Swedish, Oslo-based cellist (and bassist) Joel Ring is known as a member of Andreas Røysum Ensemble and Why Kai. Marbled is the sophomore album of his Joel and the Neverending Sextet (following Pouring Textures, Motvind, 2021) and is inspired by the innovative and seminal, modern and free jazz music of Henry Threadgill, Andrew Hill and Abdul Wadud. The sextet features Swedish pianist Milton Öhrström and drummers Tomas Sandström and Anton Jonsson with Norwegian reeds player Karl Hjalmar Nyberg, tubist Heida Karine Jóhannesdóttir Mobeck. The album was recorded at Athletic Sound in Halden in June 2023.
The title of Marbled evokes associations with flowing structuress and corresponds with the album’s intricate web of musical patterns. It may be an affirmation of nature’s own strange symmetry as Ring’s music blends notated material and thematic free improvisation, like many of Motvind’s artists. This approach reflects Ring’s exploration of the transformative power and the energy of unfiltered, raw expression, repetitive motifs, and spontaneous improvisations. The music also references the work of younger American composers-improvisers such as Mary Halvorson, James Brandon Lewis and Tomeka Reid.
Marbled offers a sort of a soundtrack to a fever dream, or a series of nine, short breathless scenes from a detective movie, or perhaps a combination of the two. The playful, layered music sounds as thoroughly arranged but is balanced with enough space for spontaneous, adventurous improvisation and individual ideas. Mobeck’s brilliant tuba playing anchors the texture-rich commotion and together with the drummers Jonsson and Sandström, and Ring’s bass-like playing provides a propulsive, polyrhythmic foundation for the strong, melodic themes. Nyberg and Öhrström enrich and intensify these grooves, and Ring commands this complex, wild ride with a clear vision of his own that enjoys the inspiring lessons of great musicians but with no intention of becoming nostalgic.
Eyal Hareuveni
Joel Ring (cello), Karl Hjalmar Nyberg (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Milton Öhrström (piano), Heida Karine Jóhannesdóttir Mobeck (tuba), Bror Tomas Sandström (drums), Anton Jonsson (drums)
