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Trail of Souls

Solveig Slettahjell

Trail of Souls

Price: € 22.95
Format: CD
Label: ACT music
UPC: 0614427959324
Catnr: ACT 95932
Release date: 30 October 2015
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Label
ACT music
UPC
0614427959324
Catalogue number
ACT 95932
Release date
30 October 2015
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

“Connecting the unexpected” is the motto of Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic, a concert series curated and produced by ACT label boss Siggi Loch, which began in December 2012. A carefully selected unifying theme runs through each programme, alongside imaginative juxtapositions of musicians brought together specifically for the occasion, in some cases for the first time. This formula has not just proved a hit with audiences; musicians have also taken to it with a particular zeal. The artists and the spectators who attended the ‘Norwegian Woods’ edition of the series in March 2014 experienced an amazing evening. Loch had assembled the A-team of Norwegian jazz, and created the unexpected by combining them with a guest artist from a different musical realm:

Solveig Slettahjell was one such artist welcomed back into the fold. The ACT label released her early albums, establishing her international reputation as one of Europe’s leading jazz vocalists. Here she was partnered up with In The Country, the piano trio involving her close friend Morton Qvenild, pianist, sonic explorer and also a member of Solveig Slettahjell‘s Slow Motion ensembles. The real surprise that evening, however, came from adding the blues guitarist Knut Reiersrud. He had been on Siggi Loch's radar for quite some time, and on this occasion was having his first ever meeting with Slettahjell and her crew. It turned out to be an ideal combination. The evening was a celebration of everything that had made the Nordic sound so attractive and successful for many decades. On the one hand there was the elegiac, bluesy side, inspired by the spirit of indigenous folk music; on the other the electronic, the rhythmically daring and the experimental.

The participants in ‘Norwegian Woods’ were certain
that, somehow, they needed to continue and develop what they had started. Above all, the earthy blues guitar of Reiersrud, with its ethnic influence, had been a revelation all round. Solveig Slettahjell, although signed to Universal, came up spontaneously with the wish to record a studio album with these musicians. Loch already had a suitable idea and concept in his mind's ear, and suggested that they might link the American gospel and spiritual traditions with the Norwegian sound aesthetic under the banner of “Trail of Souls.”

Then followed a huge amount of careful preparation
and several rehearsals in Morten Qvenild's private studio, after which all the musicians ended up in the celebrated Rainbow Studio in Oslo to give the original idea a definitive shape. All eleven tracks, with the exception of the final number, a song composed by Reiersrud, are blues and gospel classics in the broadest sense. There are three from stars of pop and soul music - Bill Withers “Grandma's Hand”, Peter Gabriel's “Mercy Street” and Leonard Cohen's “Come Healing” - but beyond those the others are the kind of tunes only familiar to initiates such as Reiersrud. “We did all rummage through our record collections and chose a few old work songs and spirituals together,” says Slettahjell, “but Knut is the really knowledgeable one among us.”

This is something Reiersrud has already proved completely convincingly on his debut album on ACT, “Tears Of The World,” which he made with the amazing blues singer Mighty Sam McClain. Sadly, McClain passed away on 16th June 2015, at the age of just 72, shortly before the album was released. The procession of songs on “Trail of Souls” takes in, for example, the emotional traditional song “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child,” and that staple of gospel church services, “His Eye Is On The Sparrow,” and the memorable “Don’t Feel Noways Tired” by the King of Gospel, the Reverend James Cleveland. From older pieces by Blind Willie Johnson, James Anderson and Richard M. Jones – with the evergreen song “Trouble in Mind” - the selection comes up to date with the song “Is My Living In Vain?” by Elbernita ‘Twinkie’ Clark, a gospel star and two-time Grammy winner.

All the songs here are given a brand new identity by being taken at a much slower pace than is traditional. Solveig Slettahjell's completely individual soft voice savours every detail of phrasing. Combined with Knut Reiersrud's well-judged voicings, which glitter with their metallic sound, the whole effect is mesmerizing. Morten Qvenild and his trio produce surprising rhythmic accents and a whole panoply of sounds, all the way from wood and clay over spherical surfaces to tough drum'n'bass beats. These musicians' outstanding creativity and their sense of fantasy have shown once again that they truly are Norse Gods.

Artist(s)

Solveig Slettahjell

At the beginning of the 2000s, Norwegian singer Solveig Slettahjell and her Slow Motion Quintet made the European jazz scene really sit up and take notice. Her concept, as Canadian critic John Kelman has written, was to take songs from the American songbook and to “slow them down. Way down. [...] She proved that slow, powerful and dramatic need not be mutually exclusive terms.” “Come In From The Rain” now demonstrates how much those virtues have strengthened and deepened in the intervening years.   That astonishing ability to concentrate on the essentials of a song – and to express much more with nuances and details than would be possible with volume or bombast – are still Slettahjell trademarks. Together with her companions,...
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At the beginning of the 2000s, Norwegian singer Solveig Slettahjell and her Slow Motion Quintet made the European jazz scene really sit up and take notice. Her concept, as Canadian critic John Kelman has written, was to take songs from the American songbook and to “slow them down. Way down. [...] She proved that slow, powerful and dramatic need not be mutually exclusive terms.” “Come In From The Rain” now demonstrates how much those virtues have strengthened and deepened in the intervening years.
That astonishing ability to concentrate on the essentials of a song – and to express much more with nuances and details than would be possible with volume or bombast – are still Slettahjell trademarks. Together with her companions, Slettahjell captivates the listener from the outset of the opening title track ”Come In From The Rain”. They literally pull us out of the rain into their musical cosmos, introduced by Andreas Ulvo’s wonderful piano touch, the minimalist drum rhythms from Pål Hausken and the grounding yet playful bass of Trygve Waldemar Fiske.
Slettahjell prepares her projects thoroughly and gives them the time they need to mature. “The idea of putting together a new band and of recording this album have been in the making for at least the last three years,” she says. And the technical processes of recording are a source of pride: “We recorded this album live to tape. Working in this old fashioned way was such a thrill and gives weight to the interplay and instant musicmaking aspect of the recording and of our quartet.” The vibe right through this album is well-judged, the storytelling is compelling. There are timeless old tales like Buddy Johnson’s “Since I Fell For You” or Irving Berlin’s “How Deep Is The Ocean”, stories to be rediscovered afresh like “I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City”, and more recent ones like “Johnsburg, Illinois” by Tom Waits. And there are new ones like “So I Borrow Your Smile”, her own composition. These songs may come from folk or jazz or pop, yet Slettahjell and her highly accomplished musicians always make them individual, tasteful and authentic. And the subtle way she bends notes, always bringing them into perfectly true-pitched final focus is nothing short of miraculous. Every time.

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Pål Hausken (drums)

Composer(s)

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