Bang. Deux autres magiciens ont rejoint l’èquipée, Henriksen (trompette) et Aarset (guitar). Le résultat est un double album aux allures maritimes, berçat l’auditeur au rythme d’une houle lente aux accents parfois ambient. Mais c’est surtout Arve Henriksen qui emporte ici le morceau: ce type-là fait sonner une trompette comme jamais on ne l’entendue.
Bernard Géniès, L’Obs
Spürbar stimmt die Chemie zwischen allen Beteiligten […] So können sich aus den gemeinsamen Improvisationen detailreiche Stimmungsbilder und farbenreiche Klangwelten entwickeln – mal luftig zart dahinschwebend, dann wieder spannungsgeladen verdichtetet -, die selten, aber umso wirkungsvoller von sich dramatisch aufbauenden Passagen unterbrochen werden. Frappierend ist aber auch, wie perfekt die kristallklaren akustischen Klänge mit den elektronisch generierten Sounds harmonieren, wie sich Archaisches und Zeitgenössisches, Traumhaftes und handfest Zupackendes in ihrer musikalischen Wirkung potenzieren. Ein in vielerlei Hinsicht außergewöhnliches Album, das konzentriertes Zuhören erfordert und belohnt.
Peter Füssl, Kultur
Le casting fait saliver. Quatre instrumentistes qui possèdent des personnalités musicales hors norms et qui se retrouvent à enregistrer sous la houlette de Manfred Eicher: Sans trop de surprise, le résultat est vertigineux.
Louis Victor, Jazz News
The pianist’s distinctive touch, his melodic invention and the strong folk traditions of his melodies and those of Komitas sit gorgeously in the centre of the electronic soundscapes created by Aarset and Bang. Henriksen’s ability to suggest the tones of the Armenian duduk with his trumpet enhance the music still further. A magical sounding double CD release which manages to sound both of the moment in its electricity and yet ancient in the motes and grains of its cool, airy atmosphere.
Peter Bacon, The Jazz Breakfast
Äußerst stimmige und überraschende Verbindungen zwischen akustischen und elektronischen Welten wie auch zwischen den 1970er Jahren und der Gegenwart […] magische Klangwelten, die kein Gestern und Morgen kennen. Es ist pure Imagination. Wenn es überhaupt einen Vergleich gibt, dann Erik Satie. Alles wird nur angedeutet und im Hauch der Ahnung in die Ferne getragen […] Anderthalb Stunden, in denen man sich komplett verlieren kann.
Wolf Kampmann, eclipsed
Trois jours durant, grâce à la volonté toujours aussi affirmée du producteur Manfred Eicher de continuer à façonner ‘le plus beau son après le silence’, quatre improvisateurs hors-normes ont laissé la musique s’inventer sur l’instant. […] Autur du piano mineral de Tigran se love le chant hanté de la trompette cottoneuse d’ Arve Henriksen, l’un de plus singuliers stylistes de l’instrument apparus ces vingt deniers années, tandis qu’ Eivind Aarset laisse échapper de sa guitare des nuages de sons, textures translucides don’t l’apport est essentiel.
Noadya Arnoux, Jazz Magazine