As with the previous album, the music has a lush sheen and the complexities of the musical theory that informs the compositions is largely hidden from the listener.
Naxos: NXN2010
Anders Lønne Grønseth: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet; Hayden Powell: trumpet; Epsen Berg: piano; Audun Ellingsen: bass; Einer Scheving: drums; David Skinner: Hohner piano, clavinet
Recorded 22nd to 25th November 2020 by André Viervoll at Newtone Studio, Oslo.
Employing the same music ideas as last year’s ‘Outer View’, Grønseth’s Multiverse band return with a new album. The compositions are still based on the Bitonal Scale System but on this set these are all composed by Grønseth, rather than shared between band members.
The other difference is in the introduction of Dave Skinner to the band (which, I guess, is how it has become extended). Interestingly, while the quintet had been immersed in the Bitonal Scale, including composing their own pieces using this, Skinner joined later but has rapidly got up to speed on the theory and practice of this approach.
As with the previous album, the music has a lush sheen and the complexities of the musical theory that informs the compositions is largely hidden from the listener.
At times there is a sense that the modal jazz being played is resolving thematic and chordal conundrums but this never gets in the way of the clarity of the music. In a sense, the ‘multiverse’, as Grønseth describes in his detailed and informative liner notes, is the space of all possible musical developments from a given starting point and the creative improvisation of a band with experience in playing together resolves this space into a single, coherent experience.
