Herlighetens Vei is the sophomore album of Norwegian sax player Marthe Lea and her band and expands her untimely, sensual and life-affirming sonic vision of spiritual, folky kind of Nordic jazz. Lea suggests a humble and respectful attitude to Life, or as she puts it: «The human existence is sacred and mysterious. Through an open and alert mind, the mystery will naturally grow and unfold before you».
The Marthe Lea Band is the same one that recorded her debut solo album as a bandleader, Asura (Motvind, 2021) – clarinetist Andreas Røysum (who hosts Lea in his Ensemble), violinist Hans P. Kjorstad, double bass and modular synth player Egil Kalman and drummer Hans Hulbækmo. Lea also plays flutes, piano, the African string instrument udungu and percussion and sings, and all musicians add more instruments that enrich Lea’s colorful musical universe. The album was recorded at Flerbruket near Oslo in February 2023.
Some of the new pieces of Herlighetens Vei may convince you to dance with its infectious grooves while others will provide enough room for introspection and reflection, but all offer the rare, idiosyncratic voice of Lea that stresses a strong sense of community and freedom. «Ayumi», for example, exhausts the full, powerful potential of Lea Band, is an homage to pianist Ayumi Tanaka (who played with her on Thomas Strønen’s Bayou, ECM,2021), and is based on a song Marthe spontaneously sang to Tanaka during a rehearsal. This piece, and later also «Låvebængar», take simple, spontaneous themes but through repetitions and variations transforms them into an almost spiritual, trance-like ritual.
«Springar fra Rollag» is Lea’s tribute to the medieval valley of Numedal after she moved to Rollag and bought a sea flute from a local flute maker, and this piece, with «Disene», titled after the Dises, female deities who live in the mist and sing beautiful songs and serve as guardians of a family or a person, sound like coming from another, mysterious and innocent eras. Lea plays the piano on «Gurdjieff to Gurdjieff», one of the «sacred dances» of the philosopher and mystic George Gurdjieff, composed with pianist Thomas De Hartmann, and performed reverently by Lea Band. The last song, «Aldri ska eg glemma livet» (Never shall I Forget life), with Lea singing gently and its free dynamics, captures beautifully Lea’s most human message: the music is solemn, but not self-celebratory. It wants to be felt, not understood.
Eyal Hareuveni
Marthe Lea (tenor saxophone, flutes, piano, vocals, udungu, percussion), Andreas Røysum (clarinet, bass clarinet, double bass clarinet, flute, vocals, percussion), Hans P. Kjorstad (fiddle, vocals, percussion), Egil Kalman (double bass, modular synthesizer, vocals), Hans Hulbækmo (drums, percussion, vocals)
