SOL SOL – Oscillations

Sail Cabin

The latest release from Swedish quartet SOL SOL finds them changing personnel slightly, with the addition of Nils Agnas on drums. Being the brother of bassist Mauritz, they bring a sibling familiarity to the line-up that supports the leanings of guitarist David Stackenäs and sax player Elin Forkelid.

Although just a year on from the release of Elin’s solo album Songs To Keep You Company On A Dark Night, which also included David on guitar, this is a very different beast with half the compositions coming from David’s pen, two from Elin and the other three being group improvisations.

The improvisations are interesting variations, with the opener giving full vent to Elin’s boundary-pushing sax blast. Long trailing notes are peeled over the sway of the rhythm section. The other three carefully assemble sounds around the sax, delivering a statement of intent that is gradually dissected over the remaining run-time. The late night noirish abstraction of David’s “Masnou” works well against the gentle smoothness of the chords in “Oscillations For Hilma”. There is a gauziness to the sound that hints at possibilities, but the sheer variation of the pieces offered means that there is no opportunity to settle down with one sound.

Slow flurries of sax flatten against packed boot drums on “Open Letter To Lord Badminton”, and here the rolling rush of percussion kicks up quite a groove. The sax and guitar interact like long-lost friends talking over one another as the rhythm becomes more insistent and circles ever more tightly . “Kura Borgerlig Skymning” is the most boppy piece here, with the athleticism of the drums at full stretch . The bass keeps everything steady and when you search in the mix for it you realise how much work is going on. They draw on one another, pulling out unexpected passages, or as in “Elvira Segura”, the prettiest of melodies. This hints at folk in its direction and the heartfelt sax shows another side.

Elin’s “Archimboldo” has the most gentle and sultry opening, as if it is too hot to exert itself . Notes linger and guitar harmonics hang in the air. They don’t think twice about changing the mood from track to track; but above it all, Elin can’t quite resist breaking loose when given the opportunity, particularly on the second group composition “Interlude”. These three pieces seem to show the group at their most vibrant, urging one another on, the rhythm section particularly keen to lead the other two astray. On “Indian Summer”, they do struggle to keep up with Elin such is the ferocity of her playing; and while the rhythm section flows like a river down a mountainside, Elin yodels across the peaks, desperate to contact David on the other side.

The album ends with another group improvisation and here you capture the idea of yet another direction of travel; the circular churn of a whirlpool finds them nagging at simple motifs, seeing how much they can wring from them before the album comes to a halt. I have played this a number of times and can discover something different each listen, which can only be a good thing. It is a step on from Almost All Things Considered and who knows where it will end.

-Mr Olivetti-