«Cirkel» is the third album of Danish young trumpeter Jakob Sørensen’s Bagland quintet and the one that best realizes his musical vision. Sørensen already stressed his gift for sketching memorable melodic-lyrical themes, but «Cirkel» highlights another gift of him, a strong sense of storytelling. And «Cirkel» do tells an arresting story, inspired by the environment of Skagen, the northernmost area of Denmark in the far north of Jutland, an area that attracted impressionist painters around the turn of the 20th century due to its unique qualities of the light. Sørensen grew in north Jutland and he is a passionate ambassador of this area. His Bagland project reflects the constant inspiration of the sceneries and landscapes of this remote Nordic environment on his aesthetics.
«Cirkel» also features the same line-up that recorded the first two albums of Bagland (the self-titled debut and «Nomad», both released by Jaeger Community Music, 2015 and 2016) – guitarist Alex Jønsson, pianist Mathias Jæger, double bass player Frederik Sakham and drummer rej Lesner, all are close friends who have collaborated before on various projects. Bagland translates beautifully Sørensen reflections on the Skagen and its light qualities into a cycle of pieces, that, in their turn, reflect a cycle of life, from daily dilemmas to major questions about life, the happiness that it introduces to life, but also the longing and the melancholia. The ten pieces suggests recurring themes, moods and open-ended stories, interwoven as an evocative, dramatic suite.
Furthermore, «Cirkel» emphasizes the clever and modest leadership of Sørensen. He employs the emphatic interplay of Bagland as a mean to open and deepen the interplay even further, allowing all musicians to expand its experiment with new palette of sounds. His own lyrical melancholia is colored with breezy, slide country-ish guitar lines of Jønsson that don’t shy from thorny attacks. The rhythmic patterns become Lesner are more aggressive, sometimes even spiced with distorted sounds. The bowing work of Sakham intensifies the dramatic tension , and the spacious keyboards of Jæger wrap the strong melodies with rich, nuanced envelopes.
Bagland succeeds to radiate the great passion and inspiration of Sørensen from this unique area of Denmark, apparently not only e a haven of impressionist painters but also other artists. «Cirkel» is a perfect soundtrack for this desired tourist attraction.
Eyal Hareuveni
Jakob Sørensen (tp), Alex Jønsson (g), Mathias Jæger (p, keys), Frederik Sakham (b), Frej Lesner (dr)
Bagland – Cirkel(Official Video) from Jakob Sørensen on Vimeo.
