The double A-sides new vinyl album of Swedish, Göteborg-based vocal artist-electric bass player-improviser-educator Lindha Kallerdahl reflect more than just two sides in her creative life. The first A side that feature a live recording of her Gold Quintet at the Victoria theater in Malmö – guitarists Samuel Hällkvist and Thomas Gunillasson, keyboard player Katrine Amlser and pianist-partner Fabian Kallerdahl. The second A side was recorded in Kallerdahl’s living room in the middle of moving boxes to a new home.
This deliberately incoherent format enables Kallerdahl to stress her unique extended breathing and vocal techniques, her original interpretation of poetic texts and her masterful, experimental improvisation skills in different contexts. Still, Both sides highlight the immediate emotional impact of Kallerdahl vocals. Kallerdahl recent improvised collaborations with cellist Okkyyng Lee, sax player Lotte Anker and vocalist Mariam Wallentin (her partner in the Hunters Bow duo) reverberate in both sides, especially with the Gold Quintet.
The three songs on the first Gold Quintet A side sound as one multifaceted entity. The mini prog-rock suites «Love is Fragile» and the following «The House» (with lyrics by Norwegian author Synne Lea), with the grandiose, effects-laden guitar roles (citing prog guitar heroes Robert Fripp and Steve Howe) intensify Kallerdahl haunting, vulnerable delivery. Her cover of Billy Strayhorn’s «Lush Life» charges this classic standard with necessary, amused and even ironic drama and highlights her telepathic interplay with pianist Fabian Kallerdahl.
The seven improvised pieces on the second Solo B side suggest different emotional experiences, memories, feelings and visions from the soon-to-be-leave home. She expands on a repetitive Middle-Eastern scale on «Transformation is possible», pushing her vocals to extreme, soaring peaks. On other pieces she explores her fascinating vocal universe – collides her voice with a noisy texture, toying with rhythmic pattern on the piano, telling a highly expressive story in an unworldly language and acts like a wild shaman in a mysterious ritual.
Eyal Hareuveni
Lindha Kallerdahl (v, b), Samuel Hällkvist (g), Thomas Gunillasson (g), Katrine Amlser (keys, microg), Fabian Kallerdahl (p).
