Inner View is the follow-up reeds player-composer Anders Lønne Grønseth and his Multiverse band last year’s Outer View (NXN, 2022), captured at the same recording session at Newtone Studio in Oslo in October 2020. It continues to explore this band’s mission – a multiverse of personalities and individual perspectives connected in interplay and musical conversation. But while Outer View featured compositions by the Multiverse quintet musicians, Inner View features eight new compositions by Lønne Grønseth and extends the quintet with keyboards player David Skinner, who recorded before with Lønne Grønseth.
Inner View also expands Lønne Grønseth’s The Bitonal Scale System, the tonal concept that he continues to develop in the last decade through compositional theoretical ideas, sheer spur-of-the-momen improvisation and the band’s intuitive interplay. Obviously, Lønne Grønseth enjoys the experience and the quality of the musicians of the extended Multiverse – trumpeter Hayden Powell, pianist Espen Berg, double bass player Audun Ellingsen, and drummer Einar Scheving – as well as their deep listening gifts.
As on previous albums of Lønne Grønseth with his Mini Macro Ensemble and the three previous albums of Multiverse, his rich, eclectic and inclusive musical vision blends into the modal modern jazz elements from early 20th-century classical modernism with references such as Maurice Ravel and Olivier Messiaen or Eastern influences from India ragas and the Middle East maqams. The addition of Skinner adds another, subtle sonic aroma, at times corresponding with prog-rock. The extended Multiverse stresses emphatic interplay and attentive communication and enjoys great improvisational freedom. But despite his complex compositional concepts on tonal, rhythmic and compositional structures, the eight new compositions are structured like a long suite, the music flows seamlessly and organically and is engaging and openly emotional.
Multiverse, in all its incarnations, is more than just beautiful, thoughtful and multifaceted music. It is a philosophical statement about the idea of parallel universes. Strong-minded and creative individuals join in well-balanced and democratic musical micro-universes that through conversational interplay suggest a harmonious and peaceful multiverse model for us all.
Eyal Hareuveni
Anders Lønne Grønseth (s, bcl), Hayden Powell (tp), Espen Berg (p), Audun Ellingsen (b), Einar Scheving (dr), David Skinner (Hohner pianet, clavinet)
