Music Improvised on September 23rd, 2021 features two young and prominent Norwegian improvisers – clarinetist Andreas Hoem Røysum and double bass player Christian Meaas Svendsen (both play in Meaas Svendsen’s Nakama band and in Røysum’s Ensemble) with Danish master drummer Kresten Osgood (who plays with Røysum in Marthe Lea Band). There are no details about the whereabouts of this free improvised performance but this trio reconvened again in September 2022 for a tour in Norway and Denmark with American sax player Mars Williams (read the review – in Norwegian HERE).

Røysum, Meaas Svendsen and Osgood are experienced composers and bandleaders in their own right and important driving forces in their musical communities as label owners, and concert and festival organizers. Accordingly, this trio’s dynamics are democratic and leaderless. The first piece demonstrates the trio’s exciting dynamics. Meaas Svendsen’s double bass takes center stage and anchors Røysum’s urgent flights and Osgood’s totally free patterns, but quickly the trio settles on a loose groove only to deconstruct shortly afterward. Then, Røysum alternates between raw growls, soft and lyrical cries and bird calls while Osgood gently and leisurely propels the music and only Meaas Svendsen channels this powerful commotion again and again with his commanding bass playing.

Røysum sets the tone of the second, emotional ballad, and is answered beautifully by the delicate, supporting playing of Meaas Svendsen and Osgood. The third piece deepens the lyrical veins that Røysum sketched on the previous pieces and suggests a more sparse, free jazz interplay that stresses this trio’s great knowledge of the free jazz legacy on both sides of the Atlantic. The fourth and last piece slow-cooks its ecstatic power but the trio refuses to conclude with a catalytic coda and leaves the listener asking for more of this inspiring, right stuff.

Eyal Hareuveni

Andreas Røysum (cl, bcl), Christian Meaas Svendsen (b), Kresten Osgood (dr)