Beauty No Beauty, is the debut album of Norwegian drummer-composer Andreas Wildhagen as a bandleader (he released before a debut solo album, No Right No Left, Nakama,2016). Wildhagen is known as an open-minded and versatile musician-improviser with a strong urge to explore new areas of music, who plays in Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit or beat-oriented modern jazz with Mopti and Bendik Baksaas.
Wildhagen leads the Spiralis quartet that features sax player Kasper Værnes (who recorded a duo album with him, Troposgrafien, Nakama, 2016), pianist-synth player Anja Lauvdal and double bass player Adrian Myhr, all have collaborated with Wildhagen in earlier projects. The album’s title reflects on the current chaotic and unsettling global cultural and political situation. Wildhage says it is an «image of a spiral – something coming back to the same place in a circle, but in a different time through a different lens».
As in many of Nakama’s collective releases, Beauty No Beauty represents a philosophical statement about the global situation and not only about improvisation and music. Wildhagen compositions for the Spiralis quartet often have a starting point that is meant to lead to improvisation and new motifs, as opposed to coming back to the starting point. Wildhagen wanted the quartet to be inspired by a certain melodic or rhythmic idea, and work their way to the next part and so on. Other pieces have more of a static form and a focus on repetition, and reflect Wildhagen’s response to having played a lot of free improvised music that highlights change as the most important constant, and here repetition becomes a radical contrast. The quartet recorded Beauty No Beauty after a few rehearsals to keep its fresh, flowing dynamics and it sounds like it established an immediate affinity.
The titles of the ten short pieces seem to suggest a creative balance and an inclusive order to some of the unnecessary despair in the world. The centerpiece «Sky Reflection in Blood and Oil» (and its reprise) addresses directly corporate tyranny and greed that fuels unnecessary wars for the control of natural resources and habitats for profit for the few, while many suffer., especially in the Global South. Wildhagen’s clever, often dramatic compositions stress the organic interplay between freedom and structure, employing music as a powerful, sometimes provocative but always arresting means for changing thought patterns and revitalizing the status quo, and coming back to a natural respect for life. A thoughtful and inspiring work.
Eyal Hareuveni
Kasper Værnes (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone), Anja Lauvdal (piano, synthesizer), Adrian Myhr (double bass), Andreas Wildhagen (drums)
