Swedish, Stockholm-based drummer Peter Danemo recently founded his own independent label, Resonansium (Resonance), and began to dig a few treasures from his private archive that encompasses his extensive experiences as an original composer, arranger, improviser and bandleader with a vision of his own and an unerring feeling for dynamics and form.
Gläntan (The clearing) project was born when Danemo was commissioned to compose music from Sveriges Radio P2 and formed an acoustic ensemble, consisting of musicians from both classical and jazz backgrounds, including longtime comrades sax player Joakim Milder and double bass player Christian Spering. Danemo’s compositional approach began with spontaneous improvisations of the ensemble, with no written music, and, slowly, as a natural consequence out of these improvisations, he composed five new, lyrical pieces specifically for this ensemble. The title of the project was inspired by a beautiful image captured in the opening line of the poem by Tomas Tranströmer with the same title («There is, in the middle of the forest, an unexpected clearing that can only be found by those who have gotten lost»).
The Gläntan nonet sounded grand without losing the intimacy of a chamber ensemble and its expanded, highly nuanced sonic palette blended different musical traditions and allowed surprising, subtle timbral possibilities. The ensemble performed only twice before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the project came to a halt, but the five extended pieces were recorded live (without headphones, monitors, or amplifiers, in the same room, with the musicians seated close together) by the Swedish Radio in October 2019. Six years later, it sounds fresh, beautiful and rich, and stresses the organic, patient flow of the lush music that breathes and blossoms in its own accord. The excellent recording of Swedish Radio captures faithfully the individual voices, and the thoughtful dynamics of this ensemble.
Danemo’s collaboration with the Norrbotten Big Band, Resonansium (the first album on Danemo’s label by the same name), was recorded live at Jazz Club Fasching in Stockholm in November 2016, with Danemo, composing and arranging the music, acting as the conductor and playing live electronics on the opening piece «Ember». Danemo’s other compositions for this collaboration were recorded in Hedvigsnäs (Prophone, 2016), titled after a small farm outside the southern town Tibro where the family of Danemo moved to from his northern birthplace Umeå. As on Hedvigsnäs, Danemo weaves wisely into the individual voices of the Norrbotten Big Band into complex and haunting, story-like orchestral textures that swing between passionate dramas and fiery outbursts. As can be expected, the title composition is the most beautiful here.
Vägen (The road) documents a free improvised session of Danemo in a classic jazz piano trio – with pianist Klas Nevrin and double bass player Pär-Ola Landin, recorded at the B-studio in Stockholm in November 2009. Danemo’s idea for this session and the first-ever recording of this trio was very simple: «Let’s play together, without preparation, plan, or goal. Play a note or two, and let what happens show us the way». The trio played for an hour and a half, curious with the exploratory process of what unfolds in the moment. Danemo mixed the recording into seven pieces, and all three musicians were happy with the outcome.
Sixteen years later, Danemo dug up this lost recording and was surprised with its quality. He mixed the recording again. The atmosphere of this session is contemplative and spacious, with enough room for individual solos that highlight the unique sonic palettes of Nevrin, Landin and Danemo, and these aspects often correspond with the aesthetics of ECM recordings of Nordic jazz trios. But Vägen avoids the common clichés of Nordic, melancholic atmosphere, and the trio’s open dynamics takes it into edgier territories, and radiates the immediate affinity of these gifted improvisers.
Eyal Hareuveni
Kajsa Zabzine (flute, alto flute), Astrid Le Clercq (clarinet, bass clarinet), Victoria Stjerna (violin), Jessie Langhard (cello), Magdalena Meitzner (mallets, percussion), Joakim Milder (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone), Britta Virves (piano), Christian Spering (double bass), Håkan Broström (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, alto flute), Janne Thelin (alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet), Mats Garberg (tenor saxophone, flute), Robert Nordmark (tenor saxophone, clarinet, alto flute), Per Moberg (baritone saxophone, flute), Bo Strandberg (trumprt, flugelhorn), Magnus Ekholm (trumprt, flugelhorn), Danne Johansson (trumpet, flugelhorn), Jacek Onuszkiewicz (trumpet, flugelhorn), Peter Dahlgren (trombone), Arvid Ageborg (trombone) Christine Carlsson (trombone), Björn Hängsel (bass trombone), Adam Forkelid (piano), Konrad Agnas (drums), Klas Nevrin (piano), Pär-Ola Landin (double bass), Peter Danemo (drums)
https://peterdanemo.bandcamp.com/album/gl-ntan
https://peterdanemo.bandcamp.com/album/resonansium
https://peterdanemo.bandcamp.com/album/v-gen
