TOLDAM / RIEDEL / BERG / WIKLUND / CHRISTENSEN - Tak For Dit Brev
ILK: ILK391
Georg Riedel: bass; Nils Berg: bass clarinet; Tobias Wiklund: cornet; Anders Christensen: bass; Simon Toldam: piano, clarinet
Recorded by Janne Hansson at Atlantis Studio, Stockholm.
‘Tak for dit brev’ (thank you for your letter) has the feeling of an intimate chamber suite, with a mood that calls to mind Liszt or Satie equally as, say, Claude Bolling. Across this set, Toldam works with the musicians in piano-bass duos (‘Opdrift’, ‘To Virkeligheder’), piano-bass clarinet-bass trios (‘Nu sejler vi’, ‘,manelob’, ‘luft’, ‘den bla stot’, ‘alberts tic tac’), quartets and, on three tracks, quintets with two double basses. The mixing of personnel cannot simply down to availability (even with the busy schedule of, say, Reidel to fit around). Rather than combination of musicians are exactly calculated for the depth and mood of each tune. Many of the tunes were initially composed by Toldam on clarinet and then adapted to Toldam’s liquid piano, which playing provides a dreamy atmosphere. This gives each piece a melodic flow that swirls around the chords, which feel often as if they are seeking to sneak up on the tune as it slips past them. There is a fleetingness to the tunes and creates unusual and unexpected directions. The use of bass clarinet and cornet, and Toldam’s own clarinet, provides an unusual tonal and textural palette with which Toldam is working.
The emphasis of the tunes is as much as the meandering narrative as on the arrangement of chords. The pieces feel like stories taken from one of those epistolatory novels where each character wrote of their trials and tribulations in letters to their loved ones in some remote town, with the possibilities of misunderstanding and mistiming of activity that this could produce. In the context of this gently uplifting collection, Toldam’s presence ensures that there is no misunderstanding or mistiming from the other players, who take great pleasure in sharing his stories with him.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
ILK: ILK391
Georg Riedel: bass; Nils Berg: bass clarinet; Tobias Wiklund: cornet; Anders Christensen: bass; Simon Toldam: piano, clarinet
Recorded by Janne Hansson at Atlantis Studio, Stockholm.
‘Tak for dit brev’ (thank you for your letter) has the feeling of an intimate chamber suite, with a mood that calls to mind Liszt or Satie equally as, say, Claude Bolling. Across this set, Toldam works with the musicians in piano-bass duos (‘Opdrift’, ‘To Virkeligheder’), piano-bass clarinet-bass trios (‘Nu sejler vi’, ‘,manelob’, ‘luft’, ‘den bla stot’, ‘alberts tic tac’), quartets and, on three tracks, quintets with two double basses. The mixing of personnel cannot simply down to availability (even with the busy schedule of, say, Reidel to fit around). Rather than combination of musicians are exactly calculated for the depth and mood of each tune. Many of the tunes were initially composed by Toldam on clarinet and then adapted to Toldam’s liquid piano, which playing provides a dreamy atmosphere. This gives each piece a melodic flow that swirls around the chords, which feel often as if they are seeking to sneak up on the tune as it slips past them. There is a fleetingness to the tunes and creates unusual and unexpected directions. The use of bass clarinet and cornet, and Toldam’s own clarinet, provides an unusual tonal and textural palette with which Toldam is working.
The emphasis of the tunes is as much as the meandering narrative as on the arrangement of chords. The pieces feel like stories taken from one of those epistolatory novels where each character wrote of their trials and tribulations in letters to their loved ones in some remote town, with the possibilities of misunderstanding and mistiming of activity that this could produce. In the context of this gently uplifting collection, Toldam’s presence ensures that there is no misunderstanding or mistiming from the other players, who take great pleasure in sharing his stories with him.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
