MINO CINELU & NILS PETTER MOLVÆR - Sulamadiana
Modern Recordings 538626912
Mino Cinelu (percussion, guitar, keyboard, vocals); Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet, electronics)
Recorded; Oslo, Norway 2019 and Brooklyn, USA 2020
This album was a long time coming. Percussionist Mino Cinelu and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær first met at a music concert in 2015, and over the next few years, talked about collaborating on some music (the liner notes include a humorous exchange between the two musicians; each trying to pin down the other). It finally happened in 2019, when the two of them went into a recording studio in Oslo for a couple of days. The Covid-19 crisis meant that post-production work involved collaborating across two continents via transatlantic phone and zoom calls.
The album title is a portmanteau word derived from the name of the Norwegian island Sula, where Molvær hails from, and the alternative name for Martinique, where Cinelu’s father was born. So, we are talking about a fusing of two musical cultures; a meeting of fire and ice – Cinelu’s fiery playing with its French/Afro-Caribbean roots and Molvær’s sparse, cool Scandinavian sound. The good news is that it’s a blend that works well.
Cinelu’s best known gig was as a member of Miles Davis’s band, and his other jazz associates include Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Kenny Barron. Molvær has played with Elvin Jones, Gary Peacock and George Russell, and made his mark with the 1997 ECM album ‘Khmer’, a potent mix of jazz, electronica, trip-hop and ambient music. Molvær would be the first to admit that his sound has been greatly influenced by the music of Miles Davis, post-Bitches Brew, and you can clearly hear echoes of Miles on this album, from the Harmon-muted horn to the electronically processed trumpet sound.
Both musicians have explored other musical genres – Cinelu has worked with pop and soul artists such as Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Stevie Wonder, and in 1997, formed World Trio with Kevin Eubanks and Dave Holland. In 2018, Molvær joined up with Sly & Robbie to release the album ‘Nordub,’ a blend of European jazz and Jamaican dub. In other words, like Miles, they have open minds and open ears. And something else they have both learnt from Davis is the importance of space. This album has lots of it – the music often sounds light and airy, and everything is allowed to breathe - nothing ever sounds too busy. It’s also astonishing how just two musicians can create such a vast palette of sounds, colours and tones with minimal overdubbing.
There are 13 songs on the album, although a handful of them are short – typically one to minutes in length. Three of them are dedicated to musicians who died in 2020 – Manu Dibango, Tony Allen and Jimmy Cobb. The opening number, ‘Le Monde Qui Change,’ is just 59 seconds long and Molvær’s fragile trumpet sound floats above a lightly strummed acoustic guitar and percussive beats. It’s an exquisite sound and one wishes it could have gone on for longer. Other tracks evoke a similar feeling, including, ‘Theories of Dreams,’ which features dream-like horn lines drifting gently over a sparse percussion track, and the gorgeous ‘Process of Breathing,’ the musical equivalent of fog floating gently over a barren landscape.
But not all of the music is in this vein. ‘New York Stroll,’ takes you on a journey around the Big Apple. An electronically processed, sinister-sounding horn is joined by percussive beats that trace the walker’s footsteps. The sound is urban, earthy, gritty and edgy – this is more like a walk around the mean streets of New York than the Upper West Side. As you traverse the streets, you can imagine passing various street characters – the hustler, the dealer and the beggar. ‘Sulamadiana,’ is dedicated to Manu Dibango and its joyous Afro-beat and chanted chorus raise the spirits. ‘Song for Julle,’ has a long, slow build-up with haunting horn lines before Cinelu’s driving percussion kicks in and energetically carries it to the end. It may have taken a long time for this music to happen, but it is more than worth the wait.
Reviewed by George Cole
Modern Recordings 538626912
Mino Cinelu (percussion, guitar, keyboard, vocals); Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet, electronics)
Recorded; Oslo, Norway 2019 and Brooklyn, USA 2020
This album was a long time coming. Percussionist Mino Cinelu and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær first met at a music concert in 2015, and over the next few years, talked about collaborating on some music (the liner notes include a humorous exchange between the two musicians; each trying to pin down the other). It finally happened in 2019, when the two of them went into a recording studio in Oslo for a couple of days. The Covid-19 crisis meant that post-production work involved collaborating across two continents via transatlantic phone and zoom calls.
The album title is a portmanteau word derived from the name of the Norwegian island Sula, where Molvær hails from, and the alternative name for Martinique, where Cinelu’s father was born. So, we are talking about a fusing of two musical cultures; a meeting of fire and ice – Cinelu’s fiery playing with its French/Afro-Caribbean roots and Molvær’s sparse, cool Scandinavian sound. The good news is that it’s a blend that works well.
Cinelu’s best known gig was as a member of Miles Davis’s band, and his other jazz associates include Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Kenny Barron. Molvær has played with Elvin Jones, Gary Peacock and George Russell, and made his mark with the 1997 ECM album ‘Khmer’, a potent mix of jazz, electronica, trip-hop and ambient music. Molvær would be the first to admit that his sound has been greatly influenced by the music of Miles Davis, post-Bitches Brew, and you can clearly hear echoes of Miles on this album, from the Harmon-muted horn to the electronically processed trumpet sound.
Both musicians have explored other musical genres – Cinelu has worked with pop and soul artists such as Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Stevie Wonder, and in 1997, formed World Trio with Kevin Eubanks and Dave Holland. In 2018, Molvær joined up with Sly & Robbie to release the album ‘Nordub,’ a blend of European jazz and Jamaican dub. In other words, like Miles, they have open minds and open ears. And something else they have both learnt from Davis is the importance of space. This album has lots of it – the music often sounds light and airy, and everything is allowed to breathe - nothing ever sounds too busy. It’s also astonishing how just two musicians can create such a vast palette of sounds, colours and tones with minimal overdubbing.
There are 13 songs on the album, although a handful of them are short – typically one to minutes in length. Three of them are dedicated to musicians who died in 2020 – Manu Dibango, Tony Allen and Jimmy Cobb. The opening number, ‘Le Monde Qui Change,’ is just 59 seconds long and Molvær’s fragile trumpet sound floats above a lightly strummed acoustic guitar and percussive beats. It’s an exquisite sound and one wishes it could have gone on for longer. Other tracks evoke a similar feeling, including, ‘Theories of Dreams,’ which features dream-like horn lines drifting gently over a sparse percussion track, and the gorgeous ‘Process of Breathing,’ the musical equivalent of fog floating gently over a barren landscape.
But not all of the music is in this vein. ‘New York Stroll,’ takes you on a journey around the Big Apple. An electronically processed, sinister-sounding horn is joined by percussive beats that trace the walker’s footsteps. The sound is urban, earthy, gritty and edgy – this is more like a walk around the mean streets of New York than the Upper West Side. As you traverse the streets, you can imagine passing various street characters – the hustler, the dealer and the beggar. ‘Sulamadiana,’ is dedicated to Manu Dibango and its joyous Afro-beat and chanted chorus raise the spirits. ‘Song for Julle,’ has a long, slow build-up with haunting horn lines before Cinelu’s driving percussion kicks in and energetically carries it to the end. It may have taken a long time for this music to happen, but it is more than worth the wait.
Reviewed by George Cole
