Jonathan Bäckström is a young Finnish double bass player, composer, and improviser, currently based in Stockholm, where he is finishing his master’s studies at the Royal College of Music. Swedish, Amsterdam-based alto sax player Marcus Wärnheim plays in Bäckström’s free improvising quartet and has a deep interest in the physical sonic possibilities of his instrument.
Bäckström and Wärnheim’s duo album, ett, reflects their long friendship and musical bond. It was recorded live at Digelius Music Shop, Rahina Club, and Odysseus Festival in Helsinki, and Zaal 100 club in Amsterdam. It features eight sound-oriented, free improvised pieces, and the raw recordings often incorporate the noisy chats of people passing by as a third, disorienting element in their duo’s practice.
These pieces – or intimate and confidential conversations – are distilled into “breath, noise, consonance”, as this duo defines their dynamics. Bäckström and Wärnheim seek to explore and exhaust the complementary, resonant sonic palettes of Bäckström’s double bass and Wärnheim’s sax as they push the limits of the intimate duo setting, often into the deep-end and ultra deep-end tonal regions. Bäckström and Wärnheim employ an array of extended bowing and breathing techniques that help them blend their ethereal, dissonant, and microtonal multiphonics into one, otherworldly sonic entity.
Eyal Hareuveni
Jonathan Bäckström (double bass), Marcus Wärnheim (alto saxophone)
