Record Reviews

NORDERVAL / HEIDEL / WERCHOWSKA ~ PARRHESIE LOSEN 145 (Barcode: 7090025831454) ~ NORWAY ~ Free Jazz / Improvised Music Recorded: 2015 Released: 2016 This is the debut album by the all female Improvising Music trio comprising of Norwegian vocalist Kristin NordervalFind albums by this artist, Norwegian flautist Ida HeidelFind albums by this artist and French pianist Nusch WerchowskaFind albums by this artist. Together they perform eleven spontaneously created pieces co-credited to all three trio members, the first four and the next seven pieces are grouped together into "song cycles". The music, although obviously improvised, has much closer ties to contemporary Classical Music than to Jazz, which for listeners used to Improvised Music originating from within the Jazz idiom, will sound pretty different to what they are used to. Nevertheless this is still very much Improvised Music, so stylistic or aesthetic differences are quite secondary. As all improvised Music, whatever is created during the actual making of the music on the spur of the moment is one thing and what is captured by the recording process to be than played back to a potential listener is something else entirely. It is not often that Improvised Music manages to survive the process of recording and creation of a sound sculpture that is suitable for repeated listening experiences later on. I am not sure if this album is one of the very few, which survive the transformation process as it is a completely individual experience. It works fine for me, but I suppose that I am in a tiny minority. Judging by the liner notes written by Norderval, these three brave ladies have not only a musical but also a social / political agenda, which makes perfect sense considering their attitude towards Art. Avant-Garde was after all always associated not only with Art but also with social / political movements. It is pretty difficult to hold a subversive, unconventional attitude towards Art and be a conservative socially unaware person. I disagree as to the definition given on the cover to the meaning of the album´s title; it is one of the possible definitions, but the Hebrew meaning of "Parrhesia" is "speaking (or doing something) in public", which is much more appropriate to the situation at hand. But I digress… As much as this music is unconventional, the actual use of the human voice is pretty standard, and far away from truly Avant-Garde vocal explorations, which occurred since the 1960s. Norderval sounds like an operatic singer most of a time, singing non-operatic music, but definitely not doing anything adventurous and innovative. The stuff Heidel and Werchowska play is also conventional as far as the sonic layer of their instruments is concerned. Only the combination of the voice and the two instruments and the ragged, scattered, shattered and fragmented melodic moments create the overall atmosphere of unexpectedness and tension. Overall this is a challenging, unusual and bold expression of musical ideas that is definitely worth exploring by the open-minded and brave-hearted listeners, who are tired of the sonic pollution that surrounds us all the time. Such music must be created, even if only in the scope of "free speech", which allows individuality and originality. The question if such music is supposed to be "pleasing" is a completely different issue.

Updated: 12/04/2019Posted: 17/05/2016

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