It has been seven years since the last Concept album and although the line-up remains the same, with Trygve Fiske on bass, Hans Hulbækmo on drums and Oscar Grönberg on piano and Hanna Paulsberg herself on sax, they have decided after fifteen years of playing together to see how it sounds with a vocalist.
Choosing Elin Rosseland was easy for Hanna as Elin had played in a group with Hanna’s father back in the ’80s and her approach to vocalising shares the same adventurous spirit as the group. With two long-ish tracks recorded live at National Jazzscene and the rest recorded at Propellor Studios over two following days, we have the opportunity to experience the immediacy and intimacy in the live setting and then the more considered approach in the studio.
Oscar’s piano often takes the lead on Himmel Over Hav and its wintry sound goes well with the creamy sax. The piano is playful, mixing light abstraction with the left hand’s percussive groove tying it in to the rhythm section nicely. They know well how to slowly build and this is highlighted by the first live track, which also introduces Elin. Once she starts to sing, the group takes a slight step back allowing her voice space to unfurl. It moves like a breeze around an empty room at night and, with the words being in Norwegian, so we English speakers have the opportunity to savour the shaping and delivery of the sound of the words. To appreciate the structure of the words and then the reaction from the group throughout the album is lovely and the solitude inherent in the voice, the stripped-back, late-night shadows and intricate piano interplay gear us up for when things become more ruffled, the piano’s left hand joining the percussive stampede, the roll and swagger eventually making room for Hanna. When she comes in, it feels as though she is running headlong towards a cliff ready for the leap and then the long glide to the ground.Elsewhere, Elin’s voice moves from vulnerability to something freer; but that vulnerability is backed by a stripped-back rhythmic blanket. In other places, the strident, slightly discordant piano joins the adventurous spirit of Elin’s scat singing where she casts off the stricture of words and allows the rest of the group to draw natural reactions. These wordless interactions have some sort of jazz structure, but the willingness of the group to drop players for some pieces and welcome them back for the next track means that the overall sound is always changing, moving from a piano trio to a rhythm and voice pairing to a full-group blowout as the album proceeds, unfolding and welcoming as required.
The sax and voice pair together for some tracks while in others the piano is more dominant, with the sax acting more as embellishment and offering something different from the voice; but on the second live track, Elin’s wordless vocalising seems to be offering an opportunity to the other players to react to what she offers and this is where they come into their own. There is an intimacy to the live setting, with the interplay between voice and piano particularly pleasing.This combination of live and studio, along with the variations of the players throughout, makes Himmel Over Hav a hugely successful venture with Elin’s vocals the icing on the cake. It is a welcome return for the Concept and I can’t help wondering how they will mix things up next time.
-Mr Olivetti-
