Arve Henriksen
Sakuteiki
Rune Grammofon
A beautiful album by trumpet player Arve Henriksen, poised somewhere between unaccompanied classic jazz and cerebral contemporary music, with leanings towards Japanese musical (and philosophical) history. A remarkable study in space and locations, the music progresses slowly through a series of meditations on sensory impressions. Song titles like “Viewing Infinite Space,” “Procession Passing,” “Breathing,” “Beauty Of Bamboos,” and “Planting Trees Creating Beauty” almost put words to the intense beauty on display here. The songs, rather than forcing either ideas or sounds upon the listener, instead aim at capturing the fleeting quality of the moment through melodies. Rather than putting music to the objects described, Henriksen seems to want to exert the music inherent in the objects themselves. If all this sounds a bit new age-ish, that may be so, but the album is still an amazing effort from one of those rare artists that knows not only what to play but, more importantly, when not to.
Rune Grammofon: http://www.runegrammofon.com
